I love no-bake treats, in particular making bars that you can enjoy for a quick snack like my Healthy Date Bars, Protein Cereal Bars, No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars. I love balancing the texture and taste of no-bake desserts while making them super healthy and nutritious. These healthy no-bake cookie dough bars are an absolute treat. They will fix your cookie dough cravings in no time. Plus, they are loaded with plant-based protein, fiber, and even a touch of iron! So keep reading to learn how to make your no-bake vegan cookie dough bars.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need are only need 7 pantry ingredients to make these peanut butter cookie dough bars.
Peanut Butter – Make sure you are using pure peanut butter with no added sugar and no added oil, or the result would be very different. You can also use any nut butter you like. A fresh jar of natural almond butter would also work. Maple Syrup or agave syrup, or brown rice syrup for a low GI option. You need a liquid sweetener to make this no-bake vegan cookie dough recipe. Don’t be tempted to use brown sugar or coconut sugar. The cookie dough won’t come together. Almond Flour – I am using blanched fine almond flour for the best result. Almond meal would also work, but it would leave a gritty texture and would dry out the bars. You can also use oat flour as a swap for almond flour. The same amount of fine oat flour would work very well. Coconut Flour – You need this combination of flavors to reach the best cookie dough texture. Don’t replace coconut flour with more almond flour or all-purpose flour. In fact, raw flour is not edible. Only coconut flour, nut flours, and seed flours are safe raw flour options. Coconut Oil – If you don’t like coconut flavor, use refined coconut oil. It has no coconut flavor. However, you can’t use liquid oil or vegan unsalted butter. The success of these healthy cookie dough bars is to use solid oil at room temperatures like coconut oil or cocoa butter. Dark Chocolate Chips – Chocolate chip cookie dough is delicious with vegan dark chocolate chip or vegan milk chocolate chip. Yes, you can find mini chocolate chips tagged as ‘milk’ but vegan. Some healthy brands use a combination of coconut sugar, cocoa butter, and non-dairy milk in their recipe. Vanilla Extract – for taste. Salt – to boost the flavors of chocolate. Dark Chocolate – to make the top layer. I use plant-based 70% or more dark chocolate.
How To Make No-Bake Cookie Dough Bars
Edible cookie dough bars are easy to make. If you are concerned about eating raw flour, read my article about the raw flours that are safe to eat. This healthy cookie dough bar recipe is made with raw ingredients to preserve all the nutrients and vitamins from each ingredient. Plus, it is a refined sugar-free recipe. There are no high-sugar ingredients like sweetened condensed milk or white sugar needed in this recipe.
Step-By-Step Video
Expert Tips
You can bring all the liquid base ingredients to the microwave for 20 seconds to soften the nut butter. Otherwise, you can combine all the ingredients in a saucepan under medium heat. Be careful. If you warm the liquid mixture, it can melt the chocolate chips, so wait a few minutes for the dough to reach room temperature before stirring in the chocolate chips. The peanut butter layer can also be made in a food processor. However, if you do so, I recommend adding the chocolate chips using the pulse mode of the food processor to avoid breaking the chips. The chocolate layer on top of these healthy cookie dough bars is a soft chocolate ganache that combines dark chocolate and coconut oil. You can add some flavor to the ganache by adding a pinch of sea salt or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Also, if you don’t have coconut oil, the chocolate ganache can be made with vegan unsalted butter!
Storage Instructions
These vegan cookie dough bars can be stored in an airtight box in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze the bars in a zip-lock bag. Defrost them on the counter for 2 hours before eating or enjoy half frozen.
More Vegan Snack Recipes
I have plenty of no-bake vegan snack recipes for you to try. My favorites are:
