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’m addicted to these butterfingers, it’s really bad. I don’t even like the normal butterfingers. Seriously, AMAZING!
Not to add too much to the long list of sweeteners, but I’ve been loving coconut nectar as a substitute (works for vegans).
Cheers!
This is my favorite candy bar and I would feel guilty eating it. Thanks for making a healthier version. It is so good.
OMG! These are sensational. I have no idea what a butterfinger is as I’m an Aussie but by goodness these are great. I used rice malt syrup, date syrup, brown sugar, homemade sunflower seed butter and rice flakes. Oh, and Lindt dark chocolate. YUM. Your blog is the BEST for gluten, dairy, wheat, nut, egg and soy free – I’m on a diet as my breastfed baby is allergic to some or all of those things. THANK YOU FOR YOUR AMAZING BLOG!
These are awesome! I saw a lot of commenters noting that these are sticky when warm. If you boil the sugars together a bit longer, until the soft ball stage (when a little bit dropped into cold water forms a soft ball), they are fine at room temp. This is what I did, and it worked beautifully. I’m eating a room-temp bar as I type. Delicious!!!
made these last night. they look nothing like yours! darker, thinner, etc. They taste amazing.. they’ve been on my bucket list to make for years, and I’m so glad I finally made them!
Trying to lose weight,have a sweet tooth.
I saw this and had to make it! We went with brown rice syrup because it’s what we had and when I first tasted it after we cut it I thought it was too sweet, but we topped them with 1 Ghirardelli dark melting wafer each (I brought these home one day and my husband eats them like candy) and stuck it in the oven really low for a few minutes to melt the chocolates then mushed them with a fork to kind of cover the bars and stuck it back in the fridge and I am now so addicted to these! I love butterfingers, I steal them out of my daughter’s Halloween candy, these totally work!
I made these tonight, using honey and brown sugar- they are pretty fantastic! Definitely very close to “the real thing”. Portion them out in a muffin pan sprayed with a little oil, for easy portion control and no cutting required. Thanks so much for this one Katie! These will be a regular feature, in the house. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
I made these this weekend and they are delicious! Definitely cut before they are fully frozen though…
Mmmmm!
I just saw these and they look quite delicious. I like your version. They look good.
Has anyone tried this with corn chex? Curious because I have a box on hand and wasn’t sure what to do with it. And I’d like these NOW 🙂
Definitely report back for other readers if you try it! 🙂
Corn Chex works great!! Really enjoyed this recipe (helped me stay out of Halloween candy:))
My husband made these and they are sooo good!!
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
What do you mean optional. Are you crazy? When it comes to chocolate, there is no such thing as optional. And you call yourself Chocolate Covered Katie? Really? Oy vay.
(I hope you realize I am just kidding!) I love that you make healthier versions of very bad stuff. Wait…. chocolate bad? Now I’m the one who’s crazy. I have to really make sure that I can eat a lot of your stuff as I just found out I’m diabetic. 🙁
This made me laugh… the only reason I might leave it off is out of laziness. Sadly, sometimes laziness beats out chocolate. Sometimes 😉
I am definitely not an expert when it comes to what’s allowed on a Diabetic diet, but I know a lot of people with Diabetes say they can eat the recipes when they use the xylitol option (which can replace sugar in a 1-to-1 ratio), so it might be something you can ask your doctor about. Sending good thoughts!!
This is probably one of my top favorite CCK recipes!