Sugar-Free Almond Joy Bars
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These Sugar-free 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.
Why You'll Love These Sugar-Free Almond Joy 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)
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.
- Multiple Sweeteners: Using more than one alternative to sugar results in 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 about that issue 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've used homemade almond butter, homemade 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 these diets.
- 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, and they're peanut-free too!
Sugar-free Almond Joy Bars
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 or 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 an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
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!
These look and sound delicious! I have a number of your recipes pinned, but I must admit that I never can get to making them because they lack nutritional information. I am strictly limited on my daily net carbs (as are many of us on lchf). Sadly, I can’t make your lovely dishes unless I first run them through a recipe analyzer. I also run a low carb recipes Facebook group, and I hesitate to post your recipes there for the same reason. I realize carb and calorie counts must not be an issue for you, but I thought you might appreciate some feedback from a reader. Since you label them as low carb, it would be so helpful if we could see the numbers.
Hi Roxana,
Thanks for writing and for reading! OK so I will get on this. Can you tell me what the most helpful way to do it would be…for example would you like it run w/ xylitol mostly or 1/2 xylitol and 1/2 stevia (the way I normally do it)…the reason I ask is that I know that erythritol is more friendly for keto dieters but I don’t always use that so not sure how to handle it.
We were just talking about working on this yesterday. So good timing.
Please do note that these counters are not always accurate. We were all talking about this in a food blogger group and so it’s important to recognize the limitations of any of these. I will have to see which are accurate or what our system can handle. Do you have one you recommend? Thanks again!
Both xylitol and erythritol are sugar alcohols, which are omitted from carb counts. I use My Fitness Pal to run numbers on my own recipes. I use “erythritol minus sugar alcohol” to get the zero carb figure outcome on MFP. For the Powdered Swerve I have to input as “Swerve Confectioners Net Carbs” and then will get zero carbs. It’s a little tricky because you don’t know if people want to count those sugar alcohol carbs. But, if you had to choose, more people count net carbs than count whole carbs, so that’s how I do it on my own recipes. I include a disclaimer that says sugar alcohols are not absorbed by the body, therefore are not counted in the nutrition.
I hope this is the kind of information you’re looking for. Thanks very much for considering my request.
Thank you so much – that is helpful–what do you think about privacy concerns and loading all that info into My Fitness Pal? We got the nutritional info up for a few recipes and are trying to move through them to get more done – thanks again for your patience!
I’m not sure what you mean about privacy concerns on MFP. You have the option of making a recipe public or keeping it private. I make all of mine public, as it then means that people can log what they ate right into MFP easily. I don’t think recipes need privacy, but I may not be understanding your concern. If you want to email me so we can discuss further, I’m at (email removed by blog owner)
I meant that they ask you a lot of information to set up your account. Thoughts about that?
I’ve had my account so long I don’t really remember all of the questions. But I have had not problems or issues, nor do I get any type of spam mail due to my MFP account. You can give all fictitious information, if you want to. lol. Just keep your name and email correct should you ever need to contact them. Many of those questions you can skip, or choose an option to do it later. Then just leave them blank. They are there for those who are setting specific goals or tracking certain nutrients.
Great tip – thanks!!
A very healthy snack bar. Good for mid afternoon break.
Please include nutrition information
Hi Norma – thanks for reading! We are working on that but right now we are needing to change the whole recipe card system over so it’s going to be a bit. In the meantime you can take the ingredients and plug them in to a calculator that you trust – thanks for your patience!
I made these and tried them tonight. I’m super lazy in the kitchen but these weren’t bad, the worst part was waiting for them to chill (haha). The recipe was easy to follow and I gladly had everything on hand. The topping is AMAZING. The base is a little different than I was hope for I kept wondering if there should maybe be butter in the base? But still wicked yummy! (Enough for me to eat two pieces ?) I’m new to keto and this was my first keto treat I’ve made (ok, second, the first was inedible) and I’m sure I’ll be making them again!
