Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Instructions

1. Prepare a muffin tin with 8 paper liners.
2. In a small mixing bowl, mix peanut butter, maple syrup, and salt until smooth and creamy. Then, stir in half of the oat flour until combined and repeat with the other half of the oat flour to form a dough. Your dough shouldn't be too dry, but it also shouldn't be gooey or stick to your fingers.*
3. Divide your peanut butter dough into 8 equal balls (if you have a scale, each ball should be about 17 grams). Roll the balls in the palms of your hand to form a sphere, then flatten them into thick discs. When you're shaping your discs, make sure that they're smaller than the bottoms of your paper liners. You can place the discs on a large plate or a small baking tray until you're ready to use them.
4. Melt your mini chocolate chips in a double boiler (a small pot over a larger pot of boiling water) or a microwave, stirring regularly until the chocolate is smooth.
5. Use a spoon to place a small dollop of melted chocolate in each of the paper liners. Add just enough chocolate to cover the bottom of the liner with a thin layer of chocolate; you should have about half of the chocolate remaining after this step.
6. Place one peanut butter disc at the center of each liner, then gently press on the peanut butter to spread the chocolate underneath. Make sure the chocolate reaches the edges of the liners all the way around, but don't press so hard that the peanut butter reaches the bottom of the liner.
7. Spoon another dollop of chocolate onto each of the peanut butter discs and use your spoon to spread the chocolate to fill the sides and cover the tops evenly. To even out the tops of your peanut butter cups, gently shake the pan or tap it onto the countertop.
8. Refrigerate the peanut butter cups. They'll be solid within 30 to 45 minutes, but the filling has the best texture and flavor if you let them chill overnight. The peanut butter cups can be stored at room temperature if your room is cool enough to keep the chocolate solid, but I live in a hot climate, so I prefer to store them in the refrigerator.

I recommend using a natural peanut butter that's just peanuts and salt, like Trader Joe's or Santa Cruz.

If you're using unsalted peanut butter, add an additional 1/8 teaspoon of salt to the peanut butter filling.

To keep this recipe refined sugar-free, use chocolate chips that are also refined sugar-free, like Lakanto or ChocZero.

For best results, weigh your ingredients. If your peanut butter filling is too dry, you can add a few drops of water; if it's sticky, add another teaspoon of oat flour.