Prep time: 2 hours Cook time: 0 mins Rest time: 30 mins Total time: 2 hrs 30 mins
Servings: 6-12 cups
Make it Dairy-Free: Use water instead of ghee to make the filling; omit the ghee when melting the chocolate
Made with just five ingredients, these chocolate cups are lightly sweetened with Manuka honey and are filled with a salted, chunky ghee-date paste.
What you need to make Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Ingredients:
- Unsweetened chocolate
- Pitted dates
- Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- Raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off); Note: I recommend local or Manuka
- Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
- Coarse Celtic sea salt (optional)
Equipment:
- Blender or food processor
- Paper cupcake liners
- Cupcake baking pan (optional)
Substitutions
You can substitute the ghee for your animal fat of choice, although I do highly recommend ghee with this recipe due to its sweet and buttery flavor.
How to make Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
To start – prep the dates.
Soak the pitted dates in water for 1-2 hours to get them soft.
Next – make the ghee-date paste.
*Note: If you would like your filling pasty like caramel, use 12 dates + 1/2 cup of ghee. If you would like it chunky like cookie dough, use 15 dates + 1/3 cup of ghee. I recommend the cookie dough, but both are great! Both options are pictured below in the “Tips to make the best…” section.
Melt the ghee.
Add the melted ghee, dates, and sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off) to a blender. Blend until your preferred consistency. I like to leave chunks of dates in mine.
Put the paste in a bowl and set it aside in the fridge to firm up.
Next – make the chocolate.
Melt the ghee and chocolate in the same container on your stovetop on low heat, stirring consistently to prevent the chocolate from burning.
As soon as the chocolate is melted, remove it from the heat.
Add the raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off) to the ghee-chocolate mixture. Stir well (at least 30-60 seconds) to fully incorporate the honey.
Now – put it all together and make the chocolate cups.
If you have a cupcake baking pan, line it with the paper cupcake liners. If you’re not using a cupcake baking pan, place the paper cupcake liners on a regular baking sheet.
Pour the chocolate into the paper cupcake liners to cover the bottoms of the liners, or more if you prefer a thicker bottom layer. I try to use no more than 1/3-1/2 (in total) of the chocolate to create the first layer.
Place the cupcake baking pan in the freezer for 5-7 minutes so the first layer can set.
Once the first layer is set, remove the ghee-date paste from the fridge.
Take the ghee-date paste and form the second layer of the chocolate cups. You can do this by rolling it into balls (like a Reese’s peanut butter cup), flattening it into an even layer (like an oreo), or getting creative with it and trying something new!
Once the second layer is formed, throw the chocolate cups back in the freezer for another 5 minutes or so to set.
Once the second layer is set, pour the remaining chocolate over the tops. You can get creative here by fully covering the second layer (like a Reese’s peanut butter cup), topping with coarse sea salt, doing a chocolate drizzle over the ghee-date paste instead of fully covering it, or leaving the ghee-date paste fully exposed (like a cookie dough top!). All of these options are pictured below in the “Tips to make the best…” section.
Serve and enjoy!
Makes 6-12 cups, depending on how you pour and create them. These are best kept in the freezer and enjoyed immediately or after thawing for a minute or two.
Tips to make the best Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
- When it comes to how you design your chocolate cups, the sky is the limit!
- For the first layer (the bottom chocolate layer): Experiment with thickness.
- Second layer (the ghee-date paste):
- Roll the ghee-date paste into balls (like a Reese’s peanut butter cup) so it’s surrounded by chocolate
- Flatten the ghee-date paste into an even layer (like the cream in an oreo)
- Or something else!
- Third layer (finishing off the chocolate):
- Fully cover the second layer (like a Reese’s peanut butter cup)
- Do a chocolate drizzle over the ghee-date paste instead of fully covering it
- Leave the ghee-date paste fully exposed (like a cookie dough top!)
- Top with coarse sea salt
- Or something else!
-
The variations I played with are pictured here:
- If you would like your filling dense and pasty like caramel, use 12 dates + 1/2 cup of ghee. If you would like it chunky like cookie dough, use 15 dates + 1/3 cup of ghee. I recommend the cookie dough texture, but both are great! Both options are pictured below.
