3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars! They taste like candy, but are secretly good for you! Sweetened with dates, these simple no bake bars easy to make and kid friendly. Vegan, Gluten Free + Paleo Option
Just letting you know, this Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars was originally published in April 2015. I retested, rephotographed and updated the content for you. Hope you enjoy it!
Sometimes you make old recipes and it brings back funny memories. Like the first time I ever made these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars and my mother devoured all of them in a day. No lie. I still remember her lingering over the bars, trying to snags bits as I was shooting them. The conversation went something like this.
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Me. "Mom, stop eating the bars. I haven't shot them yet."
Mom. "I think I need one." Takes a few bites, "Yum! I know I'm gonna like these."
Me. "You can have them after I'm done shooting."
30 minutes later..."Mom, I'm done shooting."
Mom's passed out on the couch. I leave a bar next to her. She wakes up, eats the bar, gets up and says, "I need another one to be sure I really like them."
The next day. "Mom, what happened to the bars?"
Mom looks around sheepishly, "I don't know where they could have gone!"
And, that friends, is what happens when you make something really good!
3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Even better? Theses Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars are no bake, have no refined sugar and only have four ingredients - dates, peanuts, chocolate and salt. They're also adaptable. I've made them with almonds in the past and they're just as delicious!
They remind me of a candy bar which I haven't been able to put my finger on. Maybe Snickers? Try it out and let me know. I will warn you though. These Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars are so good they won't last very long!
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3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups dates pitted
- 1 1/2 cups peanuts unsalted, raw and not roasted
- 3/4 cup dairy free chocolate chips
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the peanuts on a sheet pan and bake 8-10 minutes until roasted.
- Let the peanuts cool a few minutes then place in a food processor with dates and salt. Blend until the dates and peanuts are broken down.
- Transfer the mixture to an 8-inch x 8-inch baking pan lined with parchment paper. Spread the mixture into an even layer. Place in the refrigerator while you make the chocolate.
- Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water. Pro tip: add a teaspoon of coconut oil to make it silky and smooth. Not required, but it does make for the smoothest chocolate!
- Pour the chocolate over the bars. Set in the refrigerator for 60 minutes or until hardened. It will depend on the time of year how fast they harden.
- Cut into 16 bars with a knife that's been placed under hot water for 1 minute. This prevents the bars from cracking.
- Store bars in the refrigerator up to 10 days or freezer up to 30 days.
Notes
- My Amazon shop has more products similar to those used for this recipe and that I recommend to my nutrition clients.
Nutrition
What I Used For The Recipe
Would this recipe work with almonds or sunflower seeds? My son and i are allergic to peanuts.
I would use almonds or walnuts as an alternative.
Made these this morning and they are soooo good. The only problem was that they locked up my food processor and I didn't get them processed as well as I would have liked. Of course, my food processor is really old. I don't know if that was what caused the problem or maybe I needed to soak the dates longer or what. I did end up adding a little water while I was processing. Now they are stickier than they might otherwise have been. But the taste is unbelievable. I wondered why the title said peanut butter when there was no peanut butter in it, but it tastes like peanut butter.
They are called peanut butter because when you process peanuts in a food processor it becomes peanut butter. That is how you make nut butter from scratch. Once the food processor seizes, that means you don't need to process longer unless the dates are not broken up. Some food processors especially older ones are not good at processing dates and nuts like the new ones. That's probably why yours did that. So glad you liked them. They are one of my favorite snacks!
I think, next time I make them, I will process the peanuts a little before adding the other ingredients because some of the peanuts came out still in large pieces. I really haven't used the food processor a lot over the years I've had it until now. I've made two batches of almond butter and a batch of peanut butter recently, then this recipe. A co-worker has a new food processor and tried making some almond butter recently and said her food processor started smelling before her almond butter finished so I'm not sure a new processor would be any better than my old one, lol.
It definitely depends on the type of food processor. Some have more horsepower than others. Mine does the smell thing as well anytime I make things with dates. It's not that expensive, but my Mom has an old one that works really well. Go figure! Yours could be a combination of the dates and the nuts combining. At least it worked! No matter how you get there, right?
These bars look so amazing, Megan! I love everything you put into these, I always have most of the ingredients on hand. I’m definitely giving these a try!
Thanks! I hope you love them.
myour mom and i are a lot alike... 😉
haha!
You are too funny!!!! YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Apparently you're the only one who gets my sense of humor!
yum!! this one looks like a winner 🙂 thanks for sharing another great recipe! i bet these would be amazing out of the freezer too!
Oh yes! Obviously, mine didn't make it that far. 😉
These look magical. I would have eaten them all too.
LOL!
Haha your Mom reminds me of what my Dad does too lol! I don't blame her though, these look delish!
Yeah, I couldn't really either.
Just 4 ingredients!! Happy Friday to ME (and you)!
Cheers friend! 🙂
Oh my goodness...peanut butter and chocolate are my love language...pinning, these look so amazing! Happy Friday Megan!
Thanks for pinning Caroline! I hope you love them.
oh wow, these look amazing! i thought they would have a bunch of different ingredients in them, but i was pleasantly surprised to see the opposite! your mother sounds so cute, btw haha.
Haha...yes she's a character.
These look amazing, I adore the simple list of ingredients and know my hubby would be an instant fan. Thanks!
Hope you both love them!
I think your mom was justified 😀
Haha...she's kind of funny.
Three ingredients?! Well now....this lovely treat is a MUST! <3 Beautiful!
THANK YOU!
These looks incredible for being so simple! I want to get back to using dates too. In super protective of anything I make before pictures happen!
Dates are the best! I don't know how you keep the food away from the kids.