August 22, 2018

Nut-Free Sunflower Seed Butter Vegan Chocolate Cups

Back when I was young, on Halloween after trick-or-treating, came the all important affair of candy sorting, tasting, and trade negotiations. Almond joys and Mounds bars were immediately discarded into the “donate to dad” pile. Snickers, Skittles, KitKat and others were all open for negotiation. For the right trade, to achieve the right balance in chocolate vs. fruity, they might be bartered. There were two candies that did not switch hands, and were highly coveted- crunchy, sweet butterfingers and those perfectly nutty, sweet and salty Reese’s peanut butter cups. Since Reese’s are not vegan, I’ve had to experiment with making my own vegan chocolate cups. I used to think there was nothing could touch the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, but I recently learned I was wrong. Chocolate and peanut butter is good, but sunflower seed butter is different, and AMAZING. Plus, with the prevalence of nut allergies, these sunflower seed cups are a win for everyone.

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Store-Bought Vegan Chocolate Cup Options

Now, there are vegan chocolate cups, and some good ones. Justin’s has a dark chocolate peanut butter filled cup that is vegan, and Free2Be makes a sunflower seed, allergen-free cup. But unfortunately, they’re not the cheapest. Most of the vegan versions average out at around $1 a cup, which is okay when you’re just buying a few, but if you’re looking for a lot of cups it can get expensive. My vegan chocolate cups cost less than $5 for all 15- a way better deal! I saved money, in part, by making my own sunflower seed butter. Sunflower seeds are cheaper than almonds, and perhaps even cheaper than peanuts, but sunflower seed butter isn’t quite as cheap as it could be. Mine cost about $1 to make enough for all my vegan chocolate cups- and you can’t beat that!

Tempering Chocolate – To Temper or Not

When you write a scientific article (which as part of my fulltime job I do occasionally), there is a section where you discuss the limitations of your study. Where you talk about what more you could have done, or what you might have done better, given no restraints on funding or time. I would like to bring that practice into my writing here. I was limited in this recipe by the lack of a properly functioning thermometer. If I had one. I could have attempted to temper my chocolate- a process of heating a cooling that encourages crystalline structures to form in a way that makes it smooth and raises its melting point. Alas, lack of resources prevented my acquisition and subsequent tempering of chocolate in my vegan chocolate cups, therefor these sunflower delights melted not only in the mouth but in the hand. I want to encourage others with more sophisticated instruments to try tempered cups and share their results with me in the comments below!

Since first writing this recipe, I’ve learned a quick trick for tempering chocolate without thermometers or gadgets- check it out on this Grinch truffle recipe!

Making Sunflower Seed Vegan Chocolate Cups

Once you’ve made your sunflower seed butter and melted your chocolate comes my favorite part- making the cups. It’s a somewhat slow and a little painstaking process. It’s sort of like making dumplings or ravioli in the sense that none of it is hard, but making each cup (or pasta) individually leads to the entire process taking a while. I actually love this sort of task, and I especially liked these vegan chocolate cups- you start with dropping a little chocolate in the bottom of a mini muffin liner. Next, using a small paintbrush, you gently and delicately cover the sides in a thin layer of chocolate. Add a scoop of sunflower seed butter. And a teaspoon or so of chocolate, using the back of the spoon to smooth the chocolate to hit all the edges. And start again. The repetitive nature of covering and smoothing is calming and meditative in nature.

Once all your cups are filled, and you’re totally zen, stick the delicious sunflower seed butter filled, nut-free, vegan chocolate cup delights into the fridge to cool until solid. Once they are (and it won’t take as long as you’d think), continue to store in the fridge until you’re ready to pop it in your mouth. At which point be prepared to eat more than one, because that’s just the reality of how addictive they are.