Description
Rich peanut butter protein bars with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, crunchy peanuts, and bits of dark chocolate. Enjoy them as a sweet snack or alongside your morning coffee.
Yield: 8 servings of 1 bar each, totaling 8 bars
Prep Time: 20 minutes (+ some inactive time) | Cool Time: 20 minutes
Storage: refrigerated or at room temperature for 7 days (or longer). If stacking in a storage container, separate with pieces of parchment to prevent bars from sticking together. ✎
Peanut-Free Options: replace the peanut butter and peanuts with almond butter and almonds or sunflower seed butter and pumpkin seeds. I'd suggest toasting the almonds and pumpkin seeds for a satisfying crunch.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Put the allulose, water, vanilla extract, and salt in a small microwave-safe mixing bowl. Microwave for 60 seconds. Pause to whisk after 30 seconds. Monitor to make sure it doesn't bubble over. The contents of the bowl will be scalding hot, so be careful. Transfer to the fridge to cool until room temperature, about 20 minutes. Cooling is primarly to prevent chocolate chips from melting. If using cacao nibs, cool for about 10 minutes. See note regarding stovetop method.
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Add the peanut butter and syrup to the allulose mixture and whisk until smooth.
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Add and mix in the peanuts and chocolate chips.
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Add the protein powder and mix with a stiff silicone spatula or spoon until no dry patches remain.
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Press the dough into a parchment-lined 6-inch (15cm) square cake pan.
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Refrigerate to cool and set for about 20 minutes.
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Cut into 8 bars and enjoy at room temperature.
Equipment
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Nutrition Facts
Servings 8
Serving Size 1 Bar
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories 195kcal
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 13g20%
- Total Carbohydrate 21.5g8%
- Dietary Fiber 6.5g26%
- Protein 13g26%
- Allulose 12g
- Net Carbs 3g
* Total Carbs - (Fiber + Allulose + Sugar Alcohols) = Net Carbs
Notes
- I have not made allulose syrup on the stovetop, but I have no reason to believe that it wouldn't work. If doing so, I'd place the ingredients in a very small spacepan, melt and bring to a simmer on medium heat, reduce to low, and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Monitor carefully and adjust heat as needed to prevent burning.
- Allulose melts into a syrup, but will eventually return to its solid form. What this means here is that your bars will start become a little harder over time.
- I have tried making a similar recipe with erythritol-based granulated sweetener and it did not work out at all, so I would not expect it to work in this recipe. This recipe will also not work with pure stevia or pure monk fruit as they have little bulk and do not melt into a syrup when heated. I have not tried the recipe with xylitol. If you happen to try it, please let us know how it turns out.
- For syrup, I am using ChocZero honey or maple syrup, which are very thick and contain no water in the ingredient list. The main ingredient is resistant dextrin. Some keto syrups are very watery and I don't know how this would impact the recipe, or the texture after a few days of storage.
- You could use a flavored protein powder, or a mixture of plain and flavored, but you might find the result overly sweet. Another option here is to replace some of the protein powder with peanut flour or peanut butter powder. This would likely decrease the protein and increase the net carbs, but would also add to the peanut butter flavor.
