Milk Chocolate Pecan Cups

Make your own chocolate candies at home! These milk chocolate pecan cups are filled with homemade pecan butter. These easy to make sweet treats are great for gifting or serving at parties.

Homemade edible gifts are the best to give and receive!  Especially chocolate gifts.  Who can resist chocolate?  I sure can’t.

Customize these chocolate nut butter cups to your liking! Elevate the standard peanut butter chocolate cup. Pick and choose your choice of melted chocolate and assorted nut variety. Almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts are great options that pair wonderfully with smooth, milk chocolate.

Homemade Chocolate Pecan Butter Cups

These sweet little treats are made from two components: melted compound chocolate and nut butter. That’s it!

Compound chocolate is made from a mixture of cocoa powder and vegetable fats (or oils). It’s a type of chocolate substitute that is popularly used for candy coatings and confectionary decor. It often called melting wafers, candy melts, or chocolate coating.

It is much easier to work with and less expensive than real chocolate (made with cocoa butter). Compound chocolate does not require any tempering. Tempering chocolate can be challenging. When chocolate is improperly tempered, the resulting chocolate is grainy with a dull appearance.

Ghirardelli offers dark, milk, and white chocolate melting wafers. Wilton makes a variety of candy melt options. They range in different colors and flavors such as bright white candy melts or strawberry candy melts.

With the help of a food processor, you can pretty much make any nut butter you’d like.

As a kid, I never knew about almond butter, pistachio butter, sunflower seed butter, cashew butter (the list goes on and on…)– existed or that such nut/seed butters were possible.  

No nut is more holiday to me than pecans.  Therefore, pecan butter it is!  Given the choice between dark, milk, or white chocolate- I think the distinct rich flavor of pecans work perfectly with milk chocolate.  

But to satisfy the dark chocolate fanatic in me, I sprinkled a little cacao nibs on top of the finished milk chocolate pecan cups.

Easy Homemade Chocolate Cups

Making your own chocolate candies is easier than you might think.  It’s a little time consuming, but not at all difficult.

While you could make giant chocolate cups using a standard muffin tin, I opted for cute, small chocolate cups.  A mini muffin tin does the job wonderfully.

I added about 1/2 tablespoon of melted chocolate into each cavity.  Using the back of the 1/2 tablespoon, I gently pushed the chocolate up the sides of the mini muffin wrapper.  Place the muffin tin the fridge just until the chocolate sets, about 3-5 minutes.  Don’t leave it in too long because condensation may occur.

Spoon in about 1/2 tablespoon of pecan butter into the chocolate cups.  Spread the pecan butter evenly, making sure there aren’t any air bubbles.  

Add another 1/2 tablespoon of melted chocolate over pecan butter.  Immediately, sprinkle sea salt and cacoa nibs over melted chocolate.  Put the chocolates back in the fridge for another 3-5 minutes until set.  Remove milk chocolate pecan butter cups from the muffin tin.  

Eat to your heart’s content, or package them for neighbors, friends, and family.  At this point, you don’t need to put the chocolates back in the fridge.  They’re fine at room temperature.

Most pecan desserts are super sweet and full of sugar.  My pecan butter is lightly sweetened with just a touch of maple syrup.  The only real sweetness of this treat comes from the milk chocolate.  The combination of milk chocolate and sea salt really allows to the natural pecan flavor to shine.

I find candy making very relaxing and super rewarding (meaning I enjoy eating the ones that aren’t good enough to give away).  These make delicious stocking stuffers, hostess gifts, and general I appreciate you gifts.

To me, there is nothing better than giving/receiving gifts that you can’t find in stores.  Gifts from the heart, that’s what you should be sharing this holiday season.

More Food Gift Recipes

• Caramel Pecan Bark
• Peppermint Bark Caramel Popcorn
• Decorated Sugar Cookies
• Homemade Toffee