These homemade chocolate peanut butter eggs are easy to make, and they taste just like classic Reese’s peanut butter egg Easter candies!
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Copycat Reese’s chocolate peanut butter eggs
Dear Easter Bunny,
I want just one thing for Easter: a basket filled sky high with these chocolatey, peanut buttery homemade chocolate peanut butter eggs.
Do you think you can do this for me?
I will be your best friend.
In return, I will make you a giant batch of Healthy Carrot Cake Cupcakes.
I will do your laundry for a month. You can keep the other candy.
Peeps shmeeps.
Homemade vs. store bought
The first great reason to make your own chocolate peanut butter eggs at home is to save money.
Just one package of Reese’s king size peanut butter eggs costs close to three dollars at the grocery store. In contrast, you can whip up an entire batch of DIY chocolate eggs for the same price.
And unlike the famous yellow packaged version, these homemade Reese’s peanut butter eggs include dairy free, nut free, vegan, gluten free, added sugar free, low carb, and oil free options, with no artificial flavors.
The best part is that the homemade chocolate eggs taste almost exactly like the ones you know and love from childhood!
It is so simple to make your own at home that you may never want to buy a package of chocolate peanut butter eggs again.
Craving peanut butter? Make Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Ingredients in chocolate peanut butter eggs
You need just four to five ingredients for these chocolate peanut butter Easter eggs.
Peanut butter – Choose your favorite smooth or crunchy peanut butter. Both natural and traditional jars work equally well.
For the best flavor, I recommend either going with a salted nut butter or stirring in about an eighth of a teaspoon of table salt.
Feel free to use a different nut or seed butter instead of peanut. Try almond butter, cashew butter, pistachio butter, Homemade Nutella, or allergy free sunflower butter.
Protein powder – Thicken and bind the candy eggs with your favorite flavored or unsweetened protein powder, oat flour, or almond flour.
Due to the difference in thickness among these three ingredients, you may need to either add more flour or more peanut butter to achieve the correct texture.
You may play around with other flours like spelt or coconut flour. However, I only stand behind the above options I have personally tried in my own kitchen.
Maple syrup – Pure maple syrup and honey or agave add sweetness to the Easter candies. I also include a keto version in the recipe box below, for those who prefer to use a powdered sweetener with no sugar added.
Chocolate – You have two options for the chocolate coating. The first option is to simply use melted dark or semi sweet chocolate chips. The second is to make a healthier chocolate sauce with cocoa powder, coconut oil, and maple syrup or stevia.
Chocolate peanut butter egg recipe video
Above – watch the step by step video.
How to make peanut butter eggs
If your peanut butter is not already soft and easy to stir, gently warm half a cup in the microwave or on the stove top to soften.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the softened peanut butter, protein powder or flour, and optional salt.
Mix in the pure maple syrup to form a crumbly dough.
Some nut butters and protein powders are drier than others, so you may need to add more peanut butter if the dough is too dry or more flour if it looks too wet.
Once the mixture achieves a peanut butter cookie dough texture, use your hands to shape oval eggs, rabbits, or other shapes of your choice.
Place the no bake chocolate eggs on a large plate lined with parchment paper or wax paper. Then refrigerate or freeze the plate while you prepare your chocolate sauce.
Chocolate covered peanut butter eggs
To make a chocolate coating using chocolate chips, carefully melt the chips in a microwave safe bowl or with the double boiler method. For a smoother sauce, stir in an optional teaspoon of coconut or vegetable oil after melting.
An alternative chocolate sauce: mix two tablespoons each of unsweetened cocoa powder, coconut oil, and pure maple syrup or honey (or two tablespoons water and stevia to taste) until completely smooth.
Take the peanut butter eggs from the refrigerator and cover them in melted chocolate with a spoon. Or dip each egg into the coating with a fork or a skewer.
Return the plate to the refrigerator or freezer for at least ten minutes. This step will set the chocolate shell.
I recommend refrigerating or freezing leftovers and enjoying them cold. However, you can leave the chocolate eggs out on the counter for a few hours in a cool place if serving at a party or for Easter dessert.
The best Easter candy
Chocolate peanut butter eggs have always been my favorite Easter treat. And it seems I am far from alone.
According to national sales numbers and polling data, Reese’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs are the most popular and highest selling Easter candy.
Year after year, chocolate peanut butter eggs beat out chocolate bunnies, marshmallow Peeps, Cadbury eggs, M&Ms, jelly beans, and Hershey’s Kisses.
