I may not have my costume picked out or a pumpkin carved yet (how the heck is it Oct 24th?), but the vegan candy options are a-go. That is, if they last until the weekend.
I’ve been working on these layer bars for a few weeks now. It took a bit of patience to get the thickness of the layers juuust right, but lo and behold I finally nailed something worth sharing.
Me likey. Me likey a lot.
If you are looking for a fun and incredibly tasty Halloween treat (or really, a treat for any special occasion!), I hope you’ll give these a whirl. They just about made our dreams come true.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
3-Layer Almond Coconut Chocolate Bars
Yield
18 small bars
Prep time
Cook time
Chill time
1 hour
Total time
These bars are bursting with three of my favourite flavours – almond, coconut, and chocolate! How could you go wrong? A soft and nutty toasted almond-oat crust forms the base. If you’ve made my Chilled Chocolate Pie, you can probably attest to how good this press-in crust is! The middle layer is made up of a no-bake almond butter “fudge” enhanced with rice crisp cereal for a wicked crispy texture. The bars are topped with a dark chocolate “macaroon” coating and garnished with big flakes of toasted coconut. I know.
Ingredients
For the base:
- 3/4 cup whole almonds
- 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour*
- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1 cup gluten-free rolled oat
For the middle layer:
- 1 cup raw or roasted almond butter (or peanut butter)
- 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
- 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 cup rice crisp cereal
For the topping:
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (use Enjoy Life brand for soy-free)
- 1/2 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
- 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/4-1/3 cup toasted unsweetened large coconut flakes (such as Let's Do...Organic brand)*
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line an 8-inch square pan with two pieces of parchment paper, one going each way.
- For the crust: Add the almonds into a food processor and process until a fine meal forms, just larger than sand. Now add the oat flour, oil, syrup, and salt and process until combined and sticky. Finally, add the cup of rolled oats and process until the oats are chopped and the dough comes together, but the oats still have a bit of texture to them. The dough should stick together when pressed between your fingers. Crumble the dough evenly in the prepared pan. Press the dough into the pan evenly, wetting fingers if necessary to prevent sticking. Smooth out the dough with a pastry roller and use your fingertips to press in the edges until even. Poke a few holes with a fork to let air escape. Bake, uncovered, for around 13 minutes. Place pan on cooling rack for at least 10 minutes.
- For the middle layer: In a medium saucepan, stir the almond butter, oil, syrup, vanilla, and salt and heat over medium until the coconut oil is melted and the mixture is smooth. Whisk if necessary. Remove from heat. When the crust has cooled for 10 minutes or so, stir the rice crisp cereal into the almond butter mixture and pour this mixture on top of the crust. Smooth out and place in the freezer on a flat surface for 40-45 minutes, until the middle layer is completely solid. While the mixture freezes, toast the large coconut flakes (see note below). After the middle layer is frozen, remove from freezer and lift out the bar. Slice into 6 rows vertically and then slice 3 rows horizontally to make 18 small bars. Place bars in the freezer once again while you prepare the chocolate topping.
- For the chocolate topping: In a saucepan, melt the chocolate and coconut oil over low-medium heat. When half the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir until completely smooth. Stir in the shredded coconut. Remove bars from the freezer and spoon a small amount of chocolate on top of each bar. Immediately, sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes. Return the bars to the freezer until the chocolate is set. Serve immediately (bars will melt quickly, so I wouldn't suggest keeping them out too long). Store leftovers in the fridge or freezer.
Tip:
1) To make 1/2 cup oat flour, add 1/2 cup rolled oats into a high-speed blender and blend on high until a flour forms. 2) To toast the large coconut flakes, spread onto a baking sheet and toast at 350F for only 3-4 minutes, until golden and fragrant. After cooling, I crumbled the flakes up into smaller pieces for easier sprinkling. 3) For a fun twist, try making these bars using my homemade Nutella instead of almond butter!
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
By the way, thank you for your comments in my last post! It’s comforting to know that many of you have been through the same thing and it all worked out in the end. Here’s to good luck house hunting vibes for all. :)
THESE…look positively amazing…the textures…the “crunch” factor!!!..I am so in for these for a healthier Halloween!!…Question…could I possibly use whole hazelnuts/filberts instead of the almonds to similar spectacular results?!…Would LOVE to marry hazelnut & chocolate for a Ferrero Rocher effect!!!….Thank you for your endless sharing of your culinary cranium!!
[ Smiles ] I am afraid to try that delicious vegan recipe of yours because it looks rather fattening; but, I will try it once I build the nerve to indulge!
Another hit at my house! The whole family loves these! My kids now get excited when I tell them I’m making one of your recipes :)
I’m going to use this base in your magical coconut bars, as a gluten-free option.
I saved some almond meal/pulp in the freezer from when I made your almond milk recipe (which my kids love!!!). How much of that can I use as a substitue for the 3/4 cup almonds listed for the base?