Thanks, Shanna! Actually I have been making these every week these days. My oldest LOVES them. Hmmmm…butter. That’s an interesting idea. So glad you liked them! These might be something you would like too: https://wholenewmom.com/recipes/chocolate-avocado-truffles-chocolate-truffles-recipe-truffle-recipe/
This recipe is a universal hit among my mainstream guests and my gluten-free & vegan coworkers alike. They were so sweet tasting, though, that multiple people mentioned that next time they would only pair it with strong black coffee.
I subsequently cut the sweetener measurements in half and had a much more palatable result. A success! And pretty easy to make for an impressive looking candy dessert.
So great to hear! So which sweeteners did you use?
Just dark brown sugar I have on hand. Thrifty and easy.
I’ve also made numbers with the almonds on top (like an age, for a birthday cake), as well as big hearts 🙂
What a fun idea! Sounds like something I would do :).
This isn’t AIP, as it has multiple ingredients in it that are not compliant, such as nuts and stevia. Will you please remove the “AIP” tag as to not confuse those of us looking for AIP recipes?
Hello Catherine. I have AIP alternatives throughout the post. Perhaps you missed that? Let me know – thanks!
I would suggest removing the tag ‘low carb’ because people looking for low carb recipes are generally also interested in knowing the nutritional information (calories, carbs, fat, protein).
Hi Leah.
I’m sorry but I don’t have nutritional info set up yet but hope to by the summer. In the meantime, you can use an online calculator that you like to show that it is, indeed low carb. The ingredients that are used (with the low carb sweeteners) are all used in keto recipes so they are all acceptable. Do you think there is an ingredient that isn’t? Thanks! 🙂
I only wish they had the nutrition information for each recipe. That would be so very helpful….. I have failed to even try some of them due to not knowing the nutrition for a recipe and just not having time to look it up, this would be such an extra added blessing. Thank you for all your hard work. The recipes are just wonderful, thank you…..
I’m trying to get that going on the site – thanks for your patience! There are online calculators for now. So sorry!
I too tend to not try certain recipes if they don’t have nutrition labels.
I’m so sorry – I have spent hours and hours getting this new recipe format up and that’s my next step. But I’m under a huge pile of tax and personal issues and can’t get to it right now. First will be calories and then we have to see how the whole system works. Thanks for your patience. The bars are good – you can type them in to an online calculator using the variations that you would use.
I bake all the time and used to use food online calculators – but the past year, I haven’t even bothered. It is so easy, while you’re baking, to jot down ingredients used and amounts – I also quickly calculate some individual ingredients in my head (Calories, Sugar, Carb and oftentimes protein and fiber) – combined with a quick Google search, for example, “how many calories in half a medium apple” – you get an answer immediately, plus all nutritional info for an apple. After using a small calculator I keep in my kitchen (or you can use the calculator app on your smartphone or tablet) – I write my list on a small pad of paper per recipe – it may sound like a lot of work, but it really isn’t. I do this all while my baked goods are in the oven – or while opening up new ingredients (and looking up the info on packaging itself.)
Try using cronometer. I think it is connected to USDA database. Over 10000 entries with macro and nutritional info. You can create a food by entering your recipe ingredients..
Have made this several times now. It’s so freaking good!! My only problem is the Swerve leaves a weird aftertaste. It’s cooling like I smoked a menthol ? The first batch was too sweet for me so I dialed back the sweetener a bit. The batch I made tonight I used butter on the coconut hoping it’ll stick together better since I don’t have and Xanth gum or other thickener. Thank you so much for this recipe. And also I’ve made just the base and love to have that as a treat or snack!!!
So glad you liked it!!!
I liked the recipe, however I used swerve as my sweetener and it is SO sweet!!! Going to halve the recommendations next time. I also had a problem with the coconut topping falling apart. But they’re good ?