No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars

Do you have peanut butter, maple syrup, coconut flour, salt, and chocolate? Then you have everything you need to make these simple yet decadent no-bake peanut butter bars, made without powdered sugar and without graham cracker crumbs! They’re gluten-free, vegan-friendly, and all-around awesome.

I feel like I say this a lot when I introduce a new recipe, but I’m saying it again: this recipe has been months in the making.

Through a combination of my own (sometimes disabling) perfectionism and life distractions happening at an ever-increasing pace, this recipe has been picked up and put down no less than 6 times in the past 6 months.

When you see how simple the ingredients are, you may wonder how the heck it could’ve taken so long to figure out. The truth is, it only took about 2 tries to figure it out, and after that I just tinkered around the edges whenever I had a fresh jar of peanut butter and didn’t feel like doing whatever I was supposed to be doing at that time.

Procrastibaking is real.

Here’s the thing. We’re all spending a lot of time at home right now, and some people are spending it doing very impressive things like baking sourdough bread or cinnamon rolls. Cool, to be sure. But if you’re sitting here on a Monday night and wondering whether you’re up to that kind of task, I have another option for you.

I’m of the opinion that right now, we should do and make things that help us feel joyful, or at least comforted. Maybe that involves nurturing some wizardry of flour and water into bubbly life over a week’s time, but maybe it also involves simply stirring together some peanut butter with a couple other ingredients, covering it with chocolate and sea salt, throwing it in the freezer for 30 minutes, and eating it in chunks with your hands and CALLING IT A DAY.

But maybe that’s just me.

Peanut Butter Bars Without Powdered Sugar

If you happen to be of the same mind, these healthier no-bake peanut butter bars are going to rock your world. Listen, there are a lot of SUPER delicious, but SUPER unhealthy no-bake peanut butter bar recipes out there. Like, let’s take peanut butter and chocolate, two delicious but already highly caloric foods, and add a whole stick of butter and 2 cups of powdered sugar and graham crackers to them. Why not?

I guess there’s a time and place for that kind of recipe, but personally, if I’m already just sitting in various places around my apartment all day, I’d rather not add to my problems by ingesting a sugar bomb.

So! Hence the tinkering. I wanted a no-bake peanut butter bar recipe that delivered on that amazing salty-sweet peanut butter flavor and dense texture we all love in a Reese’s, but didn’t blow the sugar bank.

There are surprisingly few options out there in the internet world. A google search for “healthy no-bake peanut butter bars” yielded a bunch of peanut butter oat bar recipes, which, while delicious I’m sure, was not what I was looking for.

I wanted the full-blown, “this tastes like a way better version of a Reese’s” bars that I’ve had before, but without all the…well…junk. If you want something done right, better do it yourself.

Recipe Ingredients

I remembered that coconut flour is a particularly absorbent flour, and doesn’t need to be cooked like wheat flour does. It also happens to have a ton of fiber and other such good things. I don’t often use coconut flour in my baking because it’s a tricky ingredient, but it’s widely available and easy to procure, especially in a time where people have bought out the wheat flour section in preparation for the aforementioned sourdough adventures.

So here is the sum total recipe ingredients in these shockingly delicious, gluten-free, vegan no-bake peanut butter bars:

• Natural peanut butter
• Maple syrup
• Vanilla extract
• Coconut flour
• Salt (omit if your peanut butter is salted)
• Dark chocolate (vegan if needed)
• Flaky sea salt on top

Recipe Steps

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Step 1: Making these peanut butter bars just requires stirring together coconut flour with a bit of maple syrup for sweetness, vanilla for flavor, salt (if needed) and creamy, natural peanut butter. After a couple iterations messing with the ratios, I got the batter to a texture matching the sugar-laden treats of old.

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Step 2: Spread peanut butter mixture in a lined 8×8 inch square pan. I like to use parchment paper so I can lift it out of the pan easily. Place in the freezer to chill while you melt the chocolate for the topping.

Step 3: Melt dark chocolate and a couple tablespoons of peanut butter (this helps it firm into a crackable chocolate shell when chilled), then pour over the peanut butter layer and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle with sea salt if desired.

Step 4: Chill again for 30 minutes in the freezer or 2 hours in the fridge before serving! Store either in fridge or freezer, they’re great either way.

I used dark chocolate instead of the traditional milk chocolate, because we’re grownups here (most of the time). Also I just really like dark chocolate. If you like a different kind of chocolate, use that!

And a little flaky sea salt never hurt anyone, either.

Tips and FAQs:

These no-bake peanut butter bars are intensely peanut buttery, rich, and filling. The dark chocolate is the perfect sweet offset to the dense peanut butter layer. They’re a substantial dessert, and I really like that about them. Plus, they take a sum total of 15 minutes to make, and I REALLY like that about them.

More Peanut Butter Recipes:

• The Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies
• Peanut Butter Blondies
• PB&J Bars
• Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

As always, if you try this recipe, please let me know either by leaving a comment here or tagging me on Instagram @katiebirdbakes. I love seeing your creations! Stay well.

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