two stacks of vegan snickers peanut butter cups on a white plate

Looking for a sweet vegan treat that is great for gifting during the holidays or for putting on your Halloween treats table? Vegan Snickers Cups is where it’s at! I don’t think I need to explain the concept of Snickers at great length. Let’s just say that if you love chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter then these Vegan Snickers Peanut Butter Cups are the way to go!

Homemade snickers cups are made with an easy peanut nougat, peanuts, dates which act as caramel layer, and chocolate – a vegan, gluten-free, and grain-free homemade treat that you will love.

Traditional nougat for chocolate bars like mars or snickers bars is made with egg whites, sugar and vanilla. To make these Snickers Cups extra flavorful, I opted to make vegan peanut butter nougat using peanut butter as a base and adding maple syrup for sweetness and oat flour as a thickener. It works like a charm and only takes minutes.

Instead of caramel, we add halved, pitted dates, nature’s caramel!

Obviously, these are an amazing food gift but are also ideal for anyone who like Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups but find them a tad too sweet these days.

stacked vegan peanut butter cups with peanut butter nougat and dates

More vegan treats and candy:

Ingredients:

vegan chocolate chips – semi sweet chocolate, a mix of dark and seminsweet or all dark, depending on your taste
refined coconut oil – I use refined to not have any coconut flavor in these vegan peanut butter cups
smooth peanut butter – all natural
maple syrup is used to sweeten the peanut butter nougat
oat flour is added to the nut butter and oat flour to thicken the nougat
Medjool dates are our vegan stand-in for caramel sauce. Medjool are best here as they are nice and soft
I used roasted unsalted peanuts but you can toast your nuts at home if you only have unroasted peanuts

Tips & Substitutions:

When melting your chocolate, try and keep the chocolate under 88 degrees as it melts it will hold its original crystal structure. The result: your snickers cups will be perfectly shiny and snap once bit into them.
Make sure no water gets into your chocolate mix or it will seize.
Use all-natural smooth peanut butter for best results
peanut-free: If you want to make this without peanuts, you can also smooth almond butter and use roasted cashews instead of peanuts. Hazelnut butter and hazelnuts would be another great substitution
the peanuts can be roasted or raw. If using raw, toast them in a pan until fragrant to make them more flavorful.
If you want, sprinkle them with some seas salt
Use store-bought oat flour or grind some rolled oats in a spice grinder until you have a fine meal

ingredients for vegan peanut butter cups on a marble slate

Make the peanut butter nougat. Warm the peanut butter in the microwave, if it’s too stiff. then mix in the maple syrup. Add in the oat flour until the mixture is slightly stiff then set aside.

melted chocolate being spread into molds to make vegan snickers cups

Melt the chocolate. Add the chocolate and coconut oil to a double boiler and heat over medium heat. Start whisking when the chocolate is starting to melt and whisk until the chocolate is melted evenly. Take off heat. You can also melt the chocolate in the microwave. Melt in 30-second intervals and whisk. Once half of the chocolate has started melting and just whisk so that it’s melted evenly.

Prep a muffin tin by adding muffin liners.

Add about 2 teaspoons of melted chocolate to the liner and move the liner to spread around at the bottom so that the chocolate goes up at least half an inch on the edges. You can use up to a tablespoon of melted chocolate if the chocolate isn’t spreading enough.

peanut butter being added to melted chocolate to make peanut butter cups

Then take about 2-3 teaspoons of the peanut butter nougat mixture then make it into a ball then flatten it so that it’s almost the size of the muffin hole and place it on the melted chocolate.

mini muffin liners being filled with melted chocolate and peanut butter to make vegan snickers cups

Slice the date in half and remove the pit. Then spread out the half date into a somewhat circle so that it will fit over the peanut butter mixture and then place it on the peanut butter mixture in the muffin pan.