My husband is responsible for introducing me to all sorts of addictive foods. It wasn’t until I met him that I tried Cool Ranch Doritos for the first time, and he’s also responsible for introducing me to these irresistible cookies.
They’re called Peanut Butter Temptations, and the original recipe is found on the back of the bag of Reese’s mini peanut butter cups. As soon as I tried one of these cookies, I was hooked. How can a soft peanut butter cookie stuffed with a chocolate covered peanut butter cup be anything but delicious?
Early on in our relationship, these cookies would grace every birthday and holiday we could think of. The only problem was, I couldn’t stop eating them! (And Austin has WAY more self control than I do.) Once we started adopting a healthier diet, we had to stop making these cookies for our own good. I certainly couldn’t be trusted around them.
My Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies have been a pretty good alternative for the past few years, but recently Austin asked me if I could try making a “healthier” Peanut Butter Temptation for Halloween this year, because it was one of our favorite treats to enjoy while watching a good Halloween movie– like Hocus Pocus. (I’m sad my son isn’t old enough to appreciate it yet!)
I have to say, this healthier version tastes WAY better than the original. Maybe because there’s more peanut butter flavor? No flour to mute the taste? Whatever it is, I’m afraid I made cookie that is more a addictive than ever. Sorry about that.
Now, because this is the type of recipe you’d only make once or twice a year, I went ahead and used store-bought dark chocolate peanut butter cups to save time. However, you could certainly make a lower-sugar version by making your own mini vegan peanut butter cups, if you prefer. Either way, I hope you’ll enjoy these addictive cookies as much as we have.
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Vegan Peanut Butter Temptations
Makes 24 cookies
Ingredients:
Coconut oil, for greasing
1 tablespoon ground chia seeds
3 tablespoons water
1 cup all-natural organic peanut butter
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
24 mini vegan peanut butter cups
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease a mini muffin pan with coconut oil. In a large bowl, stir together the ground chia seeds and water to make a “chia egg.” It will gel together and thicken as you measure out the peanut butter. To the chia egg, add in the peanut butter, coconut sugar, vanilla, baking soda and sea salt and mix to form a thick batter. Stir in the vinegar last, which will react with the baking soda to help the cookies rise.
Use a tablespoon to drop the batter into each mini muffin well. I like to use a cookie scoop like this so that all of the cookies have the same about of batter. Bake at 350ºF until the cookies rise and are lightly golden on top, about 10 to 12 minutes.
While the cookies are baking, remove the peanut butter cups from their wrappers. This recipe is time sensitive so it’s imperative that you are ready to insert the peanut butter cups the moment the cookies come out of the oven. So don’t get distracted! (I’ve been known to do that…)
As soon as the cookies are done, immediately press a peanut butter cup into the center of each one. The cookies should be soft enough in the center that they are easily pressed into. Once all of the peanut butter cups have been inserted into the cookies, allow the cookies to cool completely. Once cool, use a knife to remove each cookie, sliding the knife around the edge of each cookie to loosen them up. They will be fragile if still warm at all.
Austin and I actually prefer these cookies cold, so I place them on a plate and keep them in the fridge to serve. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. (Austin likes them directly from the freezer– but I think the peanut butter cups are too hard that way.)
Vegan Peanut Butter Temptations
Ingredients
- Coconut oil , for greasing
- 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 cup all-natural organic peanut butter
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 24 mini vegan peanut butter cups
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease a mini muffin pan with coconut oil. In a large bowl, stir together the ground chia seeds and water to make a "chia egg." It will gel together and thicken as you measure out the peanut butter. To the chia egg, add in the peanut butter, coconut sugar, vanilla, baking soda and sea salt and mix to form a thick batter. Stir in the vinegar last, which will react with the baking soda to help the cookies rise.
- Use a tablespoon to drop the batter into each mini muffin well. I like to use a cookie scoop like this so that all of the cookies have the same about of batter. Bake at 350ºF until the cookies rise and are lightly golden on top, about 10 to 12 minutes.
- While the cookies are baking, remove the peanut butter cups from their wrappers. This recipe is time sensitive so it's imperative that you are ready to insert the peanut butter cups the moment the cookies come out of the oven.
