Paleo Chocolate Cups with Caramel (Vegan)

These paleo chocolate cups with caramel are rich and stuffed with a quick but delicious caramel (made in the Instant Pot!). These paleo chocolate cups with caramel are the perfect healthy candy, and I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t like a couple of these paleo chocolate cups with caramel for Halloween. Easy but impressive! 

I’m about to tell you something horrifying about me. Promise you won’t hate me?

Pinky promise?

Cross your heart and hope to die? This is serious stuff.

OK, here goes… I don’t love chocolate.

Oh! Oh oh oh, it feels so good to get that off my chest. Growing up, obsession with chocolate was considered a given for girls and women. My friends joked about what they’d do (or whom they’d murder) for a bar of the stuff, but me? I was over there in the corner slurping down sour straws with wide eyes, wondering what in the world went wrong during my formation to make me so abnormal.

And it’s true: I’d almost always rather burn off my tastebuds with something bright and sour than knock back a (few) dark chocolate bars. Except, well, there’s one exception.

An exception for a food so perfectly balanced and indulgent that it’ll overtake my underwhelm with chocolate bars and usurp first place in my internal candy ranking. The chocolate cup.

This is Leo after I told him he couldn’t have yet another paleo chocolate cup with caramel…

You might’ve divined this already, if you’ve ever made it to our house for a few bites. Chocolate and peanut butter are a lethal combination to me, one I can’t give up even though peanuts aren’t paleo. I find the good in them and mentally move along, admitting to the gods of bacon and duck fat that I’ll just never be perfect. I make peanut butter cups pretty regularly, preferring my minimal recipe (four ingredients!) to the scary list on the back of a bag of Reese’s. If not peanut butter cups, then I’m stirring in a maple-sweetened peanut butter to a quick paleo chocolate microwave cake, clinking brownie mugs with O after a long day.

The thing is, though, that it turns out it’s not even the peanut butter in a chocolate cup that slays me: it’s the chocolate cup itself. It’s the rich and sweet, magnesium-rich shell, enveloping a seasonal surprise filling. It’s the balance of the cocoa and the center, the quick bite, the crack of the top of the shell when you bite into a cup after dinner. My paleo chocolate strawberry coconut butter cups are a perfect example of this alchemy.

So when I came up with my Instant Pot caramel sauce (holy.), I had to stuff it inside of chocolate cups. Both ingredients are rich in different ways: the caramel having a complex depth from the deep and dark sugars and a long cook time, the chocolate benefitting from a bit of bitterness and almost earthiness from the mineral richness (Copper! Magnesium! Zinc! Selenium!).

They’re quick but so impressive, and the balance of the chocolate and caramel is sheer perfection. You could replace the Instant Pot caramel sauce with my 5-minute paleo caramel sauce, if you like, or if you don’t have an Instant Pot. But, as always, if you don’t have an Instant Pot, I urge you to really take a look at your life and figure out what your aim is. Is it easier and more delicious recipes or is it not? If you’re sure it’s the former, then it’s time to buy an Instant Pot! For reals, I dragged my feet in getting one but mine kind of changed my life. Oh, and you’ll be just in time for my Instant Pot paleo cookbook coming ever so soon. Perfect for a Whole30!

To make these paleo chocolate cups with caramel, I used…

5 from 2 votes

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Paleo Chocolate Cups with Caramel (Vegan)

These paleo chocolate cups with caramel are rich and stuffed with a quick but delicious caramel (made in the Instant Pot!). These paleo chocolate cups with caramel are the perfect healthy candy, and I don't know anyone who wouldn't like a couple of these paleo chocolate cups with caramel for Halloween. Easy but impressive! 

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 - 2/3 cup caramel sauce check out options in notes
• 10 ounces dairy-free chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons coconut oil
• Fleur de sel for topping

Equipment Needed

• muffin tin
• muffin liners

Instructions

1. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips with coconut oil. Microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring very well between each burst. Don't over-microwave. Alternately, heat in a double-boiler over simmering water.
2. Spoon chocolate mixture into a paper-lined muffin tin, about 1 teaspoon per cup. Use the back of the teaspoon to gently press the chocolate up the sides of the liners. Make sure that the bottom is evenly covered. Repeat with all 12 liners, then let freeze for 10 minutes.
3. Spoon about 1/2 tablespoon of the mixture into the chilled chocolate cups until all the filling is evenly distributed. Use your fingers to gently flatten the caramel slightly, if necessary.
4. Cover with about 1-1 1/2 teaspoon chocolate to coat. Sprinkle with a bit of fleur de sel, then freeze about 10 minutes.
5. Peel off liners gently and eat! Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.

Recipe Notes

If you don't have an Instant Pot, you can use my 5-minute paleo caramel sauce recipe instead.