These no bake chocolate sunbutter bars are rich and decadent, and free of the top allergens! The sunbutter and cookie crumb layer is covered with a smooth chocolate layer. This is an easy dessert that’s reminiscent of peanut butter cups.
I love a good no bake recipe, don’t you? When you want to make a quick treat, there’s nothing like a recipe that doesn’t need to spend time in the oven.
Since it’s Halloween, I have candy on my mind, and I thought it’d be a good time to share this recipe for sunbutter bars.
These bars have two delicious layers – the bottom is a sunbutter and cookie crumb layer, and the chocolate topping is made of dairy free chocolate chips and more sunbutter, for a super smooth texture.
The combination results in a taste that’s very similar to Reese’s peanut butter cups.
If you’re new to sunbutter, this dessert might be a good way to try it out! My husband isn’t usually crazy about sunbutter (unlike me – I’m a huge fan!), but he did love it in this recipe.
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Ingredient Notes
- Sunflower Seed Butter – We love creamy sunbutter (you can use crunchy if you prefer). If you can’t do sunflower, you can do pumpkin seed butter or a different seed if you prefer.
- Dairy Free Chocolate Chips – We use Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Chips and love them in this recipe.
- Gluten Free Cookie Crumbs – Try crunchy cookies from brands like Partake or Kinnikinnick. You could also use gluten free graham crackers.
- Vegan Buttery Spread – We like Earth Balance Soy Free Vegan Buttery Spread.
- Powdered Sugar – Wholesome Brand Sweeteners makes powdered sugar that is vegan and corn free, so that’s what we use.
Substitutions and variations
- Use any kind of cookie that works for your dietary needs. Try sugar cookies, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, etc. If you are vegan, you will want to find an alternative to honey graham cookies.
- You can use any type of nut butter or nut butter alternative that works for you. Wow Butter or pumpkin seed butter would work well.
- You could make these in a muffin tin that’s lined with cupcake liners if you prefer to have these look more like candy.
Step by Step Instructions
- Make cookie crumbs in the food processor.
- Mix up the cookie crumbs, melted vegan butter spread, sunbutter, and powdered sugar.
- Spread the sunbutter layer in a parchment paper lined pan.
- Melt the dairy free chocolate chips. Mix in the sunbutter and vegan buttery spread.
- Spread the chocolate mixture over the sunbutter layer.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
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Recipe
No Bake Chocolate Sunbutter Bars
Ingredients
For the sunbutter layer:
- 2 cups cookie crumbs Try crunchy cookies or graham crackers from brands like Partake or Kinnikinnick
- ½ cup vegan buttery spread
- 1 ½ cups sunbutter
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
For the chocolate layer:
- 1 ½ cups dairy free mini chocolate chips
- ¼ cup sunbutter
- 1 Tablespoon vegan buttery spread
Instructions
- Place the cookies or graham crackers in the food processor. To get 2 cups, I used about one box of Kinnikinnick Smoreables graham crakcers. Depending on if you use the same graham crackers or cookies, this amount may vary.
- Pulse until the cookies become fine crumbs.
- Pour the crumbs into a bowl. Melt the vegan buttery spread in the microwave and add it to the cookie crumbs.
- Add the sunbutter and powdered sugar and stir well.
- Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper. Spread the sunbutter mixture out evenly in the pan, smoothing it with the back of a spoon.
- Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave on high for one minute. Stir, then microwave 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until smooth and melted.
- Add the sunbutter and vegan buttery spread to the chocolate chips and stir until smooth.
- Pour the chocolate mixture onto the sunbutter layer and smooth it out.
- Refrigerate the bars for at least 2 hours, or until firm.
- Slice the bars with a very sharp knife. You can slice them in the pan, or use the parchment to remove the whole block from the pan and slice them on a cutting board.
- These are very rich! I recommend slicing them small. Try 5 rows with 5 bars in each row.
Kathy
These looks yummy. I’ll have to check out the cookie ingredients. Thanks.
Darryl
One of my favorite candy recipes!