When Mother Nature gives you a rainy, dreary weekend in October, I say dive into Halloween prep. Look online for costume ideas, troll the dollarstore aisles for decorations, buy a massive pumpkin, and make candy bars. You’ll be feeling better in no time!
As a kid, I always loved Crunch Bars. There’s just something about crispy rice cereal wrapped in chocolate that is so much fun to eat. Luckily, it’s really easy to make a vegan version of the popular candy at home. Unlike the store bought bar, my version is free of dairy, soy, and artificial flavour.
To take this bar to the next level, I drizzled on a peanut butter shell made with all-natural peanut butter, a bit of coconut oil (to help solidify the drizzle when chilled) and sweetener. For shizzle, my drizzle. As always, the chocolate PB combo was a match made in heaven. If you’d like a nut-free version, feel free to swap out the PB for sunflower seed butter (like Sunbutter) or you can just skip it entirely. Either way, this mini bar is an easy way to get your chocolate fix and it would make a fun treat to serve for Halloween too!
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Mini Crunch Bars with Peanut Butter Shell Drizzle
Yield
12 mini bars
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Chill time
15
Total time
Like the store bought candy bar, only much tastier and better for you! This dark chocolate bar comes together in about about 15 minutes flat. Try serving it at a Halloween party, but make sure to keep the bars in the freezer until just before serving. They will get soft at room temperature so you can try serving them on a chilled plate. One thing is for sure, they won't last long!
Ingredients
Crunch Bar
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoons liquid sweetener (maple syrup, agave, etc.), or to taste
- pinch of fine grain sea salt, to taste
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup rice crisp cereal
Peanut Butter Shell Drizzle
- 2 tablespoons all-natural peanut butter (or any nut/seed butter of choice)
- 1.5-2 teaspoons coconut oil, as needed to thin out
- 1 teaspoon liquid sweetener (maple syrup, agave, etc.)
Directions
- For the crunch bar: Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with two pieces of parchment paper, one going each way. In a pot over low heat, gently melt the coconut oil and then whisk in the rest of the crunch bar ingredients (except the rice crisp) to taste. Once the mixture is smooth remove from heat and stir in the rice crisp cereal. Pour mixture into prepared pan, smooth out, and then freeze for 10-15 minutes, or until the chocolate is solid.
- For the PB drizzle: Melt the coconut oil and then whisk in the peanut butter and liquid sweetener. Adjust to taste if desired. Scoop into a plastic baggie.
- Remove crunch bar from freezer and cut into 12 small bars. Snip a tiny hole in the baggie and drizzle the PB mixture onto the bar (you can also try drizzling it with a spoon, if desired).
- Return bars to the freezer until the PB drizzle is solid, about 5 minutes.
- Serve straight from the freezer or fridge. Bars will melt slightly at room temperature so I don't suggest keeping them out long. Store leftovers in the fridge or freezer.
Tip:
Note: To make these bars nut-free, use sunflower seed butter (I like Sunbutter brand) in place of the peanut butter.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Cookbook Giveaway Winner!
The winner of a signed copy of my cookbook goes to: Beth S.!
Congrats Beth!! I’ll shoot you an email this morning to collect your info. A BIG thank you to everyone who participated in the What Did U Do? Farm Sanctuary campaign! I just found out the fundraiser is extended until October 9th, so there is still time to donate if you still want to help out. hugs!
Yay for healthy(ish) Halloween candy! These look they’ll satisfy every craving that comes my way.
Sorry you had a rainy dreary weekend! It’s funny because this is my first fall in Texas & it’s so odd to me that the leaves aren’t changing & it’s not really getting colder (I don’t consider mid-80’s colder).
Love healthy candy alternatives, especially for my kids. Just lovely, Angela.
Oh the Mr is going to FLIP when I make these!!
You said “for shizzle, my drizzle.” I don’t know why that hit quite the funny bone over here!
These look so yummy! I am definitely going to make a batch this week for a girls’ movie night :)
I am drooling – CANNOT wait to make these! I have already made so many of your recipes and my list of those to try is endless ! Your twix bars are always a HIT! Halloween is a good excuse to revisit that recipe and make this one too.
