Name: Healthy Chocolate Bars
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Quick And Easy
Ingredients: 1 cup cashews; 1/2 cup pecans; 1/2 cup shredded coconut; Pinch of salt; 5 dates, soaked; 1 1/2 tbsp water; 85g/3oz dark chocolate

Want to eat a candy bar without feeling like your tooth is about to fall off? Then this healthy recipe for chocolate candy bars with nuts and coconut is for you! And for me, because I’ve been eating a lot of these over the last few weeks. These healthy bars make a great more nutritious dessert or snack whenever you need something sweet!

And they’re SO tasty! The recipe for the no-bake healthy chocolate bars cuts back on sugar and requires real, high-quality ingredients like dark chocolate, nuts, dates and shredded coconut.

Plus it’s super easy to make. All you need to do is blend up the ingredients, shape them as bars, cover the entire thing in chocolate and refrigerate for 40 minutes. So much better than Snickers, Twix or whatever else there is.

Now, let’s see what else you need for this healthy chocolate bars recipe!

Healthy Chocolate Candy Bars Ingredients

Nuts. I used a combo of raw cashews and pecans for this particular recipe because that’s what I had at home at the time. But I did try different variations as you’ll see under Options. You can use raw or roasted nuts. Keep in mind that roasted will have deeper flavor, but will be nutritionally inferior.

Dark chocolate. To me, chocolate should either be milk chocolate (around 30% cacao) or the other extreme – 85-90% cacao. I simply don’t like the middle thing. But we’re all different. You do whatever type of dark chocolate you like. The higher the cocoa % the lower the sugar content will be and the more beneficial nutrients you get from the cacao.

Dates. I’ve never been a huge fan of dates, but when it comes to sweetening desserts they are a better option than pure sugar or maple syrup since they come with so much fiber. Plus it turns out – I like their taste in here! Make sure to soak them in water for 20 minutes before starting to make the healthy chocolate bars.

Shredded coconut. I love coconut and I find it’s a great addition here! If you don’t like it, you can add a tbsp or two of ground oats instead.

Pinch of salt and some water. The salt will help the other flavors pop and a little bit of water will improve the texture of the filling. I know it sounds absurd, but it’s true.

How To Make Healthy Chocolate Bars

Add the nuts, shredded coconut, soaked dates, some water and a pinch of salt to a blender or a nut grinder and pulse until really well combined. Have a taste and adjust for sweetness by using maple syrup or honey or, if desired, add a pinch of salt for the flavors to come out.

Place the “dough” onto a larger baking sheet or in a tupperware, lined with parchment paper. Then shape into a rectangle as well as you can. I used my hands for this.

Place in the freezer for about 25 minutes, so that the mixture firms up, but isn’t frozen. Then cut into bars. For me, this made 5 bars.

Melt the dark chocolate in a bigger bowl that can fit the bars and start dipping them into the chocolate, coating everywhere. I find using a spatula to be super helpful in the process!

Once completely coated with chocolate, place the bar onto the parchment paper and repeat for as many bars as you have. Make sure to leave space between the healthy chocolate candy bars, so that they don’t stick to each other once the chocolate firms up. This is a mistake I made and that’s why mine don’t look perfect in the pictures – the coating comes off when you try to separate them. Luckily, as you can tell, I’m not a perfectionist, so I decided to share the recipe anyway because the taste is still good!

Now once all the bars are coated in chocolate, refrigerate for about 40 minutes to an hour.

Enjoy after that and store leftovers in the fridge.

Options

As mentioned in the beginning – I’ve been eating a variation of these over the last few weeks, so I did some undocumented experimenting.

Other ingredients I used after I made these were peanuts. Roasted peanuts and let me tell you, if you like peanut chocolate desserts, this is an option you need to try. Simply use peanuts instead of cashews. Or do 1/2 cashews 1/2 peanuts, or only peanuts.

I was a bit skeptical about the dates, but they actually worked really well here. If you don’t like them so much, feel free to use maple syrup or honey to taste.

Another option as mentioned is to use oats in place of coconut – this will reduce the fat and calorie content, if that’s something you want to do.

Other than that, adding some chunks of nuts will make the bars a bit more crunchy. You can also add cinnamon or cacao to the nut mixture and experiment with flavors in this way as well.

More Healthy Dessert Recipes

I hope you love this healthy chocolate candy bars recipe when you give it a try! For more healthy dessert options, check out these recipes: