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!
I can’t wait to make these, and I have all the ingredients on hand. Where did you find a 1/32 tsp scoop? I have the nunaturals stevia extract in a spice jar.
Hi – hope you like them! I have a photo and link to the post now of the scoops that I use. Enjoy!!
This recipe looks amazing! I included it in a round up of 25 gluten free desserts. Thanks for sharing. 🙂 https://www.creativegreenliving.com/2013/03/25-delicious-gluten-free-desserts-that.html
They are really great. I loved your round up and shared it on Facebook – thanks!
Why are these not covered or drizzled in chocolate after they were cut apart? 8-0
Also, maple syrup works fantastic for a sweetener and you would have a liquid to mix the arrowroot powder in..
Nice idea! I am not using maple due to having candida but nice idea!
This looks really good! I’m going to try doing it all in the dehydrator (melting the oil) and make them a raw bar! I’ll let you know! I belong to a raw food group, and we meet for a potluck once a month, so I’ll try these for that meeting!
Thanks!
Sounds great!
Where can one get stevia extract powder?
There’s a link in the post now :).
Hi Adrienne, this looks amazing and I can’t wait to make it! I use Sweetleaf LIquid Stevia…do you know how much I should use to make this recipe using liquid stevia? OR Sweetleaf Stevia in packets? Thanks!!
Kinda hard to tell. This is info from one chart I reference: A pinch to 1/16 teaspoon 2 to 4 drops of liquid stevia. I tend to never use the packets b/c they are so expensive! Did you see my liquid stevia recipe? I find it hard to gauge stevia and even recently I tested a new brand and it was a lot weaker than the one I use. Hope you like it!!! (I’m guessing…. 8-12 drops???)
Thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes! I made these for Thanksgiving and it was everyone’s favorite.
Wonderful! I am so glad to hear it!
P.S. I used the coconut left over from making coconut milk so it wasn’t nearly as pretty as yours, but it feels great to be learning how to make so many things from a coconut!! =]
Thank you for your recipe! These looked amazing but I could never bring myself to use up almost a cup of my precious coconut oil (I have to have it brought to Guatemala where we are missionaries). After a bit of a hard time during Thanksgiving (first one with no family) and a few months of doing well on Beyond Diet, I decided to make it as a surprise for my husband. It was wonderful! Very rich, so we ate too much, but am looking forward to having a bit with a cup of coffee in a few minutes with the hubby. Thank you again. I look forward to going through your recipes. It’s on my “list”… 😉
Thank you!!
You probably meant to say in the Notes of the recipe: “1 scoop = 32 tsp of sugar rather than 1/32 tsp” ???
What I meant is that a scoop is really small and is 1/32 of a tsp. Does it make sense now? Thanks 🙂
Hi, Adrienne,
Can you tell me how much one scoop of stevia powder would equal? Thanks! Really enjoying your blog!
1/32 tsp is typically what it equals. 🙂
I can’t wait to make these, but have a question. I’m not sure if I’m just having a blond moment or not. In the method for the base, it says to mix in the remaining ingredients, and later it says to mix in the liquid sweetener and vanilla. The only remaining ingredients were those two. Do i let it thicken before or after i add the sweetener and vanilla?
Wow, Leah. I have no idea why I wrote that. I just fixed it. You were the first person to catch that. Wish I had a prize to offer you :-). Thanks!
Adrienne,
Guess I thought your blogs were about whole natural foods. Xylitol, erythritol, vegetable glycerine, stevia, sucanat, maltodextin to name a few, are derivatives and not good on the body. They do all kinds of bad things to our system. All these give me and many other people migraines among other things. I have to stay with the natural and unprocessed sugars. Our bodies process whole & natural foods much easier. You do have some good recipes. I didn’t have time to read all the posts but did see some people having problems with concentrated sugars etc. Pure local low temp processed honey is the best way to go, helps with allergies too. I also use raw sugar. I’ll keep looking in. Thanks for all your hard work and time you put into this.
Hello Linda. I understand your concerns about sweeteners, but really that is something I hope to post about more. You see, I would LOVE to eat honey, and used to, but I have candida now and it is really bad so I suspect that I will never be able to eat is again. I can’t eat sucanat either. I have never recommended that anyone eat maltodextrin but I am not horribly concerned about it.
Just like those who have issues with “concentrated sugars” (though I am not sure what you mean by that), I cannot have anything that feeds candida and there are a lot of others out there w/ similar issues since candida is rampant these days.
Pure stevia extract is, from all of my research, actually quite safe. I just did a ton of research on it yesterday and will most likely be posting an interview regarding it soon. As for xylitol and erythritol, they are the best of the sugar alcohols and I don’t have a problem w/ glycerine either. I am a member of a candida blog and the holistic health counselor there is super particular about the sweeteners she thinks are good and she thinks that it is totally fine.
I am doing the best I can with the hand that I have been dealt and hope to be a help to others. I should also mention that my current health practitioner thinks that the devastation on our health from “natural sugars” is far worse than anything from xylitol, erythritol, and stevia. She sees tons of diabetic cases and I am sure that you are aware of how epidemic that is in our world today. So….I hope that helps you understand where I am coming from. Overall, we should trim our use of sweets – but I hope you can see that I am trying to help those who would like to curb their use of sugars do so in as healthy of a manner as possible. Thanks for commenting and I hope to see you around again.
