Chocolate & Gooey Nut Butter Bars

Ingredients

base:

  • ¼ cup pecans (or other nuts)***

  • ½ cup walnuts (or other nuts)

  • 3⁄4 cup pitted medjool dates

  • ½ cup unsweetened coconut (flakes or shredded)

  • ⅓ cup raw cacao powder

  • ¼ TSP Celtic sea Salt

  • 1 TSP vanilla essence

  • 1-3 TBSP almond milk, if needed

    filling:

  • ½ cup drippy almond or sunflower butter***

  • 3-4 TBSP monk fruit sweetened maple syrup

  • 1 TSP vanilla essence

  • handful of chopped almonds

  • pinch of Celtic salt
    ***if your nut butter is super thick, add 2-3 tbsp melted coconut oil, you want it to be a caramel consistency)

    topping:

  • ¼ cup of melted coconut oil

  • ¼ cup raw cacao powder

  • ¼ cup monk fruit sweetened maple syrup

Method

  1. base: add everything to a food processor, processing until a sticky dough forms. If your mixture isn’t sticky and doesn’t hold together, add a TBSP of milk at a time until it does. Press into the bottom of a lined loaf pan.

  2. filling: mix everything except the handful of chopped almonds together until smooth. Pour over the base and then sprinkle over the chopped almonds and press into the filling. Freeze for 20mins or so, to harden a little.

  3. topping: combine the melted coconut oil, cacao and maple syrup in a bowl and stir until smooth - should be a melted chocolate consistency. Pour chocolate over the caramel layer and return to the freezer for at least 2 hours to firm up before cutting into bars.

  4. Enjoy!

*** Peanuts harbor molds that, when ingested regularly, squelch good gut bacteria. This creates an internal environment that lets yeast thrive. Yeast cells then release inflammatory aflatoxins that hinder the function of every organ, triggering fatigue, digestive woes and weight gain. My advice: Avoid peanut butter in this recipe.

Amanda Lupica