Crispety, crunchety, deliciously peanut buttery homemade healthy Butterfingers!
Healthy candy bars that defy all logic
As if by magic, the homemade Butterfingers have that exact same toffee-like crunch of store-bought peanut butter Butterfinger bars!
Yet these are whole-grain, high in iron, vegan friendly, and completely free of high-fructose corn syrup. It’s one of those recipes you really have to try to believe.
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Homemade vegan Butterfingers
The inspiration for these healthy butterfingers came from a dollar-bin cookbook that I saw at the fabric store a few weeks back.
The book recipe, which yielded an 8×8 pan just like mine, called for a full 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup of corn syrup, and 1/3 cup of shortening!
Yes, 3/4 cup of corn syrup in addition to the cup of sugar…
It was basically screaming for a healthy makeover!
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Healthy Butterfinger recipe video
Screaming so loudly that I had to get to work on the challenge as soon as I got home.
Luckily, this is one of those recipes that turned out perfectly on the first try – they really do taste like actual Butterfinger candy bars!
If you’re looking for a healthy or vegan dessert that will impress even the most skeptical or pickiest of eaters, these healthy Butterfingers are definitely the recipe to try on all your friends.
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In the years since I first posted them here on the blog, it’s become one of the site’s most popular recipes.
Readers often write in to tell me that even their health-food-hating dads, moms, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, or boyfriends love the bars too!
Healthy Butterfingers
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave (For keto, try these Keto Candy Bars)
- 1 tbsp regular or blackstrap molasses – Or omit and increase agave to 1/3 cup
- 3 1/2 tbsp sugar, unrefined if desired, or additional maple syrup
- 1 cup peanut butter or allergy-friendly sub
- 1 1/2 cups bran flakes or corn flakes, or another flake cereal (56g)
- 1/8 tsp salt, plus a little extra if using unsalted pb
- optional topping: 2/3 cup chocolate chips or 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil mixed with 1/4 cup cocoa powder and vanilla stevia drops or liquid sweetener to taste
Instructions
- Notes: Honey works, but it’s not for strict vegans and will also add a slight honey flavor. Corn syrup will also work, and commenters have said brown rice syrup works as well. If subbing out the molasses, the bars will taste less authentic but still delicious. Almond butter or Sunbutter work, or use peanut butter for the flavor that most closely resembles real Butterfingers.Homemade Butterfingers Recipe: Combine first three ingredients in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil on medium heat. Boil about a minute, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Add the peanut butter and salt, and stir until it makes a paste. Add the cereal and stir very well to coat, partially crushing the cereal flakes as you stir. Make sure the flakes are very evenly coated. Press into an 8×8 pan—either lined with wax or parchment paper, or greased very well—and freeze until completely hardened. (Cut into bars while only somewhat frozen, or thaw the block a little before cutting.) If you wish to cover in chocolate (they’re good even without it), you can cover them at any time—either pre-cutting or post-cutting. Simply melt the chocolate chips over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth, or mix the coconut oil with the sweetener and cocoa. Then spread over the bars with a spatula and re-freeze to harden. Store in the freezer for optimum “snap.”View Nutrition Facts
Notes
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I love these!!!! My family loved them so much that after I made them the first time (with my Health Nut and chocolatecoveredkatie fan friend) my family wanted me to make them again that day. They irresistible and my family wanted me to make a THIRD batch that day, haha (but I couldn’t cause we ran out of honey, haha.
I want you to make and post almond joys next!!!!
Mmmmmm! Made them today with Rice Krispies and they are so delicious. My teenage son says they don’t taste healthy at all! Haha! Thank you, Katie.
These were so easy to make and absolutely fantastic!!
These look scrumptious!!
I have a question, though: Which type of agave syrup, light or amber, is to be used in this recipe?
Either is fine.
Butterfingers have and always will be my favorite. My favorite ice cream was butterfingers ice cream, but since I’m sugar free I couldn’t have it anymore. Now I can! Thank you soooooooooooo much!
My daughters and I are having a lot of fun trying out different goodies from your website. These Butterfinger bars are DELISH!!!
OMG I am diabetic and pregnant, so my carbohydrate restrictions are pretty severe, but I have been CRAVING Butterfingers as a sweet fat! I’ve been trying to satisfy it with a few little Butterfinger bites here and there, but I am gonna have to try this recipe!!!
Just made these… Holy heaven!!!! Soooooo good!!
I made these twice this week for my family! It’s a favorite for all of us, and I cut the sugar in half.
The ONLY candy I will eat…ever. I am dying to try this. Sitting in a Whole Foods cafe right now, so will get up and get the corn flakes (only ingredient I don’t have) and do this when I get home!!!!!
I really love this. my brother loves this things and my mother is a healthy freak so this really is the best of both worlds. thanks, Katie, so much for sharing this. <3
I was very hesitant to get my hopes up on these… but they were FABULOUS! Seriously, I didn’t think that a real Butterfinger could be replicated so easily and HEALTHY to boot ! Thank you – everyone needs to try these if they like Butterfingers!
My grandmother is diabetic. Her favorite candy is butterfingers, but she can’t have those anymore. Anyway to make this either low sugar or diabetic friendly? I’d love to make some to put in her Christmas stocking!
Thanks!
You could use xylitol for the sugar part and they’d be at least somewhat lower in sugar. Depends on her diet, though, and how much sugar is allowed.
Well… Was reading elsewhere about smarter chocolatier saying she would tear a Butterfingers from a child, and my husband and I wondered if there was any such thing as a “healthy” Butterfingers? Bingo – this site came up.
Some thoughts – curious if you were aware of the high levels of fructose in agave syrup (Dr. Mercola discusses that in his blog.). I had tried a bottle once upon a friend’s recommendation and my body reacted same as eating HFCS.
So for me, possible end run might be to try the B grade Maple Syrup, since that has more of the minerals etc (not processed as much)? Also I recenky heard about “jaggery” which sounds like a brown sugar / sugarcane product that would be more nutritional value than regular store bought brown sugar. So those were thoughts I had as possible work-arounds.
Second – the xylitol … Does it “affect” you…? Um… Digestively? (Like the infamous Haribo Gummi Bears sugar-free made with xylitol?)?? I wasn’t sure if you had made this recipe exactly once and had eaten it but not had any reactions? Curious. I’m more of a stevia girl myself but it doesn’t blend well with a lot of foods. So I was curious what sort of reactions you might have had? Or does this amount reduce the likelihood of those types of digestive reactions??
Just curious… Thanks!! Looking forward to trying this recipe out.
Julia
Xylitol acts like a laxative if you eat too much of it at a time. For one piece now and then candy eaters, it may not be so bad. If you’re a “can’t stop eating them” person, you might want to avoid the xylitol.
I have a friend who can’t have sugar. Is their a susbstitute for it?
These healthy butterfinger bars are delicious. Freezing them seems to make a great (and desirable) difference in the texture. They’re excellent without the chocolate. Next time we’ll make the chocolate layer a little thinner. We omitted the molasses because I had none. In the past, molasses has overpowered other flavors in recipes, so I’m glad for the ommission. They were delicious without the molasses and with the corn flakes. We used 1/3 cup agave nectar and corn flakes instead of the 1st choices in the recipe list. Just the right amount of crunch. We all loved them–friends and family.