Hi Heather, Since almond pulp has a lot of moisture in it, it’s usually not a direct 1:1 sub for almond flour. What you’d have to do first is to dry it out. If you have a dehydrator – use that. If not, you can dry it out in the oven at the lowest temperature setting. I haven’t done this yet myself but there are some tutorials online. Best of luck!
These look ridiculously good and I’m not even vegan. I cannot wait to try these. I wish I had one right now, I’m so impatient! Every one of your recipes I have tried end up turing out exactly how I imagined them to be… delicious! Please keep the recipes coming.
Oh my freaking goodness. I have to make these this week. Holy crap. There is this store in Waterloo, Ontario that makes something similar and I have been wanting to recreate it and I think this may be the golden ticket =D
Made these this weekend. Darling teenage daughter loves them!!! Had an issue with the chocolate seizing every time I added the coconut oil. I omitted it and didn’t have a problem. Have a container full of these yummy treats in the frig. They are going to come in handy on Thursday, Halloween, if they make it that long.
I’m totally making these this week! But, I was thinking of puffed Quinoa instead of rice cereal, any thoughts?
So I made these last night and they were so yummy! I did use puffed quinoa instead of the puffed rice. They turned out beautiful :) Thanks again for a great recipe.
Holy cow these look amazing and I just happen to have all the ingredients in the pantry. Now what should I do while my husband is out of town for the week??
Thanks so much; these look amazing!!
I made these the other day and they were very tasty! A little more time-consuming than I realized, but I think that’s because my freezer sucks. It took almost an hour and a half for the middle layer to set.
I might try reducing the amount of coconut oil a little bit next time. It just felt like a lot of oil and you could feel the slickness of it in the bars. Other than that, these were a big hit at the party I took them too and I will definitely try them again :)
Hi! This looks amazing. Do you think I can use peanuts in the base instead of almonds?
Thanks for your beautiful and inspiring recipies. Annie
Hi Annie, I haven’t tried any other nuts yet, so I’m not sure. I would imagine many different nuts could work though. Good luck!
Just to let you know.. this recipe didn’t even last 24 hours after it was made. Actually, it barely made the night :) My boyfriend made quite a few trips to the freezer that evening lol
Delicious just like all your recipes !!!
These look very yummy! I plan to make them this coming week. I am a part of my community plant based cooking group, and each month we meet to share plant based recipes and taste what everyone’s brought. I made your Pumpkin pie brownie bars for potluck at my church and they were a big hit, so I plan to make them along with these bars for our upcoming “holiday” theme cooking class! thanks for all the wonderful recipes! I am originally Canadian (From BC) but now live in Washington State since. Since finding your blog its my “go-to” for any new recipe I make. I really appreciate how you develop recipes that are easy to make and don’t have a lot of ingredients that are hard to find or super expensive. I love your blog!!!
I made these and they are now my favorite. Better than a candy bar. Wish your book was coming out before Xmas. I wanted to put it on my Xmas list. Thanks for being so awesome.
So glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for letting me know :)
Wow wow wow, I started making these yesterday and we ate them all before I got around to putting the chocolate and coconut on top, they were amazing, my 5 year old actually cried this morning when he found out that there were no more left! I’m trying again today with the chocolate and coconut this time, thanks so much for posting recipes I actually feel I want to give to my kids in place of sugary snacks!
Hey Nicky, so glad you all enjoyed them!! I think I wanted to cry too when they were all gone. ;)
Wow, this looks like a healthier version of the old southern classic Hello Dolly Bars, or some folks call it 7 Layer Bars. I will have to try this soon!
These look delicious! However, I have an oat allergy. Is there anything you would recommend for a substitution? THANKS!!!
Hi there, just mid making these for the 2nd time. First time they turned out perfect so I decided to make them for my Christmas treat. Yum yum!
This time while making the middle layer & heating the ingredients in the saucepan it looks like the mixture has split…I have thick sticky mixture plus liquid floating around the edges. It was smooth, I was giving it one last swirl & then this happened.
So annoyed, just wondering can it be saved, what can I do? Let it cool & try reheating it again? & secondly why did it happen? Too much heat? Stirred too much?
hmm I’m not sure! What kind of nut butter did you use? Was it the no stir kind?
It was pure/100% organic almond butter. I let it cool and tried reheating but it made no difference. So I decided to make Almond Amaze Balls out of the sticky remainder (instead of the Peanut Better Balls!). I decided it would be a total waste to throw all those nice ingredients in the bin, so I removed the liquid (it’s almost like the oil from the butter separated, as it’s not solidifying and it tastes more almond-y than coconut-y & not sweet at all), added some coconut flour to dry it up a bit and continued with your Peanut Better Balls recipe. So I have marzipan-y chocolate treats along with my 3-layer bars (2nd batch of the middle layer turned out perfectly). Double the treats! :)
Well, I’m glad you could save it! So strange that happened to you.
OMG -)))) It looks sooooooooooooo good!!!! And I have almost everything to make it -)
Made today – my first recipe from this beautiful site. A M A Z I N G! Thankyou! I’ll be back x