Protein Peanut Butter Cups

Spoil your taste buds with your very own homemade Protein Peanut Butter Cups. Made with rich chocolate and protein powder, these provide decadent flavor and healthy nutrients all in one.

Chocolate peanut butter protein cups right at home

What’s your favorite candy? For me, it’s always been Reese’s peanut butter cups. They just can’t be beaten! The chocolate mixed with the rich peanut butter is just a flavor combo that I’ll never get over.

On my most recent trip to the store, I found myself reaching for a bag, but quickly decided that I had to be able to make some at home that taste just as rich and creamy! Lo and behold, I was right.

After mixing a few different peanut butter ingredients and deciding on sugar free (yep, sugar free!) chocolate chips, I was able to reach an almost identical flavor. And the best part? By using protein, these protein peanut butter cups are packed with extra oomph.

Ingredients in protein peanut butter cups

The ingredients in these treats are exactly what you’d expect: chocolate, peanut butter, and more peanut butter! We’ll mix these with almond milk, sea salt, and protein powder to achieve delicious, rich flavor.

• Chocolate chips: To start, we’ll be melting chocolate chips! You can use sugar free, as the peanut butter and almond milk will provide enough sweet flavor.
• Protein powder: To amp up the protein, throw in 2 tbsp of protein powder.
• Peanut Butter: Next up, 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter will be key to getting the centers correct!
• Peanut butter powder: For extra peanut buttery-ness, include 1/3 cup of peanut butter powder.
• Almond milk: Next, almond milk will help achieve the proper consisntecy. Use 1/4 cup.
• Optional: Finally, grab your sea salt for sprinkling on top! This is an optional step, but it tastes fantastic.

Tools needed to make homemade peanut butter cups

For this recipe you’ll need only a handful of simple kitchen tools. Grab your muffin tin, some liners, a sauce pot and glass bowl (aka double boiler), a stirring utensil, and a mixing bowl, and let’s dive in!

The complete list:

• Muffin tin
• Muffin liners
• Sauce pot
• Glass bowl
• Spatula or other stirring utensil
• Medium mixing bowl

For measuring, you will need the following increments: 1 tbsp, 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, and 1 cup.

How to make protein peanut butter cups

Making homemade peanut butter protein cups isn’t as tricky as you may imagine. We start by melting the chocolate and mixing the peanut butter center, and then it’s just a matter of stacking everything inside the muffin liners! In total, expect about 10 minutes of hands-on prep time.

Melting the chocolate

First, bring a double boiler to a boil. You can use a saucepan full of water with a glass bowl on top.

Once boiling, add the chocolate chips to the top glass bowl (the steam from the boiling water will melt the chocolate without burning it). If you want to use a different method, feel free.

Occasionally stir the chocolate until fully melted.

Meanwhile, line a muffin tin with liners.

Creating the peanut butter filling

In a medium bowl, mix the protein powder, peanut butter, peanut butter powder, and almond milk until well combined.

Add 1 tsp of melted chocolate to the bottom of each liner and spread it around the base.

Next, roll 2 tsp of the peanut butter mixture into a flat disk and place it on top of the melted chocolate base.

Cover the peanut butter dough with chocolate until all of it has been used up, starting with 2 tsp. It should look like a Reese’s cup!

Optionally, sprinkle with sea salt.

Freeze for 30 minutes before eating.

Here are some quick recipe pointers to help you perfect your at-home Reese’s experience!

Can I use milk chocolate chips?
Of course! Any type of chocolate chip will work well. I chose to use sugar free simply because this recipe gets enough sweet flavor from other ingredients, and I really like the combo of the sugar free with the powders. But any type of chocolate will work!

Mix things up with white chocolate
To take things a step further, you could even make copycat white chocolate Reese’s by swapping the regular chips with a white chocolate version! It will taste magnificent.

Including graham crackers
Some peanut butter cup recipes suggest using graham crackers. I’ve never tried it, but this question may come up. In any case, I say go for it! Include them when you mix the peanut butter ingredients.

How to store peanut butter cups

Homemade pb cups can be kept at room temperature, but I prefer to keep them in the fridge. Sometimes room temperature can be a little too warm, and I don’t like them to be messy! Keep them in a freezer bag or lidded container and store them in the fridge for up to 5 days.

If you liked this recipe, you’ll want to try these!

There are so many more peanut butter creations where these protein peanut butter cups came from. Below are recipes that dig into everything from pie and overnight oats to crisp bars and freezer brownies!

• Healthy Peanut Butter Pie (Dairy-Free)
• Creamy Peanut Butter Overnight Oats
• Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
• Healthy Peanut Butter Crisp Bars
• Raw Peanut Butter Cup Freezer Brownies

Photos by Moriah Sawtelle and recipe by Erin Antoniak.