Just made the raw almond butter cups and they went over great – I am going to take a chance and pack one in my kids lunches tomorrow – they have a freezer pak in there so hopefully they will not melt.
I have a question if you don’t mind- I tried to make flourless fudge cookies – original recipe was not vegan (2 eggs) so I used chia egg and it spread out like crazy. I wanted to make these as they are without PB (just WW flour, salt, cocoa, vanilla and egg). They were like delicious chocolate chewiness but nothing I could serve others – a big clumpy mess! Any thoughts on what else I could do? Thanks Angela!
Hi Suzanne, so glad you are enjoying the recipes so much! Thank you :)
Sounds like there was too much liquid in the cookies. I would try reducing the water in the flax egg?
Also, have you tried this flourless cookie recipe on my blog? http://ohsheglows.com/2011/02/11/flourless-chocolate-cookies-gluten-free-vegan/ but I’m guessing you can’t do the almond butter in these?
Thanks – I will try less liquid – though the dough was hard to mix as there is no liquid in it other than the vanilla and chia egg. I have not tried your recipe and will try it next but did want to find one with no nut butter (we can have nut butter – I just wanted the pure chocolate in this cookie!)
Thanks so much!
Heavenly!!!
These look amazing…and I am sure they will be when I make them like every other recipe of yours. I absolutely love your site! Also I have that exact box of cereal in my kitchen right now…it’s meant to be for me and these candy bars!
Wow! These looks aboslutely amazing. Crunch bars have always been my favourite chocolate bar. Can’t wait to try out this recipe. Love how simple it is and the peanut butter drizzle is the perfect addition. Thanks for sharing Angela!
There’s so much about these that I am just in love with! First, no bake, and cereal bars, and with Crispy cereal, and Pb. And chocolate. Half my first book was dedicated to nobake peanut butter-based cereal bars :) Huge fan!
And I love the peanut butter magic shell-ish drizzle. Cannot go wrong with more PB.
I would devour these bars! Have (another) PB-crunch-chocolate bar going on my blog tomorrow. Can never have enough PB :)
Pinned!
As always I am floored by your stunning pictures. Do you think this recipe would work without the coconut oil?
The coconut oil is what sets these bars so it would have to be replaced with another oil/fat that is solid at room temperature. I wonder if Earth Balance would work?
I am soooo making these this weekend – love this flavour combo!!
These sound delish! But just 1 cup of rice cereal … can that be right? That’s a whole lot of coconut oil to nurse the 1 cup of rice crisp?
Yes that’s right! The coconut oil is used because it hardens into a chocolate-like texture. hope this helps!
Oh, I love where your head’s at with this one! Crispies? Chocolate? Peanut butter? YES. Count me in! :)
I made these this morning and they lasted less than half an hour. Our family is new to veganism and grandma was quizzing our 14year old son, really trying to get him to admit that he missed meat/dairy. He told her that vegan meals are “ok” in his books but the desserts are amazing.
I’ve made these raw before, and they were awesome. Instead of the rice crisps, you can soak and then dehydrate buckwheat groats, and get the same texture.
Oh yummmm. They look amazing! I will definitely be making these this week!
These look awesome! Do you think they’d be good with some added vanilla sunwarrior in them to give them a protein boost?
Read your recipe this afternoon and made them as soon as I got home! I used kamut puffs instead of rice and they still worked just as well – deeelish! Thanks :)
Hi, would rice syrup work in place of agave or maple syrup?
I’m with you on agave Lisa. Maple does have a distinct taste that is part of the equation, but I will try the recipe using agave and report back as soon as I can.
Hey Lisa, I’m not sure as I’ve only made them this way before. I would assume it would work though! Let me know if you try it out.
Hi Angela! Great recipe! I have some of that chocolate koala crisp cereal in the house right now:
http://us.naturespath.com/product/koala-crisptm-cereal
Do you think I could use that without the unsweetened cocoa powder and just continue on with the recipe?
Thanks!
Yes you can use that cereal if you’d like – I wouldn’t leave out the cocoa powder entirely though. Maybe only reduce it by a few teaspoons?