I came here to look at the comments because i had the same problem as Amy. The coconut i used is very finely shredded and very dry and immediately absorbed all the coconut oil. I added 2 extra tablespoons of oil but the mixture never became a liquid. I went ahead and pressed it on top of the chocolate and it’s in the freezer, so we’ll see. I guess next time i will look for another brand of coconut that’s maybe not so fine and dry. I am sure it will still taste delicious, can’t wait to eat it! 🙂
Mine never becomes liquid, but it still sticks. Keep me posted!
I had the same problem. It didn’t stick together. I’m still waiting for the first layer to harden up before spreading the coconut mixture on top. But after that, I’m planning to melt some more chocolate to spread on top and I’m hoping that will help it all stick together. I guess we’ll see. Otherwise, I’m really excited to try the finished product!
Kristi – did you use all the same ingredients? I’m really puzzled by this. Thanks! I’m sure it’ll taste good but I’d like to sort this out. Thanks!
Yes, I used all the exact ingredients that are in the recipe (used honey granules/sucanat with honey for the sweetner), but when I added the coconut it soaked up all the oil. I ended up adding a little coconut milk (maybe a few tablespoons and then some more arrowroot powder. That seemed to do the trick – it stuck together after that. The melted chocolate chips on top were wonderful too, but almost too rich. Thanks for the great recipe and your help!
Hmmm..Well, I don’t know. I can fwd to another blogger friend to see what she thinks. But so glad you liked it! It never seems like it’s going to stick together for me, but it does. I’ve used xylitol and sucanat. Thanks and so glad you enjoyed it!
I had a question. I have made this recipe 3 times and the coconut topping looks nothing like yours and is very crumbly and doesn’t want to stick to the chocolate base. You mention to let it thicken but there is nothing to thicken when I make it. Am I missing something. I did use sucanat not stevia as I don’t have any. Any help would be great!
Amy, It doesn’t always stick that well for me – it depends. But it does thicken a little. It’s the arrowroot / cornstarch that helps w/ the thickening. I made it myself with sucanat awhile ago and it worked great so I am not sure what is happening. Maybe try adding 1-2 T of coconut oil additionally to see what happens? Let me know or maybe some other readers can chime in…
Would these be a suitable treat for diabetics? My husband was just diagnosed last week. I cook fairly healthy meals, but am feeling a little overwhelmed with everything I’m reading about what he can and cannot have. He has a major sweet tooth, so this is a tough transition for him, and me too, I know nothing about artificial sweeteners and which ones are the best for him, or for different recipes. There is so much conflicting information.
Hi Dee! Any of the sweeteners that I use would be suitable for a diabetic. I don’t typically tell readers what sweetener to use b/c I want them to use what they think is appropriate for them. But key to your husband’s health is staying off sugars and carbs (especially refined (white) ones). There is debate on the healthfulness of different sweeteners, but seeing as his blood sugar is such a high priority I would go for stevia (pure extract – not the grocery store kind w/ the fillers), vegetable glycerine, xylitol and erythritol. Yacon is a pretty good option but it’s really expensive. Then some people think pure sucralose is OK but I haven’t used it for making treats.
When I made these I used stevia and xylitol. Good luck and let me know if you have more questions. I hope to do a post on sweeteners soon so you can learn a little about interchanging in recipes. For now, xylitol can go 1:1 in recipes calling for sugar, but it may upset his stomach a bit if he eats too much and the kinds made w/ birch are preferable to those made w/ corn.
Take care.
Adrienne-
Made these tonight! I was so excited but I think I used too much stevia or something. I used stevia (nunaturals), veg. glycerin,and a xyliotol blend. Both the xylitol and stevia has maltodextrin in them so I don’t know if thats it or what? I’ve never had this problem before. I used cocoa too. They just came out funny. Almost bitterly too sweet and not satisfying. Anyway I can fix them so I don’t waste them? They seem too sweet but bitter at the same time!?
Hi Ariana – did you use the measurements as shared? I have never heard of xylitol w/ maltodextrin in it – and the stevia I recommended is the extract – not a blend. Did you use the same amount? How odd? If you used the same amount it wouldn’t have been as sweet I don’t think. Since I use NuNaturals I can’t imagine where the bitterness is coming from….Maybe if you try making another batch and this time just use the veg glycerine and mix the combination together – or just melt it all together to make a “blended” almond Joy bar (after adding another batch to the mix). That way you’ll know that the maltodextrin isn’t messing things up. By the way, maltodextrin isn’t the greatest thing if you are watching your sugar intake. It’s a starch sugar so I never eat it, especially as a filler for stevia since from what I understand the body will metabolize it as sugar.
Hope that helps and let me know!
OMG Almond Joys were my favorite candy bars when I used to indulge in that. When I saw the name of your post I was upset because I just went sugar free on New Years and started experimenting with xylitol! Thanks so much for this recipe…since upon reading it I was overjoyed to see that you are also sugar free and use xylitol as well as stevia. So happy to find your blog!
I am so glad that you stopped by! It is hard for me to share with others that all of my posts are almost completely special diet friendly. I guess I need to go back and make sure that I put “sugar free” in the title :-). I so hope that you like them! Hope to see you around!
These look wonderful. My husband loves almond joys!
Thanks for linking up for Friday Favorites! I’m featuring you this week. Come by and grab my featured button if you’d like one.
Jerri – Thanks! I am sure you’ll love them! Thanks for the feature!
These look great, I think my husband would love them.
Yea – let me know how they go!