No-Bake Almond Joy Bars–low carb and vegan
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These No-Bake Almond Joy Bars are a coconut and chocolate lovers dream!
They’re so easy to make, you can satisfy your sweet tooth in a flash, they freeze well, and are loaded with healthy ingredients. Plus they work for almost any special diet–they are low-carb, paleo, and vegan too.
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Why You’re Going to Love These No Bake Bars
This recipe for Healthy Almond Joy Bars has got to be one of our all time favorites.
It’s one of the first healthy desserts that I made after starting on my sugar-free diet. I’ve shared these with sugar-free and non sugar-free folks alike and everyone has loved them.
I shared my original recipe for these right after I started blogging, and it was pretty good as it was. But thanks to some changes, it’s now truly amazing.
These bars are made with healthier ingredients than the traditional candy bar and since they are a bar variety, they’re easier to whip up than coated candies.
Whether you’re:
- looking for healthy chocolate candies
- wanting to make home made candy
- looking for a way to get more fat into your diet
this Healthy Almond Joy Bars recipe is for you.
Directions
Here are step by step photos of how to make these Almond Joy Bars. See the recipe card below for more details.
Combine almond butter and coconut oil and sweeter in pan. Melt. (steps 1 and 2)
Add cocoa powder and combine. (steps 3 and 4)
Spread chocolate base in pan. (step 5)
Combine coconut topping ingredients in pan. Stir over heat. (step 6)
Spread coconut topping over chocolate base. (steps 7 and 8)
A Tip for Using Stevia Extract
This recipe calls for stevia (though you can use an alternative sweetener if you like).
I use these stainless steel mini measuring spoons for all my stevia extract uses. The 2nd smallest scoop is 1/32 of a teaspoon (which equals 1 scoop).
These spoons are a MUST if you bake with stevia.
Recipe Notes and Substitutions
- Substituting Sweeteners: Make sure to read my tips on Substituting Sweeteners for Cooking and Baking if you want to make substitutions for the sweeteners in the post.
- About Stevia extracts: If using stevia, all extract powders are not created equal. I’ve used KAL in the past. NuNaturals is my current favorite, but I will be trying SweetLeaf soon. You can find NuNaturals at a better price on Iherb, one of my favorite places for supplements and health products. Their liquid stevia drops are wonderful and like NuNaturals, their processing technique is chemical free which I like.
- Multiple Sweeteners: Some have asked about the reason for the multiple sweeteners in the recipe. This makes a more natural tasting dish plus it minimizes any adverse health effects that might turn up from using any one of these alternative sweeteners. You can read more in this post about stevia.
- Alternative Sweeteners: For the 1 1/2 scoops stevia, you could also use vegetable glycerine, xylitol, erythritol, or any combination thereof. I really like using low-carb sweeteners due to being on a candida diet, which I started a number of years ago. Use a little more if using erythritol since it isn’t as sweet. You could use this DIY Truvia as well. Organic erythritol can be used instead of xylitol (just add 1/3 of the original amount). For every 2 tablespoons xylitol, 1/32 teaspoon stevia extract can be used.
- Oil Options: You can substitute palm shortening, as well as butter, for the coconut oil.
- Nut or Seed Butter: If you’re allergic or needing to avoid nuts, you can substitute really any nut or seed butter, but almond is especially nice. See Homemade Nut / Seed Butter for a make-your-own option. I have used almond butter, sunflower seed butter, as well as homemade pumpkin seed butter and they all worked out great.
- We love serving these chilled from the fridge or freezer but they don’t travel well in warm weather. You could make them with cocoa butter instead of coconut oil so they’ll hold up better in warmer temps.
- THM: For those on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, this recipe is an “S.”
- Keto | Low-carb: This recipe as written fits this diet.
- AIP: Use coconut butter instead of the seed / nut butter for AIP. Here’s how to make your own. I haven’t tried this, and the bars will for sure be more firm, but I think it can work.
More Healthier No Bake Treats
If you like this recipe, you’ll love….
Keto Mounds Bars – quite possibly the best Sugar-free Mounds Bar recipe out there.
Bean Fudge – yes, I said “beans.” So easy and so good.
Healthy Gummies – fun to make and funner to eat
Healthy Snickers Bars – vegan, keto / low-carb, and refined sugar-free. Peanut-free option too!
No-Bake Healthy Almond Joy Bars (low carb, vegan, gluten free, AIP)
Ingredients
Chocolate / Carob Base
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1/2 cup almond butter (see Recipe Notes for a link to my homemade version)
- 1/4 cup low carb sweetener (or preferred alternative sweetener)
- 6 tablespoons cocoa
- 4 tablespoons erythritol (see alternative in Recipe Notes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Coconut Topping
- 1 2/3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
- 7 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/3 cup low carb sweetener
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon additional flavoring (optional)
- 2 teaspoons arrowroot powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- almond halves or slices (optional)
- melted low carb chocolate chips for drizzle (optional)
Instructions
Base
- Melt oil and nut / seed butter over low heat.
