Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

In our house, snacks or some variation of a snack need to be on hand at all times and these dark chocolate almond butter cups are perfect for that. They're so easy to make this is almost not even a recipe. If you're already a fan of these sweet treats and often purchase them to meet your chocolate cravings, trust us when we say that these are far superior!

We love using nut butters in our house, whether that's in Strawberry Peach Pie Smoothie or this Maple Almond Butter Snack Mix. We love them so much that we even love to make this Cashew Butter Cups variation.

Packed with natural creamy almond butter lightly sweetened with maple syrup these are a great option to stock up the fridge or freezer to have on hand. You'll absolutely love these, so be sure to leave us a comment and rate the recipe too!

Not that you need any excuses to make these awesome almond butter cups, but here's why this recipe works:

Easy - these little chocolate cups are so easy to make they're almost not even a recipe. It takes minutes to create them and they store very well.

Mess free - our method for making these chocolate cups is easy to clean as we make an almond butter paste instead of simply using runny almond butter in the centre of the cups.

Scale up - If you're in need of a lot of these snacks, you can create mini ones to go further or easily scale the recipe up to make more.

5 ingredients - you only need 5 ingredients, 4 if you don't count the salt. What's better than that? Super simple.

Kid friendly - this recipe is simple enough to get the kids involved, they will just need a little assistance in melting the chocolate with a microwave.

Chocolate - we recommend a mid to high level cocoa dark chocolate, at least 50% but we quite enjoy the snap of a 75% dark chocolate, the perfect match with almond butter.

Maple syrup - we use maple syrup to add a touch of sweetness and to create a paste with almond butter, it helps keep things together and makes the centres of these dark chocolate almond butter cups perfect.

Almond butter - use a natural runny almond butter, for an extra creamy filling. It also creates the most satisfying paste when mixed with maple syrup.

If you fancy mixing it up with this recipe, here are some flavour variations we recommend:

White chocolate - although some say white chocolate isn't chocolate, substituting this makes beautiful white almond butter cups that are sweeter but oh so delicious!

Almond extract - if you want to amp up the almond flavour even more in these chocolate nut butter cups, add a few drops of almond extract to the paste.

Nut butter - switch up the nut butter. We've made Cashew Butter Cups, but highly recommend other nut butters like, peanut, pecan, pistachio or hazelnut.

Vegan - if you want to make these vegan just be sure to use dairy free chocolate.

1. Add the almond butter, vanilla extract, maple syrup and salt into a medium bowl.
2. Stir together the almond butter ingredients until it forms a paste.

3. Place two teaspoons of melted chocolate into the bottom of twelve muffin cases and spread out and up the sides slightly with the back of a spoon. Place into the freezer to let them set quickly.
4. Roll the almond paste into a sausage shape and cut into 12 equal pieces, roll into balls and flatten into discs.
5. Place the discs of almond butter into the centre of the muffin case on top of the set base of chocolate and add another two teaspoons of melted chocolate to the top and spread out to seal in the disc, with the back of a spoon.
6. Loosen a little almond butter with a neutral oil and swirl it into the tops of the dark chocolate almond butter cups, top with flaky salt.

Follow these expert tips to ensure success every time!

Microwave - you can melt chocolate over a water bath or simply melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, stirring between each burst, which is even easier!

Almond butter paste - you could just simply put a spoon of almond butter in the middle, but creating a paste first is the best way to replicate the perfect centre for these.

Minis - you can use the exact same method of assembly with miniature cases to create a variety of sizes.

Chocolate - if your chocolate goes a bit thick whilst you are creating your dark chocolate almond butter cups, just reheat the chocolate again to loosen it.

No paste? - if for whatever reason your almond butter doesn't turn into a paste, just spoon it into the cases leaving an edge for chocolate to fall around it and ensure the top is smooth. However, we've tested this method with several nut butters and it always creates a paste for us.