Homemade Twix Bars

These are sneakily healthy snack bars. Brittany taste tested them and she expressed a wish that they were healthy. I surprised her when I said that they were vegan, gluten-free, and processed sugar free (well almost)! We then went on to eat the entire tray by ourselves. So healthy is a relative term. The recipe is from Oh She Glows, a great vegan food blog. The dates are an amazing substitute for caramel. No one that ate these could tell and they had such a great flavor.

Crust

• 2 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1/4 cup honey*
• 2 heaping tbsps peanut butter
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• pinch of fine grain sea salt

Date Caramel

• 1 1/4 cups pitted and halved soft Medjool dates
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp sunflower seed milk+ additional if needed
• 1 tbsp raw cane sugar
• pinch of fine grain sea salt

Chocolate Layer

• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 tsp coconut oil  

1. Grease an 8 by 8 inch pan and set aside. Mix together the honey, peanut butter, and vanilla. Add pinch of salt. Pour into a large bowl with rice crisp and stir well.

2. Scoop the rice crisp mixture into pan. Wet hands slightly and then spread the mixture evenly and press down firmly until smooth. I put this in the refrigerator while I went to yoga for about 1 hour.

3. Soak dates in water for 1 hour until soft (only if necessary) and drain. Place dates, peanut butter, milk, and salt in the food processor and process until almost smooth.

4. Spread caramel layer over top of the crust until it is smooth and even.

5. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a small pot over low heat or in the microwave. Spread chocolate on top of the caramel and place in the refrigerator.

6. If you want these to look like traditional Twix bars, slice while the chocolate is almost set. Brittany and I just left it in the pan and broke it into pieces when we wanted to eat some. Store in fridge.

*The author uses brown rice syrup instead of honey. Since I used honey, the rice cereal layer ended up being more chewy than crunchy but I didn't mind!