Caramel consistency:
Cookie dough consistency:
A few of my other favorite sweet eats:
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Blueberry Beef Liver Waffles with Honey Butter
Beef Liver Pancakes with Strawberry Glaze
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
For the chocolate:
- 6 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 2 tbsp grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- 2 tbsp raw honey (local or Manuka - ASHLEYR for 10% off)
- coarse Celtic sea salt (optional - for topping)
For the filling:
- 12-15 pitted Medjool dates *see note below
- 1/3-1/2 cup ghee *see note below
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Instructions
- If you’re interested solely in the recipe, skip this bullet point and keep on reading. For those interested in sourcing nutrient-dense food, low-toxic household products, and discounts on brands that may support your AB journey, you may find value in my product guides. Head over to this page if you’d like to check them out. All are free (and always will be).
Prep the dates.
- Soak the pitted dates in water for 1-2 hours to get them soft.
Make the ghee-date paste.
- *Note: If you would like your filling pasty like caramel, use 12 dates + 1/2 cup of ghee. If you would like it chunky like cookie dough, use 15 dates + 1/3 cup of ghee. I recommend the cookie dough, but both are great! Both options are pictured above in the "Tips to make the best..." section.
- Melt the ghee.
- Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I'm so happy we did!
- Put the paste in a bowl and set it aside in the fridge to firm up.
Make the chocolate.
- As soon as the chocolate is melted, remove it from the heat.
- Add the raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off) to the ghee-chocolate mixture. Stir well (at least 30-60 seconds) to fully incorporate the honey.
Make the chocolate cups.
- If you have a cupcake baking pan, line it with the paper cupcake liners. If you're not using a cupcake baking pan, place the paper cupcake liners on a regular baking sheet.
- Pour the chocolate into the paper cupcake liners to cover the bottoms of the liners, or more if you prefer a thicker bottom layer. I try to use no more than 1/3-1/2 (in total) of the chocolate to create the first layer.
- Place the cupcake baking pan in the freezer for 5-7 minutes so the first layer can set.
- Once the first layer is set, remove the ghee-date paste from the fridge.
- Take the ghee-date paste and form the second layer of the chocolate cups. You can do this by rolling it into balls (like a Reese's peanut butter cup), flattening it into an even layer (like an oreo), or getting creative with it and trying something new!
- Once the second layer is formed, throw the chocolate cups back in the freezer for another 5 minutes or so to set.
- Once the second layer is set, pour the remaining chocolate over the tops. You can get creative here by fully covering the second layer (like a Reese's peanut butter cup), topping with coarse sea salt, doing a chocolate drizzle over the ghee-date paste instead of fully covering it, or leaving the ghee-date paste fully exposed (like a cookie dough top!). All of these options are pictured above in the "Tips to make the best..." section.
- Serve and enjoy! Makes 6-12 cups, depending on how you pour and create them. These are best kept in the freezer and enjoyed immediately or after thawing for a minute or two.
What I used for this recipe:
Looking for some more easy sweet eats? Try one of these recipes:
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Blueberry Beef Liver Waffles with Honey Butter
Beef Liver Pancakes with Strawberry Glaze
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Ashley Rothstein develops tasty, whole food, animal-based recipes that include a moderate amount of “minimally toxic” plant foods. To fix her own health issues, she bounced around between the carnivore, keto, and paleo diets for a few years. After experiencing and studying each diet philosophy, she learned she feels her best by merging the three and following an animal-based diet. As a glut at heart, she likes to channel her creativity and create meals that are healthy but also satisfy her inner gluttonous spirits.
These were bomb! I was a big fan of Reese’s cups and I like these better.
Author
Love to hear this. I was going for a spin on Reese’s when I made these!
I wonder if these would work if you replace the dates withs cherries?
Author
Interesting idea! If you pit the cherries, soak them to make them softer, then mash them or blend them, it may work. I’d say it’s worth a shot. If you end up trying the recipe with cherries, I would love to hear how it turns out.
Would this work with silicone cupcake liners?
Author
Yes.