Nut Bars with Chocolate Drizzle
Paleo Bars with Nuts and Chocolate Drizzle – These homemade protein-packed snacks are crunchy, sweet, and deliciously wholesome. Plus, this easy nut bars recipe also happens to be gluten-free, paleo, and vegan!
Why We Love This Paleo Nut Bars Recipe
I’ve made healthy granola bars, energy bars, and energy balls plenty of times before. However, my latest Paleo Bar Recipe with Chocolate Drizzle is a real winner, because it’s made solely out of nuts, Wholesome!™ organic, non-GMO sweeteners, and a little spice.
Both of my kids LOVE this Nut Bar Recipe with Chocolate Drizzle. The reason they love them so much is that these Paleo Bars with Chocolate Drizzle are sweet and super crunchy. And I as a parent love them because they’re all of those good things, PLUS they are:
- Paleo
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
- Vegan
So unless you’re dealing with a nut allergy, these bars are perfect for everyone!
Ingredients You Need
Here’s everything you need to make this fabulous sweet and lightly salty snack:
- Raw nuts – we use a combination of whole cashews, almonds, pecans, and walnuts
- Raw pepitas – AKA lil pumpkin seeds
- Wholesome!™ Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
- Wholesome!™ Organic Blue Agave
- Vanilla extract – I recommend organic for the best flavor
- Sea salt – a generous bit to balance the sweetness
- Cinnamon – the “secret” ingredient to make sweet dishes taste extra delicious
- Dark chocolate – organic 80% dark chocolate is my fave
Once the coconut sugar melts into the agave, it creates a sticky base for the bars that will harden enough to form the bars, yet isn’t tough on your teeth. The touch of vanilla, salt, and cinnamon give these snack bars extra oomph, making them hard to resist.
How to Make Homemade Paleo Nut Bars with Chocolate
Preheat the oven and line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside.
Then mix all of the raw whole nuts together in a large bowl.
Pour the Wholesome!™ Coconut Palm Sugar, Agave, vanilla extract, sea salt, and cinnamon in a large sauce pot. Bring to a simmer and stir to dissolve the sugar.
The moment the sugar is completely melted, and the edges are bubbling, turn off the heat and pour in the nuts.
Quickly mix the nuts into the syrup with a wooden spoon, until they are completely coated.
Then immediately pour the nut mixture out onto the prepared baking sheet. Use a piece of wax paper to press the mixture firmly together.
Get the Complete (Printable) Paleo Nut Bars with Chocolate Drizzle Recipe Below. Enjoy!
Bake the nut bars on the center rack until the tops are golden. Then (this is the hard part) allow the nut bars to cool for at least 45 minutes in the pan.
Lift the whole pan of nut bars out of the pan, by the edges of the parchment paper. Cut into 24 bars.
Pro Tip: Spread the bars apart after slicing them. If you leave them right next to each other they can get sticky and essential glue themselves back together.
How to Make a Vegan Dark Chocolate Drizzle
You can enjoy these nut bars as-is, or drizzle the tops with a little dark chocolate. Here’s how:
- Break a bar of dark chocolate into pieces and place over a double-boiler to melt.
- Once melted, pour the chocolate into a plastic bag.
- Snip off a tiny portion of the corner, and pipe the chocolate over the bars. Allow the chocolate to dry before eating or wrapping.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t like a particular nut, feel free to make substitutions. Just be sure to have 3 cups whole nuts and 3 cups of small nut pieces, so they hold together well.
Yes, they are! These snacks do not have any dairy, eggs, or honey.
Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1 week, or in the fridge for up to a month.
For easy lunchbox treats, wrap them individually and keep them in the freezer. That way, they’ll keep a long time and cool the rest of the lunchbox items as they thaw.
