For those looking for an allergy-friendly alternative to one of the most popular Easter candies, read on for my Nut-Free Reese’s Eggs recipe.
Studies show the number of children living with peanut allergy appears to have tripled between 1997 and 2008! Two of my three children live with severe (life-threatening) peanut (and tree nut) allergies.
For kids living with peanut allergies holiday candy can be a scary thing. Parties and get-togethers of every kind can be extremely stressful for children who know that one false bite can have disastrous consequences.
One of our pantry staples is SunButter. I LOVE this stuff! Unlike many other brands of sunbutter, SunButter brand is produced in a nut-free facility to avoid any chance of cross-contamination.
For my Nut-Free Reese’s Eggs recipe I use the “natural” variety, but we also really like the “organic” variety which also has no added sugar.
With Easter coming up, my most recent inspiration was to figure out a way to make my boys nut-free Reese’s Eggs. Using the SunButter I whipped up a delicious batch of nut-free copycat Reese’s Eggs!
(As an added bonus, these nut-free Reese’s Eggs are also lower in sugar than any other recipe I’ve read!)
Nut-Free Reese’s Eggs Recipe, How to…
Combine the ingredients listed in the recipe below (minus the chocolate and oil, of course) in a food processor. You can also use a bowl with beaters. This takes a grand total of about 5 minutes.
After that, you’ll want to stick the dough ball into the freezer for 5-10 minutes so it can firm up. Sunbutter is not quite as thick as peanut butter so the refrigerator (or freezer) will be your friend with these nut-free Reese’s egg copycats.
Remove from the freezer and place on a silicone mat that has been dusted with powdered sugar (like you’d dust a mat with flour before rolling out dough). Roll out with a powdered sugar dusted rolling pin. I made mine rather thin, maybe a 1/4 inch thick. I wouldn’t suggest making them any thinner because they get difficult to work with in the chocolate, but you can make them thicker if that suits your fancy.
Okay, so I don’t have a kitchen stocked with every cooking gadget known to man. Nor was I willing to go out and purchase a set of Easter themed cookie cutters simply so I could have an egg shaped cookie cutter.
If you don’t have an egg shaped cookie cutter, never fear! I’ll bet just about everyone has a medicine cup somewhere in their house. And that, my friends, is my brilliant hack for egg shaped candies without the egg shaped cookie cutter. Simply squeeze the middle of the medicine cup a bit as you press down into the dough. You’ll be rewarded with a nice egg shape.
Lay the cut ovals on an aluminum baking pan lined with a silicone baking mat. When the tray is full, pop it back in the freezer for another 5 minutes.
While the filling is in the freezer, melt your chocolate. Don’t pass on the oil, it will keep your chocolate from hardening in the time it takes you to dip the filling. I used avocado oil (I love it because it has no taste and is so great for you!). Coconut oil is another great alternative.
The chocolate will be warm, and we’ve already established that the sunbutter mixture can get a little gooey at room temp, so you’re going to want to cover them with the chocolate rather quickly. I gently laid the filling in a small bowl with chocolate and then carefully flipped them with a fork, making sure they were completely covered.
After they’ve all been covered, just pop them back in the refrigerator or freezer for about 10 or so minutes until they’ve completely set. Sunbutter has a tendency to soften a bit more than peanut butter, so these will keep best in the refrigerator.
Sunbutter Reese’s Eggs Recipe
Feel free to print out the recipe, save it, share it, and pin it!
Yields Approx 36 eggs
1 hrPrep Time
1 hrTotal Time
Ingredients
- 1 cup (high quality) chocolate chips or melting chocolate
- 1 Tbsp oil (I'd recommend avocado or coconut oil)
- 1 cup Sunbutter (you can substitute any kind of nut or seed butter)
- 1/3 cup Oat flour (you can also use coconut flour)
- 2/3 cup Confectioners Sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Combine sunbutter, oat flour, confectioners sugar, and salt into a food processor and mix. Alternately, you can use a beaters and a bowl to mix it all together.
- Put the mixture in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes to firm up.
- Remove from the freezer and place on a silicone mat that has been dusted with powdered sugar (like you'd dust a mat with flour before rolling out dough).
- Roll the dough out to 1/4 - 1/2 inch thickness with a powdered sugar dusted rolling pin.
- Using and egg shape cookie cutter (or a medicine cup), cut out the filling and place onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. Repeat the last step and this one until all the filling dough is used.
- Place all your egg filling cutouts into the freezer for 15 minutes.
- While the egg filling hardens in the freezer, melt your chocolate.
- To melt in the microwave:
- Combine the chocolate chips and the tablespoon of oil.
- Microwave in 30 second increments until melted, stirring in between each microwaving.
- Add the oil to the melted chocolate.
- Using a fork, dip, flip, and coat your egg filling.
- Set on a silicone mat lined baking sheet to cool and harden.
- Once you have coated all your eggs, place back in the fridge (or freezer) for 15 minutes to set.
