Peanut butter date bars
Vegan and healthy peanut butter date bars made with all natural ingredients.
We love peanut butter. One of our favourite snacks growing up was saltine crackers smeared with a thin layer of peanut butter. When Reese’s peanut butter cups became a thing, they opened up a whole new world of amazing. Sure, we would get our hands on Reese’s whenever we could, but we would also dip plain chocolate into a jar of peanut butter. We would spread peanut butter on toast and then add a rich chocolate hazelnut layer. We would take a spoonful of peanut butter, top it with some chocolate chips and enjoy it just like that.
It is this love of chocolate and peanut butter that makes us love our recipe for peanut butter date bars so much. You’ll be surprised to know then that this recipe contains only pure 100% cacao dark chocolate, a bit of cocoa powder and all-natural peanut butter. There is no refined sugar, no dairy, no eggs, and all of the ingredients are wholesome and healthy. It should not taste as good as it does, but it does!
The general feedback from anyone who has tried our peanut butter date bars is that they taste like chocolate peanut butter cups, and we agree. Give them a try and let us know what you think!
Helpful hints
What kind of peanut butter is best for peanut butter date bars?
Definitely use all-natural, sugar-free peanut butter. We have made these peanut butter date bars with both smooth and crunchy all-natural peanut butter and both work really well. If you want to learn a hack for easily mixing all-natural peanut butter watch our kitchen hack YouTube video here.
Are peanut butter date bars best eaten cold?
Keep your peanut butter date bars in the freezer and allow to thaw slightly before eating. We like to eat them very cold – still slightly frozen. You can also let them thaw in the refrigerator where they will remain chilled.
Chocolate chips versus chocolate chunks
We like to use a 100% cacao chocolate bar that we chop up for this recipe. You can do the same or use chocolate chips. You should use dark chocolate however; it is much healthier and we find that it tastes much better in this recipe.
Looking for other vegan desserts and snacks? Check these out:
Vegan chocolate and strawberry cookies
We love hearing from you! If you have made our recipes, or if you have a question or comment, or simply want to say Hi!, please leave a comment and star rating below! Also be sure to follow along with us, on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. We have lots of fun over there.
This post may contain some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
Peanut butter date bars
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer or hand held mixer
- 1 high speed blender or food processor
- 1 Baking tray 10 x 7 inches
- Plastic wrap optional
Ingredients
Peanut butter layer
- 2½ cups almond flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup all - natural peanut butter creamy or chunky
- ¼ cup melted coconut oil
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 50 grams chocolate chunks we use 100% cacao (or dark chocolate chips)
Date layer
- 1½ cups chopped walnuts
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 10 Medjool dates, pitted
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
Instructions
For the peanut butter layer
- In the bowl of your stand mixer mix together the almond flour, cinnamon and salt with a fork. Once combined add the rest of the ingredients for the peanut butter layer and mix well using the paddle attachment of your mixer.2½ cups almond flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp salt, ⅔ cup all - natural peanut butter, ¼ cup melted coconut oil, ¼ cup maple syrup, 50 grams chocolate chunks
- Prepare your baking tray by lining it with parchment paper allowing for there to be parchment paper hanging over on both long sides. Transfer the peanut butter layer to the baking pan and press it down evenly so that the entire surface of the pan is covered and it is uniformly distributed. We like to do this by laying a piece of plastic wrap over the peanut butter layer and pressing down on that and then smoothing it out.
- Cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper and then transfer to freezer for approximately 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the date layer.
For the date layer
- Place all of ingredients for your date layer into the pitcher of your high speed blender or your food processor and blend until smooth. This may take a bit of time and you will need to pat the ingredients down intermittently to ensure that everything is getting blended or processed.1½ cups chopped walnuts, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, ¼ tsp salt, 10 Medjool dates, pitted, 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- Once your date layer is a smooth consistency, remove the pan from the freezer, uncover the peanut butter layer and spread the date layer evenly and smoothly on top of it.
- Cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper and return to freezer until frozen.
- Once frozen, use a knife to help release your peanut butter and date layers and use a large knife to cut our your portions. Return to the baking pan and keep in freezer until ready to enjoy.
Looks delicious!
Thanks Dorothy! They are so good we’ve been making them every week! xoxo Helen & Billie