Hazelnut Chocolate Bars

If you are looking for a healthy chocolate bars recipe that is great for a snack or dessert, these hazelnut chocolate bars are loaded with dates, hazelnuts, almond butter and vanilla extract.

So Valentine's Day is just around the corner and that's normally an excuse to eat something sweet and decadent. But as we know these days, we can't just eat all the sugar we want. I mean we'd love to, but it's just not in the cards. While I love desserts, I can go without them but it's much more difficult for Lauren. She's definitely got a sweet tooth and realizes it.

So these hazelnut chocolate bars are meant to combat that craving but also be much better for you than straight sugar. The secret ingredient here is the dates which is naturally sweet and can replace sugar. There are quite a few benefits of dates, which I include below.

The other benefit is these specific bars are great for anyone that has a peanut allergy. I just happen to love hazelnuts and almond butter goes great, but you can really combine and type of nut and nut butter to your liking. From cashews to peanut butter to even tahini - they all can work with this recipe.

In fact, if you want a good cashew bar recipe, check out Half Baked Harvest's 5 ingredient chocolate covered cashew bars, which inspired these. I may be a little biased but I truly believe for something that's actually good for you, these are the best chocolate bars out there. Hope you enjoy these chocolate hazelnut bars.

Jump to:

• Recipe Ingredients
• How to Make Chocolate Bars
• Benefits of Dates
• Other Nuts You Can Use
• Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
• Other Healthy(ish) Desserts
• Hazelnut Chocolate Bars

Recipe Ingredients

• Pitted medjool dates - adds a natural sweetness to the hazelnut bars.
• Hazelnuts - gives a crunchy and flavorful texture to the filling.
• Almond butter - helps bind everything together.
• Vanilla extract - enhances the flavor of the filling.
• Sea salt - salt and chocolate are the perfect marriage.
• Dark chocolate - quality dark chocolate is a must.

How to Make Chocolate Bars

1. Line an 8x8 square baking dish with parchment paper. In food processor, add dates, hazelnuts, almond butter, vanilla extract and sea salt and pulse until well combined and no large chunks left, about 1-2 minutes.
2. Use bottom of wide glass to press mixture into baking dish. Freeze for 1 hour.
3. Place chocolate in medium bowl and heat in microwave until melted and smooth, stirring every 30 seconds. Let cool for 10 minutes. Cut the frozen hazelnut mixture into 16 bars. Dip in chocolate and top with some crushed hazelnuts.
4. Place in fridge for 30 minutes or until chocolate is hardened. Serve immediately or store in fridge.

Benefits of Dates

Dates are a great secret ingredient to add sweetness to you recipe. Some of the benefits include:

• Very Nutritious - since they are dried, they have higher calorie content than fresh fruit and are high in potassium, magnesium and Vitamin B6.
• High in Fiber - fiber helps prevent digestive issues and is important to your overall health.
• High in Disease-Fighting Antioxidants - have a variety of antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and promote heart health.
• May Promote Brain Health - studies have shown that dates help lower interleukin which is associated with neurodegenerative diseases.

Other Nuts You Can Use

As I mentioned above, you can be really creative when it comes to these healthy chocolate bars. For the nuts, you can use any nut or seed you want, whether it's almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, pistachios or peanuts.

And you can replace the almond butter with peanut butter, sunflower seed butter, tahini, soynut butter or even coconut butter. You really can't go wrong with any of them! Just keep the ratios the same.

Pro Tips/Recipe Notes

• Don't skip adding parchment paper to the 8x8 dish so you can easily remove the hazelnut filling.
• Use quality dark chocolate. If you don't love dark chocolate, semi-sweet or milk chocolate works as well.
• Make sure hazelnut filling is completely frozen so you can easily dip in chocolate.
• The hazelnut chocolate bars will last in the fridge in an airtight container for a week or in the freezer for 6 months.

Other Healthy(ish) Desserts

• Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bites
• Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
• Vegan Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies
• Chocolate Pumpkin Cups

If you’ve tried these hazelnut chocolate bars or any other recipe on Chisel & Fork, please let me know how it turned out in the comments below! You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube to see more tasty meals and anything else I'm up to.