- As soon as the cookies are done, immediately press a peanut butter cup into the center of each one. The cookies should be soft enough in the center that they are easily pressed into. Once all of the peanut butter cups have been inserted into the cookies, allow the cookies to cool completely. Once cool, use a knife to remove each cookie, sliding the knife around the edge of each cookie to loosen them up. They will be fragile if still warm at all.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 176, Fat: 11g, Carbohydrates: 14g, Fiber: 2g, Protein: 4g
Note: As always, if you’d prefer to avoid peanut butter, feel free to use any other nut or seed butter you like, such as almond, cashew, or sunflower seed. Justin’s Mini Dark Chocolate Peanut Cups have vegan ingredients, if you want to rely on those for convenience.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite treat to serve on special occasions? My No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars are our other family favorite!
Hello! I would like to make these for my daughter in college and send them to her in a care package. She has a fridge. But would package do okay traveling via 2 day or overnight mail?
They get slightly softer when left at room temperature, but I think if you put them in a sturdy box (so they don’t get squished) they would be just fine. I’d just recommend that she put them in the fridge once they arrive so they can firm up again. I would LOVE to get that kind of care package from my mom! 😉
Oh my goodness Hocus Pocus is my favourite Halloween movie too! Barely anyone I know has seen it and I’m like “how have you NOT???”, haha
Everyone else is missing out! LOL 😉
Absolutely! Bette Midler makes me laugh so hard it hurts!!! Our favorite treat is another with peanut butter so we will most definitely be giving these a whirl!!!! No matter how many times we watch Hocus Pocus, it still makes us laugh!!!!
I just made these. Sooo easy and fun to make. Their delish too.
The ingredients look like they’d even make yummy cookies without the peanut butter cups! Anyone tried that? Maybe just put spoonfuls on a cookie sheet and press each one down a bit?
Yes, they make delicious cookies!
Yes, did by accident. Had too much dough and not enough PB cups. Yum!
Yes! I baked them as written but instead of pressing in peanut butter cups I pressed in with the round back of a wooden lime crusher. In summer we took them straight out of the fridge and filled them with peanut butter an jelly, fresh berries or chocolate spread for a quick desert. I also kept some in the freezer and later filled them with the peanut butter cup filling and poured some chocolate on top. Easy and delicious 😋
And yes, I was to lazy to do both recipes at once 😀
Can i replace a regular egg with the chia egg?
Could you substitute the vegan peanut butter cups with your homemade version a couple of posts ago?
Absolutely!
Just double checking . . .
Was that a YES to use a whole egg instead of the chia seed egg?
In theory the whole egg should work instead of the chia egg, but I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t say for sure. I’m guessing the egg will make the cookies slightly more firm than the chia egg.
Where can I buy vegan peanut butter cup choclates
I saw the Justin’s brand at Whole Foods– the Dark Chocolate version has vegan ingredients.
Wow, these cookies are out of this world! I planned on eating just 2 and ended up eating 4! They are very addictive.
These cookies will definitely become a holiday favorite for my kids. Thank goodness, I have 3 kids to eat them, or I probably would end up gaining weight!
We used to make these all the time when I was young! Of course we used refrigerated sugar cookie dough for the base, something I wouldn’t even consider now. I will definitely be making these for my family this holiday season. My girls will love pushing the peanut butter cups into the soft cookie cup:)
I also mixed up the cookie batter and added a bit of melted Earth Balance and some cocoa powder and pressed it into a pie plate…My side of the family is having Thanksgiving this Sunday and I’m going to attempt my own recipe for a salted caramel chocolate tart…but I am going to use your recipe for the crust. It’s in the oven now, smells heavenly!
Update: I used almond butter for the tart crust version and it was delicious. Made a batch of the peanut butter temptations today and as predicted, my girls had so much fun sticking the peanut butter cups into the warm, soft cookies. They are so go it’s just senseless! Thank you for this incredible recipe!
good not “go!”
I made these today and they are delicious! I need to make another batch as these will not last until Xmas. 😊
Could I use lemon instead of acv???
Thanks for this recipe.
I baked some today and they tasted delicious 😋
I substituted the PB cup filling for pana chocolate. x
We’ve made these several times, and my oh my are they a tasty treat! Be careful not to overtake them, or the peanut butter cookie-ish part can get dry. These are a family favorite of ours. We’re making them again today!!