Toasted Coconut Pecan Butter Cups

Something weird has happened.  Actually, make that a couple somethings weird have happened.

The first is that this weekend I vehemently claimed that I will no longer be eating Reese’s peanut butter cups.  That may or may not be a lie – I can’t make claims like that against one of my favorite candies.  But after being inspired by Ashley to make these pecan butter cups I really don’t see us keeping Reese’s in the house ever again.  Except maybe Halloween…I am NOT making these to share with children!

 

See, the way I see it is parents likely don’t want their kiddos eating homemade goods anyway.  And I know that children would probably not appreciate the homemade part of these bad boys, the pink Hawaiian sea salted goodness, or the fact that I just made my own candy.  I like kids, but I just don’t think they care.  Reason enough to be selfish for me!

The second weird thing is that my recipes from the end of December seem to have completely disappeared, and with that the Toasted Pecan Butter recipe is gone.  Nowhere to be found – so I’m including it on this post as well.  I mean, I guess you need to know how to make it to make the candy, right?  Right!  But if anyone else has had this issue with just weeks of posts completely and bizarrely disappearing, please let me know – I need to know I’m not that crazy!

 

Oh, and also – thank you all so much for your support on yesterday afternoon’s post – I’m excited to share even more of our life with you guys and hope that you’ll be sticking around, even if I don’t put bacon in something for a couple days.  We’ll work through it 🙂

TOASTED COCONUT PECAN BUTTER CUPS

Inspired by Ashley’s Chocolate Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter Cups

• 1 lb dark chocolate chips
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil + 1-2 tsp coconut oil for the pecan butter
• sea salt and pecans for garnish
• 1 cup toasted pecan halves
• 1 cup toasted coconut (I have used both sweetened and unsweetened and love them both)

For the nut butter:  In a food processor combine the pecans, coconut, and about 1 tsp of coconut oil.  Pulse for a few seconds, then turn the processor on low.  You’ll need to scrape down the sides, but after about 3-4 minutes it should all start coming together.  I usually leave the processor on for about 5-7 minutes to really get a good consistency.

 

For the cups:  melt the chocolate over a double boiler with 1 Tbsp of coconut oil until smooth, stirring constantly.  Line a muffin pan with muffin cups and put about 1 Tbsp of melted chocolate in the bottom of each.  Drop about 1 Tbsp of the pecan butter in the middle of each pool of chocolate, then spoon another 1 Tbsp of the chocolate on top.  Be sure to cover all of the pecan butter with chocolate!  Repeat until all of the chocolate is gone (you’ll have leftovers of the pecan butter – perfect for eating on toast or just with a spoon!).  Sprinkle with sea salt and pecans, and let set in the fridge for about 2 hours.  When they’re set just peel the paper cups off, and voila!  Homemade nut butter cups.  As Ashley said, they keep best in the fridge – if you can keep them around long enough to need to store them 🙂

The worst part?  The worst part is when they’re gone.  Like now.  Sad face 🙁