Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

• 1/2 c smooth almond butter
• about 2 Tbsp icing sugar
• pinch of fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract
• 1 scant cup high quality dark chocolate chips, or high quality dark chocolate broken into pieces (50-70% cocoa)
• more sea salt for sprinkling on top (optional)

Mix your almond butter with the salt, vanilla, and enough icing sugar to form a very soft kneadable ball - for me it only took 2 Tbsp of icing sugar. Use natural vanilla (avoid the stuff with vanillin in the ingredients) it has the best flavor.

Get your cupcake liners ready. Use 9 medium sized liners, or 12 mini liners. Place them in muffin tins for support. I didn't have tins at the time, so I doubled up the liners and placed them on a flat plate and they still turned out great.

Gently melt your chocolate using the double boiler method. (Some folks prefer the microwave.) Spoon a generous teaspoon of melted chocolate into each liner.

Next, divide your almond paste into 9 equal portions (for the medium liners), or 12 (for mini liners). Roll paste gently into balls. If using medium liners, lightly flatten the balls into discs as wide as the bottom of the liner.

By now your half-filled chocolate-cups have had a bit of time to firm-up a little. (You can put them in the fridge to firm a bit more if you think it's necessary.) Place the almond paste on top of each chocolate-filled liner. It should sink in just a little - you can press it down a tiny bit if you like - though you don't want the paste to touch the bottom or sides if possible. Spoon more melted chocolate over each - you may have to re-melt the chocolate. Gently level chocolate over each with your spoon.

Place your delicious cups in the fridge to firm up. After they've had about a half hour to firm a bit, add a sprinkle of sea salt on top, then return to the fridge. Of course, you don't have to add the salt. I made some with salt and some without - and the ones with salt were sooo delicious! Keep stored in a sealed container in the fridge until ready to devour. If your cups look as messy as mine did, you may want to remove the liners before serving.

Enjoy!