Whether store bought or homemade, chocolate eggs are consistently number one in popularity for a good reason.
No one can resist these thick peanut butter candies with their smooth chocolate shell.
Serve a batch at your next Spring or Easter brunch, or keep them all for yourself!
*Pro Tip: This chocolate peanut butter egg recipe is great for other holidays too.
Use mini heart shaped cookie cutters to create chocolate peanut butter hearts for Valentine’s Day, chocolate pumpkins for Halloween, or festive Christmas trees and snowmen in December.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup peanut butter or allergy friendly substitute
- 1/4 cup protein powder or oat flour or almond flour
- 1/8 tsp salt (optional)
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup (Here's a Keto version)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or the healthy chocolate sauce recipe above)
Instructions
- If peanut butter is not already soft, gently warm it until easy to stir. Combine nut butter, flour, optional salt, and pure maple syrup to form a dough. Depending on the specific ingredients you choose, you may need to add more peanut butter if the mixture is too dry or more flour if too wet. Use your hands to form eggs or shapes of choice. Refrigerate while you carefully melt the chocolate chips or prepare the chocolate sauce. Dip eggs into chocolate, place on a parchment lined plate, and chill to set the coating. These chocolate peanut butter eggs can be left out on the counter in a cool place for a few hours. It is best to store leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
More Popular Easter Recipes
>.< I can't look! I'll eat the screen!
I'd always rather eat chocolate than any other candy!
Do you think veg butter might also work for the coconut oil?
Sorry, I don’t think so (unless you go for the chocolate chip option). Coconut oil hardens when frozen.
But you never know… if you try it and it works, please do report back!
Thanks- that’s what I was thinking, anyway. I guess I’ll have to try the chocolate chips, then. 🙂
And while I’ve got you here…my nutella keeps turning out grainy-ish! It’s still good, obviously, but it doesn’t look like yours. Should I perhaps make it sooner after toasting the hazelnuts, rather than waiting overnight as I have been?
Hmmm… maybe. But also, make sure to process it in your food processor for a LONG time! It looks grainy at first, but if you blend long enough (and have a good fp) it’ll get smooth!
Heh heh, I don’t even really know why I asked, as it clearly doesn’t bother me much- I am eating it with a spoon right now!!!
I am also feeling very special that you keep replying to me- you are awesome, Katie! I (and therefore everyone in my vicinity who is fed/steals my food) love your recipes. I made your chocolate pie as a demonstrative speech for my English class (it got an A and a lot of high school-ers talking about tofu 🙂 ).
Delicious modification….THIS step makes it taste even more real!! Put about 1/4 cup roasted almonds in your bullet and grind into a powder. Add powdered sugar (or powdered stevia) Add enough peanut butter (I used sunflower seed butter) until mixture is the crumbly dough texture, prob 2 tbsp or less. omggg. tastes like the real thang.
Oh wow, thanks for the tip! 🙂
Katie,
I was looking for your 5 minute chocolate oatmeal today and it seems to be missing from the site! Hopefully it is just a computer error that will work out and it hasn’t been removed!
I can still access the page… Maybe your computer was being temporarily grouchy? Or my website was being temporarily grouchy? (Haha my money’s on the latter!)
Can you see it yet?
Still can’t seem to get it on this computer, but I got it on my i-pad! Technology is so wierd! Thanks for responding! I love the page. I took some gluetin free chocolate lace cookies to work the other day (so that I wouldn’t eat them all) and they were a hit! I think I’ve made some new fans of your website!
The lady I help care for is in the nursing home on a rehab. She’s going to try these and I know she’s going to love them. Thanks Katie!
Aw, that’s so sweet of you. 🙂 I hope she likes them!
Hi Katie! LOVE your blog! I just made these too, but I didn’t have the SF sugar, so I just used granulated honey. You know, the hard stuff? SO yummy and the perfect consistency, and who doesnt like PB and honey?
These look adorable! I’ll have some please :).
Hi Katie,
I have been curious, why is coconut oil is considered a “healthy” fat? I noticed that a lot of health food bloggers use it in their recipes and it’s sold in health food stores, but it has way more saturated fat than most other lipid ingredients. Just wondering what your reason is for including it in your recipes.
Thanks!
It’s a different kind of saturated fat than the saturated fat found in animal products. I could write a novel about it… but lol I’ll spare you ;). Just google “coconut oil healthy” and you’ll see a ton of interesting articles.
