Matcha Coconut Almond Butter Cups
yields: 16 cups
Matcha coconut butter cups filled with creamy oozy almond butter. With easy options for vegan or refined-sugar-free, these decadent almond butter cups taste like a treat, but are a perfect snack!
Ingredients
Almond Butter Filling:
- 3 tablespoons honey, or sub maple syrup for vegan
- ¾ teaspoons coconut oil
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons creamy and smooth roasted almond butter, see note
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Matcha Coconut Butter Shell:
- 2.25 cups (215 g) unsweetened shredded coconut, see note
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
- 1½ teaspoons granulated sugar, or sub coconut sugar, but NOT honey or maple, or leave out
- ¾ teaspoons high-quality matcha powder
- ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Optional: 3 tablespoons chopped toasted almonds, for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
- Line a mini muffin tray with 16 paper liners.
- Prepare the almond butter filling. See note below about creamy almond butter. Combine the honey or maple syrup in a small bowl with the coconut oil and microwave together for 20-30 seconds, until it begins to bubble. Pour the warmed honey into a small bowl with the almond butter and mix until creamy and smooth. Transfer to the freezer for 10-15 minutes to firm up while you make the shell.
- Make the coconut butter. Place the unsweetened dried shredded coconut in a high-powered blender or food processor and blend on high for several minutes until it turns into a thin creamy butter that drips off a spoon. I use the small blender of my high-powered Blendtec blender and it takes less than two minutes, but if you're using a food processor or low-powered blender, it can take up to ten minutes.
- Add melted coconut oil, sugar, matcha, vanilla extract, and salt and blend until completely combined. The mixture should be creamy and pourable.
- Spoon 1 teaspoon of matcha coconut butter into a lined mini muffin tin. Scoop 1 teaspoon of frozen creamy almond butter filling flatted into a disc into the center of the coconut butter. Spoon 1 teaspoon of matcha coconut butter over the top, adding more to smooth out the top, as needed.
- Sprinkle with chopped toasted almonds and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes until just firm. Note, you can also place them in the fridge to firm but, but because they'll firm up slower, you'll end up with ripples in the top. Remove from freezer, and store in the fridge for up to a week. See post above for storage options.
Video
Notes
These are best stored in the refrigerator, though they'll last for a day on the counter. When left for longer at room temperature, the matcha oxidizes and they turn a muddy light green-brown color, though the flavor isn't affected.
You can keep them for up to a week in the fridge or 2 months in an airtight container in the freezer. Defrost the frozen cups at room temperature before eating.
Eat these cups straight out of the fridge when the firm shell snaps, giving way to a creamy gooey filling. Or leave them at room temperature for an hour when the shell becomes creamier like milk chocolate.
Almond Butter
I use freshly ground almond butter from my local market that has no other ingredients besides roasted almonds. If your almond butter is a little more firm, try putting it in the blender to make it smoother and creamier.Substitutions
- Unsweetened shredded coconut: You can replace the unsweetened shredded coconut with store-bought coconut butter, by weight. It will be solid at room temperature. Heat it for a few seconds in the microwave and place it in the blender or food processor and blend until creamy and smooth. I do not recommend using flaked coconut or sweetened shredded coconut.If you don't have a small blender jar or if your food processor bowl is particularly large, you might find you need to double the coconut butter recipe to have enough in your jar to get it smooth.
- Sugar: To make these coconut butter cups refined-sugar-free, you can leave out the sugar from the shell or sub in coconut sugar, though the green color will be a bit muddier. Do not add liquid sweetener to the coconut butter or it will seize up into a firm dough, making it impossible to pour into the cups.
- Honey: Sub out the honey in the filling for equal parts heated maple syrup. The maple syrup filling also ranked highly in our taste-tests, but I slightly preferred the honey notes paired with matcha.
- Almond Butter: Sub out with peanut butter or cashew butter, as desired! Alternatively, use date paste tossed with chopped nuts.
