The Easter bunny used to hide our baskets, so my sister and I always looked forward to waking up to a fun little treasure hunt. Aside from the dark chocolate Easter bunnies, Resee's peanut butter cup eggs used to be one of the most highly coveted treasures in those Easter baskets.

Then, one day, I became an adult and now most sweet things that you can buy in the candy aisle make me feel terrible, and I am not even the least bit tempted to indulge.

I'm sure it has something to do with all of the added sugar and other fake ingredients. I am also fully aware that this makes me sound like a snob. I just feel that if I am going to enjoy a sweet treat, it should be as delicious as possible!! Plus, most things are better homemade, from a taste and health aspect.

I was actually trying to make homemade protein bars, which is how I figured out that this combination of ingredients had the potential to be quite a delicious dessert.  After lots of experimentation, I am so proud of how this recipe turned out!

Instead of sugar, I used dates and maple syrup. In addition to being a natural sweetener, dates also help to keep the mixture together, which I learned when I started making tarts and vegan cheesecake last summer. Here's the thing, don't let the brown rice flour in the ingredient list freak you out. I used brown rice flour to help make it easier to form these little darlings into Easter eggs. If you don't have any brown rice flour, than you could easily use powdered sugar!

The finished product should feel very similar to playdough and easy to form by hand. You don't need a cookie cutter, I have made hearts, shamrocks, and eggs without one. I also tried a biscuit cutter which worked well and helps to make sure they are all uniform in size.

Try this recipe and let me know how it turns out! Leave me a comment below!! Take a photo of your beautiful creation, post it on Instagram, tag @corrielanderson, and use #itsallofit. 

Happy Easter Egg!

Vegan Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

Recipe Author: Corrie Anderson
Recipe Type: Dessert
Serves: 8 - 10

INGREDIENTS

Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

• 1 cup natural peanut butter (the kind with only peanuts)
• 1/3 cup brown rice flour*
• 1/3 cup oat flour**
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 ½ tablespoons coconut oil, in liquid state
• 4 - 5 soaked dates (pits removed)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Chocolate Covering

• 1 ½ - 2 cups high cocoa content dark chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (optional!)
• 2 teaspoons coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt for sprinkling

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare baking sheet or other pan that will fit in your freezer with parchment paper.
2. Add half of the peanut butter, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla extract, and soaked dates to a food processor. Pulse until ingredients are mixed together really well. Add brown rice flour, oat flour, and salt. Pulse a couple of times and then scoop mixture into a bowl. Add the rest of the peanut butter and mix together with a spatula. The mixture should feel very similar to playdough, easy to form and not super sticky.
   • If mixture is too dry and crumbly, try adding a bit of melted coconut oil or maple syrup
   • If mixture is too wet, try adding very small amounts of brown rice flour until it reaches a manageable consistency.
3. Shape peanut butter dough into eggs, hearts, shamrocks, or whatever shape you desire! Pop the hearts into the freezer for 1 hour. This step should not be skipped! In fact, the longer you can freeze them for, the easier it will be to coat them in chocolate.
4. Before you take the hearts out of the freezer, chop up the chocolate chips into smaller pieces so they will melt faster. Add chocolate, coconut oil, and cocoa powder to a glass microwave safe bowl. Put bowl into the microwave for 20-second increments, stirring in between.
5. Lower hearts into the bowl of melted chocolate and pull them out when they are covered in chocolate, let the excess chocolate drip into the bowl.  A fork can be helpful during this part! Place hearts onto parchment paper. Sprinkle with kosher salt and any other fun toppings you might want to try! Pop into the freezer for 15 - 20 minutes until the chocolate is completely set. You can also leave them out until they are set, or try the fridge too.

** You can totally make this flour at home! Throw some rolled oats into a food processor and pulse until you have a fine powder. You might still have a couple larger sized oats that didn't get fully processed, but that is ok! You could always pick them out or use a fine strainer if they're really bothersome.