Easy and Clean Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

I literally have no idea how I made it the past 27 years without this recipe. My sweet friend Katie posted a picture of these delicious little treats online and I knew I had to have it. Please drop whatever you are doing and make these!

The original recipe is awesome and super easy to follow. It’s dairy-free (and vegan!), which is always a big winner with me because I LOVE me some chocolate, but it can be really hard to find without milk. I knew I had to try it! I made a few substitutions based on what we had in the house and personal preference, and they came out perfectly and took me almost no time to prep. The hardest part was waiting for it to freeze!

I highly recommend using refined coconut oil to avoid an overpowering coconut flavor in this recipe!

Ingredients

Crust:

3/4 cup quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
Pinch of sea salt

Peanut Butter Filling:

1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
Pinch of sea salt

Chocolate Topping:

1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Directions

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper (or use a silicone pan like mine!).

Mix together the ingredients for the chocolate crust. Press evenly into the bottom of the lined pan. Put in freezer to set. (Approx. 10 minutes)

Mix together the ingredients for the filling. Remove pan from freezer. Evenly spread filling over the top with a spatula. Return pan to freezer to set. (Approx. 15-20 minutes)

Now it’s time for the topping! Stir the ingredients until you have a smooth sauce with no clumps. Take the pan out of the freezer and pour the sauce over the peanut butter layer. Return to freezer until firm. (Approx. 1 hour) If you were using a pan lined with parchment paper, you can gently pull the paper to remove the bars from the pan after they are firm. If using a silicone pan, just pop those bad boys out!

Disclaimer: I have no pictures of the chocolate sauce stage because I may or may not have started trying to eat it the second it was ready.

Store these in the fridge (up to 2 weeks) or the freezer (up to one month) in an air-tight container. The original poster preferred to keep them in the fridge so they did not get too firm over time. I find that hysterical, because ours did not last long enough to ever get “too firm” in the freezer. Perhaps in you have more restraint than I!

Here is the one picture I managed to snag before we immediately devoured it! I cannot wait to make these again!