Paleo Cashew Butter Cups

I miss Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. This is one of those memory items since childhood that I carry with me. My mom would always fill a Santa jar with them every Christmas. Coming home, you'd see the jar and immediately know what was in there.

Easter was always the Reese's Eggs.

Halloween was the Hershey's Mix with the full size Reese's Cups.

The things that derail me from my healthy eating regime are usually nostalgic. My mom's lemon meringue pie or her strawberry cupcakes will immediately bring up heavenly memories of birthdays and holiday meals shared with my siblings.

I know that any food attached with heavy nostalgia is my kryptonite. I've made peace with my derailments though because I'm always back on Paleo the next day or my entire day was Paleo except for that cupcake of deliciousness.

So in my efforts to at least avoid refined sugar, I sat down and worked on a good substitute.

Hence...

Paleo Cashew Butter Cups

I adapted my Paleo Fudge recipe so check that out here so you can make the chocolate portion of this recipe.

If you use the chocolate silicone mold I suggest in that recipe you should have enough left over chocolate to make about 8 of these. If you want to make a big batch then just go for it.

To get that classic Reese's Peanut Butter Shape I used these.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Fudge Recipe - Melted and Warm
8 oz of roasted cashews (if unsalted you will need to add a 1/8t of salt)

Supplies:

For the Chocolate:
Sauce Pan
Whisk
Food Scale (helps with the chocolate part)

For the Cashew Butter:
Food Processor with the cutting blade or High Powered Blender
Scraper or Spatula for the food processor
Baking Sheet sized appropriately to fit on a shelf in your freezer
Silicone Cups
Measuring Spoons
Cleared Freezer Shelf

Make it!

First, you want to make the chocolate so follow that recipe here.

After the chocolate is ready, set the burner to low. You are going to spoon 1T into each of the silicone cups and place in the freezer.

Now you are going to make the cashew butter while the first layer of chocolate sets.

Dump all the cashew ingredients into the food processor except for the vanilla and cinnamon. Making cashew butter isn't hard it just takes patience and 10 minutes. Make sure you have roasted cashews because raw cashews will not come together as a butter.

Set a 10-minute timer and turn the processor on.

About a minute in scrape down the sides. Turn back on.

Stop the food processor about every minute or so to scrape the sides down until 5 minutes are left. At the five minute mark try to keep the processor on until 2 minutes and 30 seconds left. Stop and scrape.

Turn back on. These last two minutes are when the magic happens. The heat from the blade helps things come together so don't be surprised if the butter is warm to hot.

After the butter is together and warm, take the frozen cups out of the freezer and place a teaspoon of cashew butter in the center and spread out. Place back in the freezer.

If the chocolate sauce has started to solidify then turn up the heat and give it a quick whisk to get it back to a nice fluid state.

Check the cashew layer to see if it has cooled. If firm, using the back of a spoon smooth out the top of the cashew butter. When done, put 1 T of chocolate on top. Tap out any air bubbles and freeze for an hour.

Pull the silicone cups off, store in a Tupperware in the freezer or fridge.

Try not to eat them all at once!