With dates, hazelnuts, almond butter and vanilla extract, these chocolate hazelnut bars are a great healthy snack if you craving something sweet.
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 chocolate hazelnut 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. I mean just google it, and you’ll run across a ton of articles.
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. So if you want a little chocolate in your life but don’t want to feel guilty about what you’re eating, these are for you. Enjoy!
What Ingredients are in Chocolate Hazelnut Bars?
- Pitted medjool dates
- Hazelnuts
- Almond butter
- Vanilla extract
- Sea salt
- Dark chocolate
Do I Have to Use Hazelnuts?
No. As I mentioned above, you can be really creative when it comes to these 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.
Other Healthy(ish) Desserts:
With dates, hazelnuts, almond butter and vanilla extract, these chocolate hazelnut bars are a great healthy snack if you craving something sweet.
- 8 oz pitted medjool dates (1 cup)
- 1 cup roasted hazelnuts
- 3/4 cup almond butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 12 oz dark chocolate
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. Use bottom of wide glass to press mixture into baking dish. Freeze for 1 hour.
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. Place in fridge for 30 minutes or until chocolate is hardened. Serve immediately or store in fridge.
Big hazelnut fan!