Sorry… I noveled 😉
Ok so first not all saturated fats are equal. Ones that are man made should be avoided but coconut saturated fat is natural and isn’t shown to cause the cardiovascular issues that man-made (like hydrogenated fats ie Crisco) cause. Or that monounsaturated fats cause. Most of the opposition to coconut oil came about in the 70’s and 80’s before they knew better. Coconut oil is the best natural source of medium-chain fatty acids or MCFAs (or medium-chain triglycerides or MCTs) that you can find. Comparatively speaking, most common vegetable/seed oils are made of long chain fatty acids or LCFAs, (or long-chain triglycerides or LCTs). LCTs are large molecules, so they are difficult for your body to break down and are nearly always stored as fat. But MCTs which are smaller fat molecules, are easier for your system to digest and are immediately used for energy. Kind of like carbohydrates, but without the problem of a rise in insulin like carbs cause.
Coconut oil because of its physical characteristics, like being solid at room temp without being hydrogenated, makes it an excellent replacement for butter. It also has a decent smoke/flash point (when it burns or catches on fire) so you can fry with it (refined is better then unrefined for high temp frying).
Coconut oil also has a lot of health benefits like anti bacterial/anti fungal properties.
Related Articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/coconut-oil-benefits_b_821453.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/dining/02Appe.html?pagewanted=all
Thanks Jennifer! I have tried to google this before but I just get answers that have nothing to do with the actull chemistry of it. I am a chemist but never considered that different types of saturated fats would have different effects on the body. I guess I just always assumed saturated fat=bad! So I appreciate the novel 😛
THANK YOU! I have been doing a lot of research on this for the past few years and really wish people understood this. In fact, many heart surgeons are coming out and saying that they really screwed up telling people to eat the low fat/no fat diet instead of just eating the right fats. Some say that they believe it to be one of the main reasons that we haven’t seen a decrease in heart disease. I have switched my family over to olive oil, coconut oil, and butter (we do dairy at our house). We also switched to full fat dairy, though I use a lot of almond milk as well and haven’t gained any weight. I’ve actually lost…I wish people understood better what the food on the shelves is doing to us :/
Hey Jennifer- just wanted to clear a couple things up. All saturated fats are natural and most are animal based like lard and butter. Coconut oil and palm oil are rare cases of plant-based saturated fats.
Partially hydrogenated are man-made, artificial TRANS fats, which yes, are worse for you then saturated fats. Crisco fell under this category until they changed their formula to include more fully hydrogenated fats, lowering the amount of trans fat in their product to under 1g so they’re allowed to call it trans fat free, even though it technically isn’t.
Also, monounsaturated fats absolutely do not cause cardiovascular issues! They’re the type found predominantly in olive oil and avocados. They’ve been shown to lower the level of LDL cholesterol in your blood, which subsequently lowers your risk for heart disease and raise HDL “good” cholesterol levels. My take on coconut oil is to practice moderation and balance, like all other nutrients 🙂
Steph – While it’s often assumed MUFA’s increase HDL while lowering LDL, that’s still in debate and likely doesn’t. It DOES have a benefit on the HDL/LDL ratio because replacing other fats in the diet with MUFAs does decrease the LDL. I see this misconception all the time and used to assume it once too. Just wanted to correct as many RD’s I run in to still assume this as well.
Well, I’m glad that Katie and you agree that the fat in coconut isn’t all bad. I was skeptical about CO because of all the “saturated fat is bad this, saturated fat is bad that.” It just didn’t make all that much sense, because it was a plant oil, and generally, plant oils are more heart healthy. But after doing a little research, it seems that coconut oil is more healthy than unhealhty. It’s a food product recommended by Dr. Oz. Of course, there are the more conservative nutritionists who aver that coconut oil should be avoided along with butter and crisco, but I eat it sans guilt now. It kind of irks me now that people still continue to lump all fat, and saturated fat together.
Thank you for a GREAT education. I never knew and am excited that I can have great tasting food and be healthy about it. Thanks again.
If you are truly interested in your health and what you are telling folks to do, you need to hook up with Dr. Wallach and Youngevity to get the right facts. Mercola is good, but he misleads on things like coconut oil. All oils oxidize. While coconut oil oxidizes more slowly than other oils, it still does and this translates to free radicals, cancer. It is not a good substitute for butter because butter has butyric acid in it which you need for your brain function. And frying? Why would anyone worried about what’s healthy fry anything? That’s one of the biggest cancer causes of all time! We ‘ll help you get the right facts! Dr. Wallach has been sharing the same facts since the 1980’s and has not strayed like so many others who tout health care information and bobble from one popular trend to another. I would love to hear from you and get you whatever information you need to get on the right track!
