![Reishes' Cups [Sugar Free, THM]](https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2776/32508675390_d8b3fe7596_z.jpg "Reishes' Cups [Sugar Free, THM]")
When my husband and I were in high school, the school had a spirit week featuring the basketball players before their sectional tourney. The theme was a candy store, and each player was assigned a candy or spin-off of his name or personality, etc. It just so happened that my husband and his brother were in the same grade, both Varsity starters and both had the last name of Reish.
Enter Reishes’ Cups. Packages of Reese’s cups pairs were everywhere in the spirit week store, made over with a new label—Reishes’ Cups.
It was cute and it was clever. And I love cute and clever. (I write books for children, after all!)
So….when it came time to label my sugar-free Reese’s Cups, Reese’s would not suffice. Reishes’ Cups it is.
(And don’t even get me started on the lesson that I want to insert here on how to make names ending in sh, ch, x, z, or s plural—and then how to make them possessive. But I will give you a hint. Our Christmas picture should always say Reishes not Reishs. I’ll stop there! You can learn more about my homeschooling/English blog,Character Ink Press!)
These are super simple in ingredients. Not so much in execution. I made them as darling as I could for the pictures, but to be honest, I would only do these for a special event.
I am a self-proclaimed efficiency expert. The words cup, tart, tort—or anything with “let” at the end, spells the opposite of efficiency.
Thus, I am a bar girl. If a cup, tart, tort, or mini can be made into a bar, it will be in my kitchen. Pour melted chocolate over the top of that. Refrigerate until firm enough to cut. And cut in squares! (This recipe is in my book, Sugar-Free, Flour-Free and is called No Bake Peanut Butter Bars. Easy peasy.
But for those who love to do DIY—and make things super cool looking, I bring you my official Sugar-Free Reishes’ Cups!
Below are links to the ingredients I use in the recipe above. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links below I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!
Don’t forget to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page for this recipe’s helpful Recipe Keys!
- Filling:
- ¾ c. “Graham Cracker” crumbs
- ½ cup powdered Pyure* (or Gentle Sweet or Homemade Pyure or other stevia blend) *Or double a cup-for-cup powdered sugar substitute
- 6 TBSP butter
- 1½ cups peanut butter (either creamy or crunchy is fine)
- Chocolate Coating:
- 3 cups Lily’s chocolate chips and/or Lily’s milk chocolate bar, coarsely chopped (or any sugar-free chocolate of your choice; I like half dark chocolate (chocolate chips) and half milk chocolate.)
- 4 TBSP butter
- Filling Instructions:
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and powdered sweetener until well blended, set aside.
- In a microwave-safe glass measure or bowl, heat butter and peanut butter together in microwave in 15 second increments until melted but not hot.
- Stir until combined and pour over graham cracker mixture. Stir until well combined, set aside.
- Chocolate Coating Instructions:
- Melt half of the chocolate chips with half of the butter in a microwave safe bowl in the microwave in 15 second increments (stirring each time) until chocolate is melted. (I like to use 75% or even 50%. Once your chocolate is over-melted, it is useless.)
- Place cupcake liners in cupcake tin (mini or regular depending on what size peanut butter cups you want to make.
- Using a paint brush (I used a long, rubber baby spoon though!), "paint" each cupcake liner with melted chocolate. Be sure to evenly coat the bottom and half way up each cup (if using the "mini" cupcake liners). If you are using full-size cupcake liners paint about ⅓ of the way up each cup. You don't need to paint it very thick, just enough so you don't see any of the liner underneath.
- Place in the refrigerator to cool for about 5 minutes or until chocolate hardens.
- Press about 1 tsp. of graham cracker mixture in each mini cup (about 1 TBSP for regular-sized cups). Make sure the top is somewhat flat (it doesn't need to be perfect). Just make sure you don't go above where you "painted" the chocolate on the cup.
- Melt remaining chocolate chips and butter in another glass dish in the same manner you did the first half.
- Spoon a little chocolate over each peanut butter cup until the peanut butter filling is completely covered (you can lightly shake or tap the cupcake pan to even out the chocolate over the filling). You want the top of the peanut butter cup to look completely flat.
- Place in refrigerator or cool area until chocolate hardens, then serve! If making bars, they will take a little longer to firm up. Do not freeze the bars or the chocolate will not slice nicely.
Recipe Keys
Very Low Carb (VLC): These can be made very low carb by using the lavash, pita, or low carb tortilla for the graham cracker crumbs. Choose your favorite low carb peanut butter, but remember that the looser the peanut butter, the more powdered sweetener is required to keep the filling from being too loose.
Family-Friendly (FF): Everybody loves these!
Store-Bought-Stella (SBS): Super fast and easy using mostly store-bought ingredients.
Homemade Hannah (HH): If you want to make these even more homemade, you could make a low carb, sugar-free shortbread cookie and crumble that for the bar base. I keep low carb “brown sugar” cookies in my freezer for times I need a firm but sweet crumble.
Freezer Cooking (FC): These freeze fine. However, many times when ganache topping is frozen (in this or any bar with a ganache topping), it hardens to the point that when you cut into it, the ganache splits. I like to cut my bars before freezing them so that they do not do this.
Trim Healthy Mama-Friendly (THM) (www.trimhealthymama.com): Another delicious S treat!
Sugar Free (SF): Yes. If you use lavash for the graham cracker crumbs, you can control the sweeteners better. Store bought sugar-free graham crackers might be filled with a less-than-healthy sweetener.
Gluten-Free (GF): Joseph’s Lavash and pitas do contain gluten. I am sure you could use a gluten-free tortilla to crisp and make your graham cracker crumbs—or your favorite gluten-free graham cracker will also work.
