These Homemade Vegan Snickers Bars are a healthier version of the traditional Snickers we all know and love. Similar to my Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars, they are vegan, refined-sugar free and gluten-free.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- They contain a lot of wholefood ingredients like nuts and dates which makes them the perfect healthy afternoon pick-me-up!
- They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days (if you manage not to eat them in one go :-P)!
How to Make Homemade Snickers Bars
First of all, you'll need a food processor to prepare this recipe. Unfortunaley there's no other kitchen equipment that you could replace it with.
Start by preparing the crust layer. Put all the crust ingredients into your food processor and blend until fully broken down. Be patient- this might dake a couple of minutes. Don't foget to scrape down your sides every minute or so.
Once your crust is ready, line a cake tin with parchment paper and press the crust firmly into your tin. Using a mug or spoon might help but I usually prefer using my fingers.
Now it's time to prepare your caramel layer. Simply put coconut milk, maple syrup and peanut butter into a saucepan and let simmer over medium heat while constanly stirring with a whisk. It's really important that you use full-fat coconut milk (coconut milk with a very high content of coconut extract).
Once the caramel thickens, it's ready to be poured over the crust. Spread it evenly across your crust, then add your peanuts.
Freeze for about 1 hour, before cutting it into equally sized bars.
Coat your Homemade Snickers Bars in chocolate and voila!
Ingredients & Substitution Notes
- Blanched, Roasted Hazelnuts: In case you canโt find any blanched and roasted hazelnuts in a store near you, you might need to peel them yourself. Roast the nuts for about 10 minutes at 180ยฐC. Afterwards, wrap them in a clean towel and by rubbing the nuts you will be able to remove their skins. I personally find this method a bit messy and it doesnโt always do the job perfectly well, meaning that you might end up with some of the skin not fully being removed. However, it's still better than leaving the skin on since that might add a bitter taste.
- Cashews: You will need to soak your cashews before using them in the recipe. You could either soak them overnight or if you're short on time you could also quick-soak them in very hot water for about 10 minutes.
- Gluten Free Oats: In order for this recipe to be gluten-free, use gluten-free oats. If you don't need these bars to be gluten-free you could also use regular oats.
- Medjool Dates: This recipe calls for Medjool dates which are my absolute favourite but not always easy to find and also quite expensive. Alternatively, you could also simply use โnormalโ small ones. Make sure however, that they are soft enough. If they arenโt, soak them in hot water for about 10 minutes before using them otherwise they might give your food processor a very hard time. Also you might need about double the amount since they are much smaller.
- Coconut Milk: It's important to use full-fat coconut milk for this recipe to work. Try to check the actual amount of coconut extract, the ones I usually use contain about 90% of coconut extract, which makes them really, really creamy.
- Peanut Butter: For this recipe to turn out perfect, use peanut butter that contains 100% peanuts and nothing else (except for a pinch of salt maybe, then you won't need to add it afterwards). No additional oils or any other additives.
Other No Bake Recipes You Might Like
- No Bake Mango Coconut Cheesecake
- Vegan Black Forest Cheesecake
- Chocolate Orange Cheesecake
- Macademia Cranberry White Chocolate Tart
- Double Chocolate Marzipan Tart
๐ Recipe
Homemade Snickers Bars (Vegan & Gluten Free)
Ingredients
Crust
- ยพ cup cashews
- ยฝ cup (60g) gluten-free oats *could also use normal oats
- ยฝ cup (70g) blanched, roasted hazelnuts *or sub any other nuts
- 4 Medjool dates
- 1 tbsp (40g) peanut butter
Caramel Layer
- ยฝ cup (120ml) full fat coconut milk
- 6 tablespoon maple syrup
- 3 heaped tablespoon (100g) smooth peanut butter
- tiny pinch of salt
- ยฝ cup (70g) peanuts
Chocolate Layer
- 125 g (vegan) dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Add all of the base layer ingredients to a food processor and blend until a sticky mass forms.
- It might take a couple of minutes for the nuts to release their natural oils and the mass to become less crumbly and more sticky
- Make sure you fold down the sides of your food processor every minute or so.
- Once all the ingredients are broken down, line a cake tin with parchment paper.
- Press the crust into the cake tin (mine was 22x15 cm), using a spoon and your fingers.
- To make the caramel layer, put coconut milk, maple syrup and peanut butter into a saucepan and bring to boil.
- Reduce the heat and let simmer for a couple of minutes while constantly stirring with a whisk until the sauce has thickened.
- Add a tiny pinch of salt (omit if you're not a fan of salted caramel).
- Spoon caramel over the base layer, then sprinkle peanuts over the caramel layer.
- Freeze for about 1h, afterwards cut them into equal sized bars.
- Gently heat coconut oil and chocolate to prepare the chocolate glaze.
- Coat your snickers bars in chocolate- you can either fully coat them or only drizzle over some chocolate with a spoon.
Laura says
Definetively I loved this recipe ๐ I have done it and it is soft, creamy, delicious! Thank you for this ๐
Katie says
Very glad to hear that! Thanks for letting us know ๐