Just curious as to where you purchase all your ingredients. Do you have to go to a special store or can you pick this stuff up at Walmart or something. I live in a small town that doesn’t have very much…
It depends! I can find most things at a regular grocery store– even agave and xylitol coconut butter are at my local grocery store now! And even Walmart has things like Larabars and whole-grain cornmeal.
But yeah, a few items are only found at Whole Foods. I guess it just depends on your local store. Hey, if they don’t carry something it never hurts to ask. Or you can always order online (I don’t like to, because of shipping… but if you buy enough you can get free shipping usually).
Do u know of any good websites to buy from?
Depends what you’re looking for! Iherb, Amazon, veganessentials…
iherb.com is a great place to get stuff like coconut butter, agave, whole grain things, and lots of other natural things. It’s pretty reasonable as well, plus free shipping on orders over $20. I live in South Korea, and get order from iherb twice a month or so. I have a coupon code for you, so you can save $5 on your first order. UFA100
Such a fab idea!
When I make mine, similar to yours, I add either fine ground, plain breadcrumbs or graham cracker crumbs for texture. You can even use dry cake crumbs. I use whatever I have and most of the time they are homemade so that is nice too because I know what is in them. Whatever your preference is. It helps the consistency of the peanut butter be less smooth and more like Reese’s.
I second this. When I make Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, I also add graham crumbs to the peanut butter mixture. Not only does it make the peanut butter mixture easier to handle, but after doing a side-by-side comparison with the real deal, we all thought it tasted more authentic with the graham crumbs. Happy Baking (and eating hehe) 🙂
Thank you soooooo much for creating this recipe! My dad LOVES Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs and I know he’ll love this version! I am super excited about making a healthier alternative for him! Plus, I love learning how to make candy!
I have recently given up dairy. Right now I’m totally having reeses pb egg withdrawls. You have made my day 100 times better. I cannot wait to go home and make these.
Thank you.
🙂
Hi! PB eggs are my favorite Easter treat! Thanks so much! (currently doing a low carb diet) I just made them with your sf powdered sugar… with the 1tsp of cornstarch and liquid Sweetzfree for my chocolate. The taste was spot on! The pb texture was a little gritty… but I’m thinking I just shoulda vita-mixed it longer? Thanks so much for posting this! I’d never bought xylitol before but decided I must get it today for this recipe! 🙂
Oh and also thanks for the small batch recipe… or I’m sure I’d eat 20 at a time! 🙂
Hmmm… you mean the powdered sugar was gritty? I don’t know what Sweetzfree is… maybe that is just a gritty sweetener? Or yeah, Vitamix it longer ;).
oh sorry yeah the sweetzfree is kinda a liquid splenda in the chocolate. I meant the peanut butter inside was gritty… i do think more vitamixing would be the answer! Thanks again!
I’ve never had a ‘real’ (i.e. non-vegan) Reese’s egg, but these look delicious – I will have to try them! The formula is very similar to a vegan peanut-butter-cup recipe I use, except that I just use melted chocolate. I will have to try the coconut oil mixture sometime.
Some others have commented regarding a vegan Cadbury egg – there is a fabulous and easy vegan Cadbury egg recipe on several vegan blogs (just google ‘vegan cadbury egg’) but they are super-sugary and super-sweet. Since Cadbury eggs are SO sweet (at least, from my memory of them; I haven’t had one in 17+ years) I’m not sure there’s a way to replicate them without using lots of sugar. The recipe that’s out there is really good, though.
this recipe is why I LOVE your blog! I have never been a blogger, until I ran across yours and I’m officially obsessed with your recipes. I love love love chocolate, but also enjoy tweaking recipes to be more healthy (especially because I am an overindulgent sweet consumer), so I was so excited to find your blog. Especially because I started a gluten free diet a few months ago, many of your recipes are perfect for those times when I am tempted by my old go-to-but-no-longer-allowed sweets. I’ve been meaning to send you a little note, thanking your hard work and good ideas (your recipes have felt like lifesaves in this gluten free transformation of mine), and when I came across this article, I knew now was the time to drop you a line.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57405100-10391704/eating-lots-of-chocolate-helps-people-stay-thin-study-finds/ Basically this article is a study about how chocolate is good for you! I know I’ve read other articles like this one and that this doesn’t mean we should live on chocolate, but it takes away a litle bit of guilt when I’ve had just one too many pieces of chocolate. Hope you enjoy!