- Stir in cocoa / carob (sifted if you like, but I have never bothered with this) and granulated sweetener and combine thoroughly.
- Mix in remaining ingredients except for vanilla. Continuously stir until it slightly thickens, then remove from heat.
- Stir in the vanilla.
- Pour the mixture into an 8×8 pan and place in freezer to harden while you make the topping. If you don’t have room in your freezer, the fridge will get it solid enough to work with.
Topping
- Melt oil in small pan and add coconut flakes. Stir.
- Add remaining ingredients. Simmer and stir until it thickens a bit.
- Once the chocolate is hardened, gently smooth the coconut mixture on top.
- Place slivered or whole almonds on top (optional). Place bars back in the freezer until hardened. Again, the fridge will work, but it will take longer.
- Slice into squares of desired size and enjoy! They’ll be too hard to cut right out of the freezer so let them thaw a bit first.
- Store in the refrigerator or freezer.
Notes
- Oil Options: You can substitute palm shortening, as well as butter, for the coconut oil.
- Nut or Seed Butter: If you’re allergic or needing to avoid nuts, you can substitute really any nut or seed butter, but almond is especially nice. See Homemade Nut / Seed Butter for a make-your-own option. I have used almond butter, sunflower seed butter, as well as homemade pumpkin seed butter and they all worked out great.
- Sweetener: Organic erythritol can be used instead of xylitol (just add 1/3 of the original amount). For every 2 tablespoons xylitol, 1/32 teaspoon stevia extract can be used.
- AIP: Use coconut butter instead of the seed / nut butter for AIP. Here’s how to make your own. I haven’t tried this, and the bars will for sure be more firm, but I think it can work.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
This recipe was updated with new photos. Here’s an earlier image that was in previous versions for your reference.
I’d love to hear what you think if you try them!
Do these freeze well?
Yes, they most certainly do! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy them!
Made these tonight and they were fantastic!! I only used 1/2 the shredded coconut because I ran out and they were still great! I will use the full amount of coconut next time for sure. So rich ! I used almond extract as the “additional flavor–yum! I also used about 1/2 t. of stevia instead of the erythritol. This is “No Sugar November” for me and my family ( our first time) and these were really a hit around here. : ) Love them–Trisha
Sooo glad to hear this! Are you only consuming low glycemic sweeteners? I think this is a great plan! I feel silly that I’m asking this but is this something a company started or it’s just happening? I love it!
Haven’t tried the recipe yet but I am going to! I am a bit confused as to your commenting on the amounts of sweeteners if you don’t use xylitol. I probably would use either monkfruit or Swerve but I am totally confused as to how much to substitute. I haven’t been this confused about sweeteners ever before! lol Thanks in advance for clearing it up for us.
Hi there – happy to help! What type of monk are you using–extract or combined w/ erythritol?
I’ve made this recipe a couple times now with monk fruit with great results. But not all monk fruit powders are made the same, sweetness levels can vary a lot so it really depends. I use Natrisweet brand monk fruit extract powder as it dissolves well and doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste as most stevia and monk fruit tend to since they typically use alcohol for the extracting. For this monk fruit I’ve noticed that doubling the amount when it calls for stevia in a recipe is usually perfect but I’ve also used the NOW brand and it’s much stronger and you could use nearly the same amount as stevia so it really depends on your monk fruit. For this recipe I use 3/4tsp for the choco/carob layer and 1tsp for the coconut layer.
I read that you’re working on posting nutritional info with recipes. I’d like to be able to keep track of carbs, but take your word that these are low carb and make them. Yum!
Thank you! We are working on it. All kinds of things that are taking up time but we will get to it!
I am still learning about sweeteners. Some are 1:1 and others are 2:1. I know serve is 1:1. Does Swerve measure like xylitol?
Xylitol is 1:1 for sugar as well, so yes.
Since xylitol kills good and bad bacteria (plus it upsets most people’s stomachs) I would suggest a combo of erythritol and stevia, which I guess is Truvia. I have always been partial to Almond Joy bars but now want to stay away from the sugar. Got a recipe for Snickers?
Hi Jean – thanks for reading! I have done some research into xylitol and stevia and erythritol and it’s complicated. I haven’t seen anything conclusive about xylitol killing gut bacteria–have you? In fact, I know some who tolerate it better than erythritol, so I guess it’s best to use what works for you. Anyhow, I hope you like these whatever you use! I don’t but I can try on the Snickers. LOVE them!!!