Lately, things have gotten entirely too healthy around here. Roasted vegetables? Lentil stew? Baked oatmeal? If it is true that this is the Healthy Dessert Blog, where are all the desserts?
Where is all the CHOCOLATE?
Oh there it is.
When I compiled my candy recipes into the Healthy Chocolates & Candy page, many of you lamented the absence of a healthier copycat Twix bar. I put it on the to-do list, but the list keeps growing longer and longer… Luckily, my incredibly-talented friend Leanne agreed to take on this healthy-Twix-bar challenge, for the benefit of all of us!
Please welcome Leanne and her allergy-friendly, gluten-free Twix bars:
Hi Everyone! My name is Leanne Vogel. I’m a holistic nutritionist and the lady behind Healthful Pursuit – a space where I share my pursuit of self-discovery through allergy-free recipes, travel, and a whole lot of yoga.
I’m super stoked to be here with you guys today. I’ve had to pinch myself multiple times as I prepared this post. Katie is one of my favorite bloggers so to be here sharing a recipe with you is a bit too exciting for words!
The food we surround ourselves with has a dramatic impact on the way that we live out our lives. If we feel good about what we’re eating, if food makes us feel like we can accomplish anything and gives us a sense of balance, we’ll be so much more open to the experiences life has for us. And ya, this includes finding a replacement to our favorite candy bars.
What’s more indulgent than creating your very own a vegan and gluten-free homemade Twix bar?
I couldn’t think of anything else either.
Healthy Twix Bars
(makes 12 bars)
- 1/2 cup white rice flour or buckwheat flour or sorghum flour
- 1/2 cup arrowroot or tapioca
- 2 tbsp evaporated cane juice or regular sugar or coconut sugar
- 3 tbsp sunflower seed butter (or another nut or seed butter)
- 2 tbsp virgin coconut oil
- 1 tbsp freshly ground flax mixed with 2 tbsp water (Allow to sit for 5 minutes before using.)
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
Caramel:
- 100g pitted dates (approximately 6 dates)
- 3 tablespoons sunflower seed butter (or another nut butter of choice)
- 1 tsp water
- pinch salt
Chocolate Coating:
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. Begin by preparing shortbread. Add first three ingredients to a medium-sized bowl. Whisk to combine. Then add sunflower seed butter, coconut oil, flax mixture and extract. Mix with a hand mixer or stand mixer until fully combined. The dough should stick together well.
Shape dough into twelve 3-inch cookies. To do this, scoop out about 1 1/2 tablespoons at a time into your hand and roll into a ball. Slowly shape into a long tube by rolling back and forth between the palm of your hands until it’s about 3-inches long. Set down on prepared cookie sheet and flatten with fingers. You can make the cookie even straighter by using the side of a knife to press up against the edges. Place cookies in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until tops are slightly cracked and sides are golden. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, place caramel ingredients in the bowl of your food processor. Process until smooth. If the mixture will not get smooth, just add a touch more water.
Once cookies are cooled, top with caramel and place on a second cookie sheet that’s lined with parchment paper. To do so, roll caramel like you did the cookies; into 3-inch tubes, and place over top of cookies. Place in the freezer and allow to set for at least 10 minutes. This will make the cookies easier to dip in the chocolate. Melt chocolate chips by dropping into a metal bowl and place over top of a sauce pan filled with water. Bring water to a boil and stir chips until melted. Remove from heat.
Remove the cookie sheet from the freezer and; one by one, coat the bars in chocolate. To do this, drop the bar into the chocolate and coat it with your fingers. Remove excess with your fingers and place back on the parchment. Repeat with remaining cookies. Place back in the freezer and allow to set for 15 minutes.
Leanne’s question of the day: How do you create balance in your life?
Link of the Day:
These look very authentic, could i use oat flour instead of the rice or sorghum?
don’t use oat flour: oats get either mooshy or spongy when you cook them (think oatmeal) rice and sorghum are much more grainy substances and tend to be crispy and or crumbly like the cookie part of a twix bar. if you have a flour mill or food processor you can make your own rice flour by grinding up uncooked rice. hope this helps!
thanks for saving me from ruining a recipe, I hate when I sub something in for an ingredient because i don’t have the listed ingredient on hand, then the recipe doesn’t come out right.
Actually, I got a magic bullet for christmas, so i should be all set.
By uncooked rice… Do you think instant rice would work? I got a food processor for my birthday and did not know this!
