Blog

Vegan Paleo Kit Kat Bars

October 31, 2019 · Natalie 22 Comments

Crispy, crunchy (healthier!) Kit Kat bars with homemade vegan paleo wafers layered between silky dark chocolate. The perfect easy DIY halloween treat!

THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY HU

How could I not post one last homemade candy recipe for you on HALLOWEEN?

It’s one of my long time favorite chocolate bars too, although the challenge of making my own always intimidated me. Crunch bars? Easy. Snickers? Gimme some medjool dates and I got this. Butterfinger? Been there (just) done that.

But Kit Kats. With their multi-layered wafer middle and slender snappy shape and delicately thin chocolate coating. Oh and let’s just go ahead and make them vegan AND paleo too why don’t we. Nbd.

But I did my research. A.k.a. I watched this video, learned a few tips, and then put my own healthier simpler spin on it. And they turned out even better than I expected! I had a couple of friends taste test them (then finished the rest myself before I had to do any more sharing), and they loved them too.

So here’s what we’re working with.

Almonds and coconut. I wanted to keep this recipe grain-free and as wholesome as possible, so these two blended together is the “flour” for the wafer. You could use another type of nut like cashews or hazelnuts even, but I recommend keeping the coconut in there.

Maple syrup and nut/seed butter. I used sunflower seed butter melted with the maple syrup, but something more neutral flavored like almond or cashew butter would even be better. And yes agave or honey would work instead of maple. The key is to melt this – stovetop or microwave – until almost boiling so it’s easier to mix into the dry ingredients and roll out the dough REALLY thin. Then bake and cool.

Hu Gems. Ah yes, the perfect silky chocolate coating. Never have I met a chocolate chip that melts more perfectly. No need to add coconut oil to get that perfect THIN coating, Hu Gems just naturally have the ideal consistency. And of course taste better and are made with better ingredients than any other chocolate chip/chunk too. Too much to love really ♡

P.S. I also spotted them at Whole Foods last week! Or you can still always order online (use code FEASTINGONFRUIT for 20% off).

Did you know that the chocolate between the wafer layers of a Kit Kat is actually made from crushed/melted Kit Kats? So when you see me crush the extra wafer edges and stir them into the melted chocolate – she’s not crazy she’s just done her research.

You want very small crumbs though, otherwise it will mess up the wafer-to-wafer glue effect. And if you don’t want to bother with this, skip it! But it does add extra CRUNCH.

See not so hard. Not so scary. Not just for Halloween. Not for sharing if you are greedy when it comes to really really good chocolate things like me.

Happy homemade Kit Kat making to you!

Vegan Paleo Kit Kat Bars

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews

Author: Natalie
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Yield: 8 bars 1x
Category: chocolate
Method: baking
Cuisine: american

Print Recipe

Description

Crispy, crunchy (healthier!) Kit Kat bars with homemade vegan paleo wafers layered between silky dark chocolate. The perfect easy DIY halloween treat!

Ingredients

Scale

3/4 cup (75g) unsweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup (105g) raw almonds (or nuts of choice)
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup (65g) nut or seed butter
1/4 cup (80g) maple syrup
1 cup (160g) Hu Gems

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Blend the coconut and almonds to a fine flour. Transfer to a bowl.
Melt the nut/seed butter with the maple syrup. Stir until smooth.
Pour over the flour. Add a pinch of salt. Mix to form a dough.
Press/roll as thin as possible onto a lined baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350ºF.
Cool for 10-15 minutes. Cut off the edges (save them) to form a rectangle. Cut that rectangle into 3 (see video).
Melt the Hu Gems. Divide into 2 separate bowls.
Crush/blend the cut off edges into fine crumbs (you may not use all of them). Stir into half of the melted chocolate.
Layer the wafer rectangles with the crumb-filled chocolate. Refrigerate about 10 minutes until it holds together.
Slice into 8 bars.
Cover with the remaining chocolate.
Refrigerate or freeze until set.
Eat!

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 bar
Calories: 341g
Sugar: 17g
Sodium: 77mg
Fat: 28g
Saturated Fat: 12g
Carbohydrates: 29g
Fiber: 7g
Protein: 7g

Keywords: almond, candy, coconut, dairy-free, easy, egg-free, halloween, healthy, homemade, oil-free, video, wafer

CLICK BELOW TO PIN

SunButter Butterfingers

October 27, 2019 · Natalie 15 Comments

Healthier homemade butterfinger candy bars with a sneaky ingredient for the crunchy nut-free filling covered in dark chocolate. Vegan and gluten-free!

THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY SUNBUTTER®

As a kid I would’ve traded all my butterfingers for one crunch bar or a couple of kit kats. It wasn’t until after my trick-or-treating career was over that I discovered just how good those peanut crunchy candy bars actually are. And it wasn’t until last week that I discovered just how much BETTER homemade, healthier, nut-free butterfingers are. But I will never go back now.

Just fill your entire plastic pumpkin with nothing but SunButter Butterfingers and it will be the happiest halloween of your life. Or happiest October 24th, why wait?

I’ve seen those butterfinger recipes that mush together candy corn and peanut butter, and my thoughts on that are a) absurd b) an insult to candy corn and c) just please no.

We’ve got much better things going on here and simpler too – just 5 ingredients!

Here’s the thing. Butterfingers need some sort of CRUNCH element inside. Since these are nut-free it’s not going to be peanuts. And since these are refined sugar free it’s not going to be candy corn. And since these are ridiculously easy it’s not going to require making or baking or creating our own crunch. It’s cereal. The answer is cereal.

Any plain (gluten-free if necessary) kind of cereal you like really, but I used crispy brown rice cereal. Emphasis on crispy, the puffed stuff won’t work here it will just get soggy. But crispy rice cereal stays crunchy and blends right into the yummy salty/sweet SunButter center perfectly.

Step 1. Make the filling with a crushed up mix of cereal, SunButter, and maple syrup. Cereal for crunch. SunButter for “nutty” (but nut-free!) flavor. Maple syrup for sweetness.

Step 2. Press into a pan and freeze until firm and easy to slice into bars. You can cut them fun-sized or treat yourself to full-sized DIY butterfingers.

Step 3. Coat the bars in melted dark chocolate. I find it easiest to coat the bottom first, place on a wire rack, cover the top/sides letting the excess drip off, and then use two forks to transfer to a pan lined with wax paper before it hardens onto the rack. But even if the coating comes out messy, chocolate is chocolate and chocolate is good.

True story: I messed up the first round of this recipe by overestimating the capacity of my food processor and not blending the cereal by itself first. So don’t do that unless you are going for a butterfinger/rice crispy treat hybrid (*insert smirk emoji here because that actually sounds low key amazing*).

Kinda unconventional. Mostly healthier. Very easy. Soooooooo irresistible.

If you can make the batch last longer than 3 days, you already have me beat.