Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Bars

Happy Thursday! In today’s post I’m going to talk about these vegan peanut butter chocolate cookie bars I recently made. As you can probably tell, I’ve been baking a lot these past few months.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.

---

My goal is to post two new recipes each week and dedicate the other five days to making posts about college, work life, productivity, and so much more. This blog is a little mix of everything!

But for now, let’s talk about these vegan snicker cookie bars.

I was inspired to make this dessert because as a kid, one of my favorite desserts was the snickers candy bar. Since I am no longer able to eat those because they’re not vegan friendly, I thought it was the perfect time to make a dessert inspired by one of my favorite treats I had as a kid.

---

The Cookie Base

I don’t know about you, but I prefer soft cookies as opposed to crunchy, hard cookies. What typically happens is that when I attempt to make hard cookies, they turn out rock solid like a brick. That’s why I typically opt to make soft cookies.

For this cookie base, I didn’t use a whole lot of sweetener because with the icing, I didn’t want them to be overly sweet. The base is a mixture of ingredients including peanut butter, oats, almond milk, applesauce, maple syrup, and so on. I only used one tablespoon of maple syrup in this recipe, so it’s a pretty healthy dessert.

Here’s my favorite creamy peanut butter I use.

---

The Frosting

I decided to make a rich chocolate frosting to coat the cookies because what goes better with peanut butter than chocolate? Nothing. Thus, I made the frosting out of peanut butter, dates, and chocolate chips. I think this is the first time that I’ve ever made a frosting for any recipe, so I wasn’t sure how it would come out. However, it turned out a really good consistency and tasted super sweet. I am seriously hooked on using dates when making frosting. They’re a game changer.

Why use dates instead of table sugar?

Dates are super sweet for one, so if you don’t want to use table sugar or high fructose corn syrup, using a highly sweet fruit like dates is the way to go. Additionally, dates have a really good consistency once blended. I melted a little bit of chocolate and added both peanut butter and dates to the mixture and it turned out great.

I am also adamant about promoting healthy and nutritious foods, and sugar can be quite unhealthy in too large of quantities.

---

Ingredients you’ll need:

1. Vanilla Extract

The first ingredient you’ll need to make these delicious peanut butter chocolate cookie bars is vanilla extract. You only need a splash because vanilla extract is super powerful and has a strong flavor.

---

2. Rolled Oats

The next ingredient is rolled oats. You’ll notice on the ingredients list (in the recipe down below) that rolled oats is listed twice. This is because you’ll need to make oat flour using 1/2 cup of rolled oats, in addition to folding in some non-blended oats into the cookie batter.

In order to make oat flour, all you do is blend rolled oats in a blender or food processor. I used a NutriBullet, but you can use any blender you want.

---

3. Peanut Butter

Next up is peanut butter. I used a creamy natural peanut butter that contains no added oils or sugar. It only contains peanuts and salt. If you’re looking for a good natural peanut butter, I recommend trying out Krema or Smucker’s Creamy Natural Peanut Butter. They’re both super delicious and healthy!

---

4. Maple Syrup

Up next is maple syrup. You only need one tablespoon of maple syrup for this entire batch of cookies. Maple syrup is used in the cookie base, while I used dates as the frosting. Maple syrup is very sugary and sweet, so a little goes a long way.

---

5. Baking Powder

You’ll also need baking powder to help make the cookies rise. It’s very strong, so be sure you’re using the correct measuring tool!

---

6. Almond Milk

Then you’ll need almond milk, or another plant-based milk. I typically use almond milk in my dessert recipes because it’s my favorite plant-based milk, however, any plant-based milk will do just fine. I’ve also tried cashew milk and oat milk and really like them as well. I like adding oat milk to my coffee in the mornings because it’s super sweet

---

7. Applesauce

I love using applesauce in my dessert recipes because it helps sweeten the dessert, but there’s no added sugar. It’s solely natural sugar from fruit alone.

---

8. Vegan Chocolate Chips

The last ingredient you’ll need is chocolate chips. My favorite vegan baking chips to use are Lilly’s and Enjoy Life’s. They’re super tasty and are relatively low in sugar.

---

Now enough with the intro. Let’s get into the recipe!

---

What I love about this recipe is that it only takes twenty minutes to bake in the oven. I hate desserts that require an hour plus to bake because I’m super impatient.

Once the cookies were done baking, I waited for them to cool for a bit and layered them with a thick coat of date frosting. Me being my typical self, I had to sprinkle a few more mini chocolate chips on top for decoration purposes.

---

Check out my other dessert recipes!

1. Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

2. Strawberry Banana Smoothie

---

Final Thoughts

This dessert recipe being one for the books. I’m starting to branch out a little more and make a variety of desserts, and this was a good start. I hope that this post brightened your day a bit and that you enjoy making this dessert as much as I did.

Don’t hesitate to make comments below! Also make sure to be on the look out for new recipes and new posts, I have committed to posting daily! Have a wonderful day.

---

~Spread happiness & kindness