I don’t know: the liquids added might make the instant rice cook spongy
unlike whole uncooked rice (density difference). I wouldn’t try it: but if
you are the adventurous type, go for it! You might discover something
awesome! You could always google it: Google knows all! 😉
this is ok, but i want a katie recipe :'( there is a difference!!
I actually like when Katie does guest posts. I’m interested to see what blogs and recipes from others that SHE likes :).
What a mean thing to say…..the recipe looks great and I am sure it will come out really well. Leanne has put so much of effort into making something fabulous for us and you could at least give it a try before making such comments.
Bookmarking this recipe, and Leane’s blog.
Her site looks lovely. Thanks for the new find :).
Thanks Karen!
Thank goodness for the chocolate! That looks delicious 🙂
No kidding. I couldn’t live without it 🙂
Are the nutrition facts for 1 bar?
https://lett-trim.today/twix-bars-calories-and-nutrition-facts/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi Bethany – yes, the recipe makes 12 bars and the facts are for 1 bar. Hope that helps!
Oh my oh my. They look amazing!
Wow! Yum! It actually looks quite easy (famous last words!) will have to give this a go 🙂
lol… story of my life! It’s not too bad, I’d give it a 3/5 (5 being stupidly, crazy difficult). It’s more a bit time consuming than anything… but super fun to do with the kids if you’ve got a couple!
Wow these are amazing! What a unique set of ingredients. I’m not a huge fan of caramel, so I’m excited to try Leanne’s substitution! Can’t wait! 🙂
Thanks Alyx. You’ve got to be about the only person I know that doesn’t like caramel… so awesome. Gosh, I could eat that date caramel from a bowl with nothing but a spoon. I hope you like it!
I think I’m going to leave work early so I can go to Whole Foods and get arrowroot powder, or do you think cornstarch would wokr? This is a fantstic recipe!!!!!!
Hi Jennifer – I haven’t used cornstarch in a really, really long time so I’m not exactly sure. There isn’t too much in this recipe so you might be okay. Another alternative is making the bars with a no bake cookie bottom. I have a recipe here for them, if you’d like to check it out: http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2012/10/vegan-no-bake-twix-bars/ Have a fantastic weekend!
Oh my yum!! Twix bars are my FAVORITE candy bar! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
You’re most welcome, Amanda. They were mine too. That and SKOR bars!
I got really excited and then I read the ingredients list. I don’t have any of that stuff. Guess I’m going shopping this weekend!
Hey Lissy – you could use a shortbread or sugar cookie recipe that you’ve used in the past to try to avoid buying all new flours. Hope that helps!
Ummmm…. we need a SNICKERS recipe!!!!!!! Twix bars look amazing!
Snickers, that’s brilliant. I’d be totally down for that 🙂
This is so brilliant! I know everyone starts the new year trying to get healthy, and I am no exception. I can’t wait to try these!
And with treats like this, maybe we can last the WHOLE year long!
Hi there! I am a huge fan of Twix and you don’t even know how excited I was when I saw the work “TWIX” in the headlines!! I was wondering though, are the nutrition facts based on the entire recipe of 12 bars? Or is it per serving? And if so, what is the serving and how many bars is the nutrition info based on?
And I totally agree, more candy bar recipes are needed!! We need more! Kit-kat, snickers, milky way, and cookies’n’creme chocolate are my main thing besides twix! haha 🙂 will you be posting any of those recipes?
Thanks!
-Grace 🙂
P.S. ChocolateCoveredKatie! You are a lifesaver! Love your blog 🙂
Hi Grace – so glad that the headline got you all excited! To answer your questions, the recipe makes 12 bars, the nutrition facts are for 1 of those bars.
I used to love that cookies n’ creme chocolate bar. Oh the memories!
Thanks! I will definitely be making these soon! This definitely seems healthier since it uses all natural ingredients!
Do you think you or Katie will ever make a recipe for cookies’n’creme chocolate? You would be my hero if you did!! 😛
-Grace 🙂
Oh man, I would LOVE to make it… Katie posted a white chocolate recipe awhile back, did you see that? I bet you could just use that recipe and smash up chocolate cookies inside… the wheels are turning!
Yay!!!!!! Twix are totally my guilty pleasure (and one of my stress comfort foods)!
I am going to make these right away!!
Oh that’s great, Bernice! Hope you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
That was supposed to include a “thank you,” I hit the submit button too quickly in my excitement:)