Homemade No-Bake Snack Bars
on Sep 15, 2014, Updated Aug 22, 2024
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I have an easy Snack Bar that tastes delicious and travels great too!
These snack bars are vegan, raw, gluten-free, dairy free, egg free, Paleo and Whole30 compliant, and just pretty dang delicious!
I love a snack that is filling and fuels your body. These snack bars are full of fiber, protein, healthy fats and natural sugars. A guilt free snack that people of all ages devour, much like my granola bars, and my zucchini muffins .
Don’t let the dates scare you. They are kind of an odd ingredient but very easy to find (I get Medjool dates at Costco) and are a great natural sugar.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Quick and easy to make
- Tastes great
- No baking required
- Fills you up
- Full of healthy fats and fiber
Ingredients:
- Pitted dates: these are the star of the show. New to dates? They are amazing! They don’t have a lot of flavor besides sweetness and their texture helps everything to stick together.
- Raw nuts: you can use whatever nuts you’d like here. I often use raw almonds
- Nut butter: use what you like or have on hand, I normally use natural peanut butter, because its sticky texture helps it all come together
- Unsweetened shredded coconut: this adds texture and flavor to this recipe, you can skip it if you don’t love coconut
- Cocoa powder: a little touch of chocolate flavor, my favorite
- Salt: just a bit helps to balance the flavors of these snack bars
See the recipe card below for full details on ingredients and quantities
Professional Tips & Tricks:
- Keep in fridge or freezer in an air-tight container
- Use the parchment paper that you lined the pan with in between the layers of your cut bars in the container so they don’t stick together
How to make snack bars:
- They are so easy! Toss everything in the food processor and let it blend.
- Once the mixture comes together remove it from the food processor and pat it into a parchment lined pan.
- Chill then slice and store in the fridge or freezer.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The first time I used dates I forgot to take out the pit and almost ruined my food processor! Date pits are hard as rocks. So don’t forget to take them out.
Dates are preserved best when stored in the fridge. They will last for about 6 weeks when stored in an airtight container.
Yes! I highly recommend making them and keeping them in the freezer. It’s so nice to have snack bars ready when you need them.
Some Other Recipes to Consider:
Granola Recipes
Homemade Granola Bars
Snacks for Kids
Crunchy Oat and Honey Granola Bars
Granola Recipes
No Bake Peanut Butter Honey Granola Bars
Healthy Snacks
8 Easy Granola Bar Recipes
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Homemade No-Bake Snack Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups pitted dates
- 3/4 cup raw cashews or almonds
- 1/4 cup nut butter, (I used natural peanut butter)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Toss everything into a food processor and process until the mixture starts to go smooth and clump into a ball. The dates will be all chopped up but you’ll still have bits of nut.
- Turn the mixture out into an 8 or 9 inch square dish lined with parchment paper. Use your hands to firmly press the mixture into the bottom of the dish. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove the bars from the pan and cut into pieces using a sharp knife.
- Store in an air-tight container in the fridge or freezer.
- Enjoy these bars cold or frozen.
Notes
- I think a high power blender could be used to make these, but I haven’t tried it myself.
- If your dates are very dry or starting to turn a little white (happens when they dry out) let them soak in warm water for 10 minutes before using, strain well and then use.
These sound delicious and I want to make them for a trip my daughter and are going on. However, she does not like coconut. Is there something else I could use? We are going to use pecans instead of the almonds or cashews. Thanks for your help.
Yes! Just sub it out for more nuts or leave it out all together, no big deal!
Hello,
I do roast dates in 1 table spoon pure ghee for 4 to 5 minutes on law flame and than add rest of ingredients. It gives better taste ( we love it)
Love, love, love this recipe! Dates + cashews are a perfect combo and no bake is my favorite thing ever! I need to try these for sure.
ENJOY!!! Happy snacks bars to you friend, they are so good!
I made this today and they are very good. I used shelled pistachios and added chia seeds. Amazingly easy and delicious!
Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing your fun variation!
Its very yummy but my bars are very oily do you know why?
Sometimes if you over process the nuts they start to turn into nut butter instead of just the chopped nuts. I bet that’s what happened in your case!
Hi, has anyone tried these without the cashews, or have you substituted the cashews for something else? My daughter is very allergic and I wouldn’t want to keep these in the house. I would love any ideas on how I could make these work. Thanks! 🙂
You can just just about any nut for the cashews, it all works great!
Sometimes I get headaches from nuts, esp peanuts. I looked up replacements for nuts and found coconut butter. That might be an option.
Delicious! Mine weren’t quite holding together, so I added a generous tablespoon of coconut oil. Next time I would consider adding ground flax seed, chia, anything yummy such as pumpkin or sunflower seeds
Both the chia and flax seed help them stay together better too. You’ll love the additions!
Yummy! loved them
WOW! These looks so yumme.
I was so excited to make these, they sound like just what I need for a quick substantial snack while taking care of my 9 month old…but they burned out my Cuisinart! 🙁
Ahhhh! What size was your food processor?! That’s so sad. I’m going to send you an email…