How Chocolate Nut Snack Cups Make Everyone Happy

What to eat for an afternoon snack is always a dilemma. We want sugar; Mom wants us to have something healthy. These chocolate nut snack cups are the perfect solution!

Mom says we cannot complain about her on our blog. So, for the record, we are not complaining. We are delicately expressing our concern with the fact that she keeps reading the backs of food labels. It all started with the death of our store-bought cereal. She keeps saying something about added sugars and not getting enough protein. We just kept thinking that there had to be some kind of quick snack that met her requirements but that we actually wanted to eat.

Do Chocolate Nut Snack Cups Meet Mom’s Requirements for an Afternoon Snack?

Every time we ask her for a snack, she gives us that look. She knows we want a sugary treat. Because in our worlds, snack = treat = sugar. And she is on to us. She always points to the tray of fruit and vegetables and says we can “treat” ourselves to any of that healthy food. We needed an alternative for our afternoon snack and started out on our research.

Why These Chocolate Nut Cups Make Everyone Happy

When we found this recipe, we knew we were on to something. The ingredients are full of protein. We made a few substitutions based on what we had in the pantry. Instead of just using almonds for the base, we added some walnuts for extra flavor. We also used almond butter instead of peanut butter because it does not have any added sugars. So now that all of Mom’s boxes were checked, we made sure to add as much chocolate on top as we could. These nut cups are full of protein and very low in sugar!

How to Make the Base with Scary Dates:

We have to be honest and say we were pretty concerned when we pulled out the pitted dates. I mean, these look a bit odd. I dared my sister to eat one by itself and watched her face carefully as she tried to chew it down. This didn’t look good.

We added them to the food processor with our nuts and went at it. After getting them as small as we could so the dates would be less noticeable, we put them in the cupcake liners and smashed them down.

Peanut Butter or Almond Butter?

This is a question that will depend on how much sugar you want to add to your chocolate nut cups. Our almond butter did not have any sugar added, and we will admit that it needed just a bit more. To make everyone happy, we suggest half of each.

Spreading the almond butter on top of the nut base was for sure the hardest part of this recipe. We tried to be super careful not to pull up the bottom.

After microwaving the coconut oil, we mixed in the honey and chocolate. After pouring this on top, we were starting to get excited. For our first batch, we used very little honey and the chocolate was pretty bitter. If you are not a fan of dark chocolate, you should increase the amount of honey.

Tip: Make sure you have enough melted chocolate so that it seeps down the sides of the cup. This will help keep the whole thing together after you take off the liner.

Our New Favorite “Mom Approved” Snack

After waiting for what seemed like forever for these to harden, we peeled back the paper and took our first bite. We had thought that we would be able to eat about 3 of them each, but they were so filling!

These make great healthy after-school snacks, but they are also a perfect for a road trip food idea!

We suggest you keep them in the refrigerator or cooler, as they are easier to eat when chilled.