“Slimy yet satisfying” – The Lion King. No not really, but definitely satisfying. And healthy. And just really good. And quite fun to make too! These are healthy ‘snickers’ bars with no added sugar, just layer upon layer of good stuff!
There are some complicated recipes out there for this snack. Some even shout at you to use coconut BUTTER, not OIL people! Honestly, I’ve never even heard of that before, and you definitely do not need it! While it might have been ok before, now is not the time for strict recipes, I’m all for substituting and being creative, at the end of the day, it’s covered in chocolate so how bad can it get!?
This recipe is the result of a yummy journey through the recipes available on the internet. I’ve taken all the most delicious, easiest bits and squished them into the very best version of a healthy snickers bar that you can whip up at home!
UPDATE:
Since I first made these they have been put on heavy rotation! It goes, snickers bars, then snickers bars, then snickers bars again. At this point I feel like they need to come with a warning, HIGHLY ADDICTIVE! Sooo goooood.
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A food processor make these a breeze but a good blender could substitute if needed. No baking required, just some time in the freezer.
Ingredients
For the date caramel:
- 1 1/2 cup pitted dates – substitute any other juicy dried fruit, prunes, or even apricots.
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 Tbsp water
For the base:
- 1 cup oat flour – substitute smashed up biscuits
- 1/3 cup date caramel, from above
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter – substitute almond butter or even just butter if needs be!
- 1/4 tsp salt – If your peanut butter isn’t salty, if it is, leave this out
Nut layer:
1/2 cup nuts, chopped – I used a mix of roasted and salted peanuts and almonds
Coating:
200g chocolate of choice
Instructions
- Do you have oat flour? If not, blend 2/3 of a cup of oats until powdered and set aside.
Date Caramel first:
- Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend baby, you can add a little more water if your blender is being stubborn but we want a paste, not a syrup.
- Remove all but 1/3 cup of the date caramel from the blender into a separate bowl.
Next the base:
- Add your oat flour or smashed up biscuits to the remaining date caramel in your blender or food processor, add peanut butter and salt if you need too, and blend. You want it be quite stuck together, not crumbly, add a tiny bit of water if it is too crumbly.
Assembly:
- Line a tray of some sort, I used a loaf tin, with baking paper
- Spoon all of your base mixture in first, squish it all into the corners and pack it in tightly
- Take your date caramel you set aside and spoon that on, smoothing it nicely over the base
- Scatter your chopped nuts over the date caramel and push them in 1/2 of the way. We want them to be stuck in there quite well, otherwise you will lose the nuts when it comes to coating the bars in chocolate
- Place in freezer for 2 hours.
Chocolate coating:
- Melt all the chocolate either in a double boiler on the stove or in the microwave. If you use the microwave like me, only microwave in short 30sec bursts, take out and stir your chocolate well in between, and once it looks mostly melted stir the rest of the pieces around until they melt too
- Remove your block from the freezer, remove the whole thing from the tray and place onto a chopping board. Chop it up into even sections, (1/2 then 1/4 then 1/8 is my method)
- Prep a separate sheet of baking paper on a plate
- Take one section of bar at a time and place in the bowl of chocolate, spoon chocolate over the top and up the sides
- Remove the bar from the chocolate and pop onto the separate clean sheet of baking paper
- If you find the chocolate starts not spooning quite as well, you might need to warm it up for a few seconds halfway through coating your bars.
- Once all your bars are coated place them in the fridge for 20mins to reset the chocolate
- Enjoy!