Peanut Butter Bars Without Icing Sugar
If you’re not familiar with peanut butter bars, they’re a soft peanut butter mixture that’s combined with crushed cookies and topped with chocolate, then sliced into small bars. It’s a delicious, easy no-bake bar that’s often part of a dainty tray where I’m from. In Canada they’re usually made with graham crackers but we can’t get them here so I use a similar whole grain digestive biscuit instead.
I think there’s a place for icing sugar (aka powdered or confectioner’s sugar) but also it tastes weird and it ruins a lot of otherwise very nice desserts. By using maple syrup instead, these lower-sugar vegan peanut butter bars have a more interesting flavour, the texture is better, and you can use less sweetener over all.
With just 50 ml (about a quarter cup) of maple syrup in the peanut butter base, these aren’t too sweet, even with the added cookie crumbs. If you love peanut butter – we do, going through about a kilo a week – you’ll like these bars.
Ingredients You’ll Need and Why
There are a few more ingredients here than with a recipe that uses sweetened peanut butter and icing sugar, but it’s not complicated. These are my notes from testing – see the full recipe card below.
- Cookies: pictured are a whole grain digestive, which is the closest thing I can get to a graham cracker in Europe unless I make it myself. It’s equally good either way. If you need a gluten-free option, you can try Alanna’s gluten-free graham crackers or use a store-bought version.
- Peanut butter: this should be natural peanut butter, with no added ingredients like oil or sugar. The only ingredient should be peanuts and maybe salt. I haven’t tested this with ultra-processed (creamy) peanut butter.
- Maple syrup: honey is the best substitute if the bars don’t need to be fully vegan but note that they’ll be sweeter. I’ve only tested these with liquid sweetener. Date syrup and molasses don’t work very well here. Please note that pure maple syrup is a sweetener of its own, and is not equivalent to maple-flavoured syrup.
- Chocolate: I recommend dark chocolate to keep the bars from being too sweet, but you can use any type you like. A little added coconut oil and peanut butter in the chocolate topping soften it slightly.
How to Make No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars
Peanut butter seizes when mixed with a liquid sweetener like honey or maple syrup, so the bar base thickens easily without needing loads of icing sugar to stabilise it.
Step 1: crush the cookies or graham crackers into crumbs. Use a rolling pin for this or some kind of food processor. Pictured is a mini food processor attachment for an immersion blender.
Step 2: mix the peanut butter, maple syrup, milk, oil, vanilla, and salt. It will feel like the mixture thickens as you mix it, and that’s normal and what you’re looking for.
Step 3: add the crushed cookies and mix again to combine. You can taste it at this point and add a little more salt if you’d like.
Step 4: press the mixture into a lined loaf tin, using the back of a spoon to make an even layer. It’s pretty soft at room temperature but will firm up when chilled.
Step 5: refrigerate for at least four hours, or freeze for half an hour. Once firm, top with the chocolate mixture. The layers have a tendency to mingle if not chilled first and the bars lose the clear layers.
Step 6: chill again to set the chocolate. It’s best to do this in the refrigerator so that the chocolate doesn’t get too hard to slice.
Expert Tips for the Best Bars
- Flip them over to slice: for nice clean slices, turn the bars over so that the chocolate topping is facing down, preferably on a sheet of parchment paper. The topping is harder than the base when chilled, so if you try to slice through right-way-up, the peanut butter mixture will spread out.
- Keep the bars chilled: like most no-bake treats made without icing sugar, it’s best to keep these in the refrigerator. They soften too much at room temperature.
- Try a ganache topping: if you’d like a softer chocolate layer, you can try using vegan chocolate ganache instead of melted chocolate. It’ll stay soft even when chilled.
- Blend into fine crumbs: no chunky cookies, please. To mix in evenly and for the bars to hold properly, the cookie crumbs need to be as fine as breadcrumbs.
More Peanut Butter Recipes
Ultimate Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut Butter Balls
Peanut Butter Puffed Wheat Squares
Gluten-Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
If you make these Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars or any other dairy-free chocolate recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Description
Ingredients
- 200 grams natural peanut butter smooth
- 50 ml maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon sea salt to taste*
- 150 grams digestive biscuits or graham crackers
Chocolate Topping
- 100 grams dark chocolate finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Line a loaf tin with parchment paper and set aside.
- Add the peanut butter, maple syrup, milk, melted coconut oil, vanilla, and salt to a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. The mixture should thicken slightly when mixed.200 grams natural peanut butter, 50 ml maple syrup, 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk, 3 tablespoons coconut oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon sea salt
- Crush the cookies into fine crumbs with a food processor (or a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment paper). Add to the peanut butter mixture and stir to incorporate. Make sure the cookie crumbs are evenly distributed.150 grams digestive biscuits or graham crackers
- Transfer the peanut butter mixture to the prepared loaf tin. Use the back of a spoon or a spatula to press into an even layer.
- Chill until set. Freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate for 4 hours, until the mixture has hardened fully.
- Make the chocolate topping. Add the chopped chocolate, peanut butter, and coconut oil to a heat-proof bowl and set over a small saucepan of simmering water (don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). This is a bain-marie. Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally as needed.100 grams dark chocolate, 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter, 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the chilled peanut butter mixture and tilt the loaf tin to spread the chocolate in an even layer. Chill for another 20 minutes to set.
- To slice the bars, turn it out onto a cutting board – line with a piece of parchment paper to reduce mess – so that the chocolate is facing down. Use a sharp knife to slice into eight small squares.
- Keep the bars in a sealed container in the refrigerator and serve chilled.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
About Alexandra Daum
Alexandra Daum is a professional recipe developer, food photographer, and cookbook author. She started sharing carefully tested vegetarian recipes in 2014 and has since published hundreds of recipes with seasonal ingredients and whole grains as the focus. Her work has been featured on CTV, in House & Home and Chatelaine, on popular websites like Buzzfeed and Best Health, and in countless other publications.