Low Carb Peanut Butter Eggs

This copycat recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie's blog caught my eye a while back. The part that intrigued me was her use of cocoa powder and coconut oil to make the sugar-free chocolate coating. (I happened to see that same method used on a recipe from a container of coconut oil for chocolate covered strawberries, too.) It's a lot easier than the method used to make Chocolate Almond Butter Bombs but the taste is very different. However, it works just dandy as a coating for these peanut butter eggs.

I modified this recipe slightly to use the sweeteners I like and fiddled with the proportions slightly. The coating is a little dark, so you can try to add a splash of heavy cream to lighten it up. Hypothetically, a neutral tasting coconut oil would be ideal, but the "coconutty" tasting one I used didn't detract from this wonderful chocolate and peanut butter experience.

Ingredients

Peanut butter filling

½ cup (128 g) Trader Joe's Organic Peanut Butter Crunchy Salted Valencia, room temperature
14 drops EZ-Sweetz
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (50 g) powdered erythritol

Chocolate coating

¼ cup (56 g) Trader Joe's organic coconut oil (use a different brand with less coconut flavor)
¼ cup (25 g) Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa or other brand of natural cocoa
14 drops EZ-Sweetz
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (25 g)  powdered erythritol

Directions

1. Peanut butter filling: Add the peanut butter to a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup. If it's not room temperature, warm it in the microwave. Do not skip this step. If it's cold, it will not mix with the ingredients well.
2. Add the EZ-Sweetz, salt, and powdered erythritol. Use a hand mixer on low and then gradually increase speed until the ingredients are mixed.
   
   
   
   
   There will be parts that will not integrate because they're stuck to the corners of the bowl. Use your hands to knead the mixture and scrape the remaining contents in the bowl. The heat from your hands will help make it pliable. Make it into a ball and then use the hand mixer on it or keep kneading with your hands until it's homogenous. Make into a smooth ball with your hands.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Form eight small flat eggs from the peanut butter and put on paper plates lined with parchment paper.
   
   
   
   
   Put the plates in the freezer for a few hours.
4. Chocolate coating: Add the coconut oil to a 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup and microwave on high for 30 seconds. It should be completely melted. Add the rest of the ingredients. Use a hand mixer on low and then gradually increase speed until the ingredients are mixed. Make sure there are no lumps. Use a silicone spatula to scrape the bottom and sides and make sure there's no powder or lumps remaining.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Take the peanut butter from the freezer and remove them from the plates with parchment paper. Dip them one-by-one in the chocolate and put them back on the parchment paper covered plates.
   
   
   
   
   Return them to the freezer.

Makes 8 peanut butter eggs.