Homemade peanut butter protein bars that are no-bake, like my No-Bake Cookie Dough Bars or my Pumpkin Protein Bars are the most nutritious, easy post-workout food ever! This recipe is not exception! All you need to make them are a few ingredients, and you can even cut the gram of sugar per serving, swapping the liquid sweetener for a keto liquid sweetener like monk fruit.
Why You’ll Love These Bars
These no-bake protein bars are naturally:
Vegan Grain-free Dairy-free Paleo-friendly using almond butter. Keto-friendly using Monk fruit liquid sweetener and sugar-free chocolate chips.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make a batch of these delicious protein bars are:
Peanut Butter – Use natural, fresh, and drippy peanut butter or homemade peanut butter. It means that the ingredients listed on the jar should only include peanuts and salt. Don’t use peanut butter with added sugar or added oil. Maple Syrup – You can use other liquid sweeteners as well. The best vegan liquid sweeteners are agave syrup, coconut nectar, or brown rice syrup for a low-GI option. Coconut Oil – Or melted cocoa butter or melted vegan butter. Avoid using olive oil or vegetable oils that are not necessarily good for you but also soften the bars and add a strange aftertaste to the recipe. Vanilla Extract – This is optional since the protein powder is already flavored with vanilla, but I always like to say there’s never enough vanilla in recipes! Plant-based Vanilla Protein Powder – We tried the recipe with vanilla pea protein powder, almond, and peanut powder work as well. Almond Flour – use ultra-fine golden almond flour for the best texture and color. Almond meal is coarse and makes the bars dark and grainy. It’s safe to eat without baking. Another option is to make homemade oat flour in the same amount, but it comes with a slight variation in texture. Oat flour often makes the bars slightly dryer and crumbly. Coconut Flour – this is a great high-fiber flour to make vegan, gluten-free protein bars. As above, add oat flour as a swap but for a different texture. Mini Dark Chocolate Chips – feel free to use a sugar-free brand or any chips you love. My recommendation is to use mini chocolate chips because they distribute perfectly into the batter, and you enjoy crunchy bites of chocolate at each bite.
How To Make Cookie Dough Protein Bars
These cookie dough protein bars take just 15 minutes to prepare and enjoy! There’s nothing easier than making homemade protein bars.
More Protein Please!
If you slice the bars into 9 bars as recommended in the recipe card below, each bar gets 10 grams of protein per serving. To boost the protein per serving even higher, you can either:
Cut into 8 bars – This brings the total to 12 grams of protein per bar. Use a higher-protein powder. Add chia seeds or hemp seeds – both are high in plant-based protein and healthy fats.
Storage Instructions
These protein bars can be stored for up to 5 days in an airtight box in the refrigerator. You can also freeze the recipe for later and thaw the bars one hour before serving at room temperature.
Allergy Swaps
There are always options to adapt this protein bar recipe to your dietary requirements or food allergies.
Nut-free – use sunflower seed butter or tahini instead of peanut butter. Swap the almond flour for oat flour. Sugar-free keto protein bars – use sugar-free chocolate chips and Monk fruit liquid sweetener. Coconut allergies – use melted cocoa butter instead of coconut oil and replace the coconut flour with 2-3 times more almond flour or oat flour.
Flavors
You can easily customize these peanut butter protein bars to create a range of different protein bar flavors. While most dark chocolates are vegan and chips taste amazing, we have more ideas for you to try. Pick one or two of the add-ons below and replace the chocolate chips with some of these to create fun flavors.
Chopped nuts – like almonds, pecans walnuts. Seeds – hemp seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds. Shredded Coconut Freeze-dried fruits like raspberries or blueberries. Swap the vanilla extract for natural banana extract, caramel extract, or coconut extract.
More Vegan Protein Recipes
Adding protein powder to your food is a great, natural way to boost your protein intake and enjoy delicious food. Below are more vegan high-protein recipes for you to try.
