These miso peanut butter cups combine dark chocolate and a sweet-savory filling. They’ve got a more refined flavor than the store-bought version and yield to the tooth with a satisfying crack.
My first plant-based dessert
After fifteen posts on Gastroplant, I’m finally posting my first dessert recipe. As you might be guessing, dessert isn’t my strong suit in the kitchen. I do appreciate a good, thoughtful dessert but it’s not something I seek out.
I wanted to start with something simple yet inherently satisfying. Peanut butter and dark chocolate are both inherently satisfying to me. Both seem to cling to the taste buds to create a sort of lingering enjoyment. And I’ve been known to snack absentmindedly on both (don’t judge) only later realizing how much I’d eaten.
The wild card
And I’m always impressed by desserts that incorporate something unusual – shiitake mushrooms with chocolate mousse, anyone? OK, there’s no shiitake mushroom in this dish. That’s a pretty bold move. But it does include a savory ingredient only occasionally found in desserts – miso.
Flavor affinities
I took a minute to think through the flavor combinations. We already knew peanut butter and chocolate were magic together. The chocolate miso combination is only a step or two beyond the sea-salt-on-chocolate combo, which is great. And peanut butter pairs seamlessly with practically anything sweet or savory.
Other ingredients to round out the dessert
I used maple syrup as the sweetener and ground flaxseed for texture and binding of the filling.
That makes just five ingredients total: dark chocolate, peanut butter, flaxseed, maple, and miso. The end result is a crisp outer shell of bittersweet chocolate and a slightly sweet umami peanut filling. The miso intensifies both the chocolate and the peanut butter and makes this a unique take on a classic dessert.
The cooking process
Making these cups is very straightforward. You combine the peanut butter, maple syrup, miso, and flaxseed in a bowl and mix and knead it into “clay”. Then make small discs of that clay. You melt the chocolate in the microwave. Pour a base layer of melted chocolate into a paper muffin liner. Add a disc of peanut butter dough into the liner. Cover the peanut butter disc with more chocolate. Do that 11 more times, freeze for 20 minutes, and enjoy.
Some cooking notes
It’s important to choose a type of dark chocolate that you’re comfortable eating by itself. They can vary a lot in their bitterness depending on the cacao percentage. If you’re not a fan of really bitter chocolate, I’d say to choose one in the range of 55-60%.
I experimented with different types ranging from 57% to 85% and they all worked fine. The higher the cacao content, the smoother the appearance of the finished product.
On a similar note, be sure to taste the peanut butter “clay” and tweak it until it tastes good before you start melting chocolate. You may need more maple syrup than called for if you prefer a sweeter filling. That’s totally fine. If the clay gets too sticky or wet from the syrup, you can add a bit more flaxseed to make it manageable.
It’s really helpful to have a muffin tin to hold the muffin liners. It keeps the cups round-shaped and is a convenient way to move them into the freezer. But it’s not totally necessary. You really just need the paper liners and some space in the freezer.
Some more cooking notes
Don’t melt all the chocolate at once. If you’ve ever played with melted sugar, you know that it can do strange things. The same goes for melted chocolate. If you melt it all and something goes even slightly wrong, it can make the whole batch unusable. I’d melt either half a bar or a whole bar, broken into small pieces, at any given time.
There’s a small adjustment you can make to the peanut butter disc after you place it in the muffin liner on top of the base chocolate layer before you pour the top layer. You want to gently move the disc in each direction, toward the sides of the muffin liner, to make sure the disc is surrounded by chocolate.
You also want to size the peanut butter discs so they are as close to the same diameter as the muffin liners.
The finished cups keep their shape best when kept cold. Keep them in the fridge or freezer or use a cooler if transporting them.
Miso Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients
- 3 bars dark chocolate 90 grams per bar (see note)
- 6 Tablespoons peanut butter natural, unsalted, unsweetened, stirred
- 6 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoons miso red or white, without dashi or other fish ingredients
Instructions
- Combine the peanut butter, flaxseed, maple syrup, and miso in a bowl. Stir well. Knead by hand to form an even dough. Taste a small amount of the dough and add maple syrup if not sweet enough. If dough becomes too wet or sticky, add flaxseed and knead until manageable.
- Divide the dough into 12 roughly equal-sized spheres and place them on a plate.
- Prepare 12 muffin liners in a muffin pan or on the counter.
- Break one bar of chocolate into small pieces and place them in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate for one minute. Remove the bowl and stir. Cook in the microwave again for 30 seconds and stir again. Be careful - the bowl can get very hot.
- Once the chocolate is evenly melted and smooth, use a spoon to add chocolate to a single muffin liner. Add just enough chocolate to form a thin layer on the bottom of the liner. You can use the spoon to spread the chocolate out.
- Take one of the peanut butter dough balls and press it into a disc that is roughly the same diameter as the muffin liner. Place the peanut butter disc into the muffin liner with the layer of chocolate. Move the disc around in every direction so that a layer of chocolate forms around the outside of the disc.
- Spoon more melted chocolate onto the top of the peanut butter disc until it is completely covered. Again, you can use the spoon to spread the chocolate if needed.
- Continue to assemble the rest of the cups in the same way. Melting more chocolate as needed. Each 90-gram bar should be enough for 4-6 cups, depending on your usage.
- When all the cups have been assembled, place the muffin pan in the freezer. After 20 minutes, the cups will be ready to eat.
These look so delicious and sound interesting with the miso addition! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I love and have all of the ingredients on hand. Thanks, for sharing.
Wow! That’s unusual. Miso? I’ve got to make this. Thank you for the recipe!