A Healthy Treat: Homemade Chocolate Cups
These healthy homemade chocolate cups provide the perfect excuse to play Martha Stewart for a day. Need a show-stopping dessert? End dinner with these gorgeous chocolate cups filled with ice cream and then just casually mention, “How do you like the edible serving dishes? I just threw them together this afternoon.”
But let’s get real. Although the concept of a hand-crafted chocolate cup seems pretentious, these cute treats are easy enough for to make a fun family dessert.
A chocolate treat with nourishing ingredients
Nourishing coconut oil provides a rich and silky base for these chocolate cups. This metabolism-boosting fat boasts a myriad of health benefits and I like to use it wherever possible. Raw honey or pure maple syrup adds natural sweetness.
An easy and healthy filling idea!
In keeping with our dairy, nut, egg and sugar free theme, I filled these cups with my Easy Banana Chai Ice Cream and sprinkled on some shredded coconut.
Gorgeous and delicious. ‘Nuff said.
Okay, one last note. After experimenting with different chocolate to oil to sweetener ratios, I settled on 2 parts each chocolate and oil to one part liquid sweetener. After comparing my recipe with other homemade chocolate recipes, I found that my formula was almost the same as my friend Tiffany’s (at The Coconut Mama) Coconut Oil Chocolate Bars. I promise I didn’t copy your recipe, Tiffany! I guess great minds just think alike 
Healthy Homemade Chocolate Cups
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 2 Tbs. raw honey or pure maple syrup
- Pinch of salt
- Cupcake liners
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, whisk together all ingredients over low heat until smooth. Remove from the heat and let sit at room temperature until slightly thickened. The texture should be like a thick glaze consistency. It may be necessary to put it in the fridge for a few moments. But keep an eye on it, because it will harden very quickly in the fridge.
- Line a muffin dish with about 5 liners. Using a pastry brush, coat the cupcake liners with the chocolate mixture. It should be thick enough to be fully opaque. Thicker is better. It may help to do one coat, let that sit, and then do another coating of chocolate.
- This is sounding complicated, but it is very intuitive and simple. Trust me.
- Stick in the fridge or freezer until hardened. Carefully peel away the cupcake liners. If you are making these for guests, make extra because you will have the inevitable breakage.
- Add your favorite filling and serve! Keep these in the fridge/freezer--they will get melty if left at room temperature for too long.
What would you use as a filling for these fun chocolate cups?
Your ratio looks yummy. I tried a different chocolate recipe that had a much higher portion of coconut oil, and although it was healthy, it was a little overwhelming. I look forward to giving these a try.
Coconut oil is sometimes an acquired taste, but my family members who aren’t big fans of coconut oil enjoyed these. I hope you do, too!
I might would mix pomegranate syrup with some seedy or nut butter and put that in there and *maybe* put a “lid” on it with pomegranate syrup mixed with coconut manna!
Looks delish!
Thanks a lot BrandiLynn, now my mouth is watering all over my keyboard. If I wasn’t in my pajamas right now I would hop to the store to get some pomegranate juice or pomegranate syrup!
I’m looking forward to trying these. Thinking of using balloons to dip into the chocolate to make little cups. Might be a little more expeditious .
This would be super fun for Easter. The balloon idea would probably work great, or you could use egg shaped molds…or just eggs themselves for tiny ones. Thanks for the recipe! I’m excited to try it.
There is never any kind of nutrition info with your recipes, I am diabetic and need to know how many carbs, sugars, and calories, is there any way to figure it out? Thanks for all the wonderful recipes, can’t wait to make some…
According to http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp this recipe (if divided among 5 cups) results in 130 calories per cup, 12g fat, 9g carbs, 1.4g fiber, 6.5g sugar, 1g protein.
That’s just for the cups. Your filling would be up to you.
Thank you for the recipe! I am going to fill these little beauties with strawberries and then top them with Coconut Whipped Cream for Easter.
That sounds delicious! What a lovely idea, and I hope you have a joyful Easter!
Um….hello…sunbutter, for homemade sunbutter cups. Yummy!
for the person that said they don’t like the flavor of coconut oil … I know what you mean. However, if you purchase the Refined coconut oil, it doesn’t have the smell/taste of coconuts. I have tried it and that makes it so much better. I still make some recipes with the regular (only because I can get a huge tub of it at CostCo) as the smell/flavor doesn’t show through the food. But I also buy a small jar of the refined for those specific recipes that won’t cover the coconut smell/taste. Hope this helps.
I hope to try this recipe soon … my kids don’t care much for using only cocoa powder, so we do a cocoa/carob blend and they enjoy it. It has a mocha-like flavor. Raw honey is great, but depending on the recipe or your personal preference, pure maple syrup is better. I’ve found it to be less sweet, more flavor – jmo. Thanks for sharing.
did anyone else have trouble peeling the paper cups off the chocolate? especially through the ridges? mine don’t seem to want to come off. they’ve been in the fridge and the freezer but still stuck.
did anyone have trouble peeling the cupcake liners from the chocolate. i put them in the refrigerator but they didn’t harden completely so put them in the freezer. i tentatively tried to peel back the paper and it seems pretty stuck. any ideas how to remove it without ruining the shape?
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Can you eat these straight from the freezer, or will they be too hard? I was thinking of filling them with ice cream or a cheesecake filling ahead of time for company, and would like to know if I could just pull from the freezer and serve
Yes, you can serve these straight from the freezer. I love the cheesecake filling idea!
Question. The ice cream in the photo with chocolate cup looks white and the banana ice cream is beige color. What is the difference? Thanks…
Oh, you caught my secret! I actually didn’t use the chai-flavored banana ice cream for the picture, I just used plain banana ice cream (a.k.a just blended frozen bananas without the spices and nut butter). You can use either, but I think the chai ice cream tastes better.
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According to “Breaking the Vicious Cycle,” cocoa powder is NOT SCD-legal!
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/legal/detail/cocoa-powder/
I know that chocolate isn’t allowed on the Specific Carb Diet. Did I say otherwise? Dr. Natasha says it is okay on the full GAPS Diet.