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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Omg I am SO excited to make these!! I’m GF and DF but love butterfingers!!!! These are going to be awesome!
Katie these look SO GOOD!!!! Yum 🙂
Holy crap. I cannot wait to try these, and they look so simple to make! Excited 🙂
OMG THAT LOOKS EPIC. Congratulations, Katie; you have healthified the only combination of chocolate and peanut butter that I’ve ever loved. (Yeah, yeah, I’m not normally a chocolate + PB fan, apparently that’s unusual.)
Do I have cornflakes? I must go buy some immediately.
Hey, do you think you could replace the coconut oil with vegetable oil or canola oil for the chocolate topping?
I doubt it, unfortunately… The coconut oil works because it solidifies at higher temps than other oils. You could just melt chocolate chips and spread them over top, though!
YUM! Butterfingers were alwaysss my favorite Halloween candy but I haven’t had one in years because of the ingredients… Cannot wait to make these!
Wow, I want one right now. Those look so incredibly good!
dodallascheap.blogspot.com
The healthy butterfingers sounds delicious! We played the quiet game a lot when I was a kid. There are 8 kids in my family, so my parents used the quiet game at dinner time quite often!
I can’t even really talk about how excited I am to make these.
Kit Kats PLEASE!!!! I’ve been searching for a healthy version of these forever!
Butterfinger is my favorite candy! I can’t get enough. Have you seen the Butterfinger pretzel candies that are out now? I wonder if I can just combine pretzels into this recipe…
Oh. My. Goodness. Again these are amazing, thank you so much!! Butterfingers were my FAVE growing up so I knew I had to try these 🙂 I made them with Arrowhead Mills Oat Bran flakes, maple syrup and crunchy pb (the rest of the ingredients too) and they are delicious! When the timer went off to check the freezer my husband and I both ran to the kitchen. We have promised not to eat them all tonight. The maple syrup will make them darker and I’m assuming less orange-y. xo
Thank you for trying them… and especially for reporting back about the maple syrup. I’d been curious about how it would work :).
Okay, your website is dangerous for me and my late-night chocolate cravings, haha. I came here just to see if you had anything new, saw the betterfingers aaaand BAM I was in the kitchen. These are sooo amazing! Dallas approves, too 🙂 I have a vegan butterfinger recipe on my site, too, but I like how healthy these are.
The only things I changed were using icing sugar in place of white sugar (I’m out of white sugar), and I used Nature’s Path GF Rice Krispies cereal instead of bran flakes, since that’s what I have on hand. AMAZING!! I’ve had two pieces and I’m trying to resist going back for more… 🙂 So good. Thanks, Katie!
Thanks for trying them, Char!
I am DEFINITELY making these. They have all the ingredients I like. I hope I still have some molasses lying around.
In French that game is called “Roi du Silence” – the king of silence. You chant, “un, deux, trois, roi du silence” and my kids (and sometimes husband) plays it all the time. 🙂
Just made these using blackstrap molasses. I have it in my pantry and barely use it, so i was glad to! Next time i will crush the branflakes in my hand as i add them since it was hard to crush them as i mixed it with pb. But i tasted one after it hardened without the chocolate and it was really good! So cool how it has the butterfinger crunch just by using the branflakes! So smart!
Just put chocolate on it and now back into the freezer. I can’t wait to try them!!! Thanks!!
Haha, yum! That looks crazy good. I’ve definitely played the quiet game and I’ve hosted it for my little cousins 😉