Friday, January 22, 2010

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups (Allergy-Friendly!)

Kellie is a tree-hugging mom to three who's learning to cook from scratch. She blogs regularly at Greenhab: The Browns Go Green and the Green Phone Booth.



I never stopped to think about how peanut butter is made, or what's in it, until last week when we realized that our 4 year old might have some food allergies. Luckily he's not allergic to nuts, but we have taken him off milk and we're thinking about gluten as well. It's gotten me reading the labels on absolutely EVERYthing and thinking about GFCF treats I can make for him.

This week I decided to try my hand and making peanut butter since it seems to be a staple in our house. I can safely say that I will never buy peanut butter from a store again! It was SO quick and easy.


I bought about a pound of dry roasted peanuts from the bulk bin at the grocery store, although I only used about 1.5 cups in this first batch. All I did was throw the peanuts into the food processor, drizzle a tiny bit (maybe a tablespoon) of peanut oil on top and blend for a few minutes until it was creamy. You can adjust the amount of oil depending on how thick or thin you like your peanut butter.

While I was feeling all domestic, I decided to make some peanut butter cups too.

The pan I used is like a mini muffin pan, but the cups are not as deep. I don't know what it's really for (so much for pretending to be domestic!) but it was perfect for this project.

I simply melted some gluten and casein free chocolate chips (you could use regular of course) and put a dab in the bottom of these mini muffin cups. I put it in the freezer for a few minutes to let the chocolate harden a bit so that the peanut butter would sit nicely on top when I added it. I topped it off with more chocolate and threw it back in the freezer for a while.

Most of them popped right out like muffins would, but I did have to extract a few with a knife. The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to keep the peanut butter to the middle, so that the chocolate drips down the sides and completely encases the peanut butter.

So there you have a gluten free, casein free treat...and we have a good amount of peanut butter left over for the peanut butter and jelly granola bars I'm planning to try over the weekend.

17 comments:

  1. Peanut butter cups are my favorite...I'll definately have to try these. I love making things from scratch too. I have a feeling I'm gonna love your blog. Nice to "meet" you.
    Blessings,
    Elizabeth

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  2. Yum, My favorite combination!!
    Thanks for sharing
    Hugs
    Kim

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  3. mmmm... maybe refrigerate the peanut butter to make it a little stiffer... that way it wont spread as much and you can get the chocolate to cover over the sides....

    yum :)

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  4. In your title (Allergy-friendly), you did mean gluten allery-friendly not peanut allergy correct?

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  5. I have allergies with peanuts so this is really frustrating for me. I have a taste of it when I was young and I find it so delicious. Sad to say, it is the last time.
    small cabin plans

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  6. My daughter (and me!) are crazy for Peanut Butter Cups. What a special treat it would be to make these for her on her birthday!

    Question: After you make the peanut butter how & where do you store it? In a jar in the fridge?

    Thanks for the awsome post!

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  7. These look so good! I remember making homemade peanut butter witha friend when I was in 4th grade. We thought it was so cool to make it ourselves!

    Try mixing some powdered sugar in with the peanut butter. It will be more like a dough and you can put a ball of it in the center so the chocolate will be able to flow around it.

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  8. Those look FABULOUS and I'm not a huge peanut butter fan!!

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  9. @Stephen - Yes, GFCF friendly. You could also make it with soy butter instead of peanut butter, which I also find to taste very good!

    @Mum - I made a small batch and put it in the fridge in an airtight container.

    @Heather - Great idea! I will definitely try that next time.

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  10. Yum. Going to make these for sure. We make our own peanute butter in a Vita-Mix machine and add some good honey to nuts..YUM!

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  11. holy cow these look amazing! I now have something to make tonight! thanks!!

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  12. So how much peanut butter did 1.5 cups of peanuts make?? This is a GREAT idea!!

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  13. @Christi ~ Probably about a cup, maybe a tad less. (I'm kind of bad about measuring!) Since it doesn't have any preservatives, I have been making up little batches at a time.

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  14. I agree with you I my self have an soy allergy and i know how you feel. I had my allergy for about 6 years now. Thank you for sharing your recipes with the rest of us.

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