Looking for More Easy Snack Recipes? Be Sure to Also Try:
- Lunch Box Ideas
- Healthy Baked Carrot Chips
- Homemade Trail Mix Valentine Snack
- Sausage Roll Crazy Bread
- Homemade Tzatziki Sauce with Veggies
- 3-Ingredient Cracker Jack Fudge
- Perfect Tamale Pie
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
- Cheesy Lunchbox Poppers
- Back to School Lunch Ideas from Lauren’s Latest
Paleo Bars with Nuts and Chocolate Drizzle
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole raw cashews
- 1 1/2 cups whole raw almonds
- 1 cup chopped raw pecans
- 1 cup chopped raw walnuts
- 1 cup raw pepitas pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup Wholesome!™ Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
- 1/3 cup Wholesome!™ Organic Blue Agave
- 1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 ounces organic 80% dark chocolate optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix the cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts, and pepitas.
- Pour the Wholesome!™ Coconut Palm Sugar, Agave, vanilla extract, sea salt, and cinnamon in a large sauce pot. Bring to a simmer and stir to dissolve the sugar. The moment the sugar is completely melted, and the edges are bubbling, turn off the heat and pour in the nuts. Quickly mix the nuts into the syrup with a wooden spoon, until they are completely coated. Pour the nut mixture out onto the prepared baking sheet. Use a piece of wax paper to press the mixture firmly together.
- Bake the nut bars on the center rack for approximately 20 minutes until the tops are golden. Then (this is the hard part) allow the nut bars to cool for at least 45 minutes in the pan.
- Lift the whole pan of nut bars out of the pan, by the edges of the parchment paper. Cut into 24 bars. Spread the bars apart. Break one 4 ounce bar of dark chocolate into pieces and place over a double-boiler to melt. Once melted, pour the chocolate into a plastic bag. Snip off a tiny portion of the corner, and pipe the chocolate over the bars. Allow the chocolate to dry before wrapping. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1 week, or in the fridge for up to a month.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Wholesome!™ Sweeteners. All sugary-sweet opinions are my own.
I have used this recipe commercially for years it has never let me down, I have doubled, trippled and quadrupled it, changed the ingredients to include all things, Oats, flaxseed, sunflower seed, chia, hemp seeds, buckwheat, almong meal etc… subbed the wet ingredients at times for others. As long as the wet and dry remain relatively similar and if you use something likes Oats or almond meal you slightly increase the wet… you cannot go wrong it’s an excellent combination, so forgiving and people LOVE IT
Do.you think honey or maple syrup could be used in place of the agave? Should it make much difference?
Hi B,
Agave and maple syrup have a similar consistency and stickiness. I haven’t tried the recipe with maple syrup, but it should work!
Absolute favorite in my household!!
Or, if you are committed to the chocolate, you can always add a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to the wet mixture.
Just made these. While they are delicious, they are not solidifying after cooling. I’m wondering if it’s because I used an erythritol/monk fruit sweetener in place of the palm sugar. I will try baking a bit longer and see if that helps. Great recipe otherwise!
Great recipe! We all love it. I did change out the agave for manuka honey. Very tasty and much more benefits to using the honey.
These were SOO good, thank you for the recipe! My whole family LOVED them. The only change I made was adding 1 tsp of espresso-infused sugar on top of the chocolate drizzle, I used Nudie’s 80% chocolate made with coconut sugar and it was a bit too bitter for me so the sugar helped combat that. But you could totally just use monkfruit sweetener for a healthier way to accomplish the same thing, or use a sweeter chocolate of course.
NOTE: For those of you wanting to take a walk on the wild side, if you roughly chop up half a bar and throw it on top of a banana split, it’s guaranteed to make even the most stressful day a LITTLE bit better ^-^
I have been making these bars for several months now and experimenting a bit. I found that you can substitute honey for the agave but that makes it a little bit more sticky. I have tried maple syrup and that is really the best so far with the coconut sugar. The other thing I do that’s different is I delete the cinnamon because I’m not really fond of it And then when it comes out of the oven and still hot I have chocolate chips ready to press over the top which is an easy way to make the glaze without melting chocolate.
I was trying to imitate the Costco Kirkland nut bars which I love and these come the closest. Thank you so much for this recipe I love it.
I’m new to paleo.
Is so much sugar allowed in paleo?
I’m doing paleo for health reasons, so I wouldn’t want to risk it, even though your recipe i ssooo tempting :)
Thank you!
Hi Maya,
It depends on who you ask. From my understanding, you can eat natural sweeteners, but not processed sweeteners. How much you eat, is up to you.