Chocolate Coconut Caramel Bars

Easy chocolate coconut caramel bars, no-bake with three interesting, melt-in-your-mouth layers and all wholesome unprocessed ingredients. These cakes are vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free. Short-cut, speedy method shared below as well!

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Chocolate Coconut Caramel Bars

These chocolate coconut caramel bars are a no-bake chocolate desserts, so delicious and so easy to create, completed in less than 30 minutes. Ready?

And in case you need convincing, the bottom layer has the consistency of crumbly chocolate cake, and the middle layer is pure cream, the next layer up is sweet date caramel, and the top is a melted chocolate bar.

The bottom layer can be made vanilla by leaving off the cacao.

This recipe is the single most requested recipe in my house. And even relatives from afar clamor for me to make and mail them.

Need to make them fast? Pre-game dessert? Dinner party tonight? I hear you! Just boil the cashews, dates and buckwheat for 10 minutes instead of soaking overnight, or replace buckwheat with walnuts if you don’t see it in your bulk food section!

Also, another convenience I share with you, is the pan I discovered. A brownie pan with DIVIDERS people. That means NO MORE breaking chocolate when you go to slice! All sliced and perfectly formed. Buy it here and you’ll have no regrets about anything the rest of your LIFE!

How to Make Chocolate Coconut Bars

The only make-ahead-prep requirement is to buy and soak dates and cashews and buckwheat groats the night before.

And if buckwheat groats are hard to find (try the bulk food area of a Whole Foods) or you don’t want to wait for Amazon, feel free to substitute rolled oats or even crushed walnuts or almonds. I’m easy, haha.

You are ready to cook once all the ingredients are soaked, drained and rinsed! Just blend up each layer, and put it together. As with some no-bake recipes, each layer does not need to be frozen solid before the other is added.

Just pile on all the layers, and freeze for about 2 hours until you can slice cleanly with a hot knife.

After that, they can be stored refrigerated, however they will be soft. We keep them in an airtight container in the freezer. To eat, remove one and thaw 10 minutes before serve.

We have had them a month in the freezer and they were still perfect.

How Healthy Are These Chocolate Coconut Bars

These three ingredients add a lot of nutrition. Dates contribute iron and fiber, cashews are high in protein and health fats, and buckwheat groats are a pseudocereal, high in both protein and fiber as well as manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, niacin, zinc, folate, and vitamin B6.

The other ingredients are all wholesome too, with their own contributions, coconuts, dark chocolate and more.

How to Make Homemade Healthy Caramel?

Healthy caramel can be made quite easily by blending dates, cashews, pink salt and cacao powder. It turns into a lovely creamy salty sweet caramel that works perfectly in this layer. The dates provide fiber and the cashews provide protein, and this is just some of the nutrition in this homemade caramel.

Tips to Make These Chocolate Coconut Bars

1. Be sure you have soaked the dates and cashews overnight, and rinsed them the next day. Some recipes that involving soaking these offer short-cuts like boiling them, or buying fresher etc. But for this recipe, the creamy texture in all the layers can only be achieved by soaking overnight.
2. To cut them, dip a sharp knife in hot water, wipe dry, and make a cut. Then repeat. That’s how I get picture perfect slices in my cake.

I hope you try my cakes recipe this weekend!

If you like these kind of desserts, you will love my three easiest recipes on the planet:

• Chocolate Homemade Crunch Bars
• Chickpea Chocolate Clusters (2-ingredients)
• 2-ingredient fudge

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Chocolate Coconut Caramel Bars

The BEST EVER easy chocolate coconut caramel bars, no-bake with three interesting, melt-in-your-mouth layers and all wholesome unprocessed ingredients. Need to make them fast? Pre-game dessert? Dinner party tonight? I hear you! Just boil the cashews, dates and buckwheat for 10 minutes instead of soaking overnight, or replace buckwheat with walnuts if you don't see it in your bulk food section.

5 from 4 votes

Print Rate

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free

Keyword: chocolate, no bake cakes, raw bars

Does it keep?: 1-week refrigerated, freezer-friendly

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Servings: 16

Calories: 330kcal

Author: Dee Dine

Ingredients

Soft Cookie Base

• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 3/4 cup buckwheat grouts or walnuts
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 6 tbsp water
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tbsp cacao powder leave this off for a blond base

Creamy coconut Layer

• 1 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 4 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

Caramel Layer

• 17 dates
• 1/2 cup cashews
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 3 tbsp water
• pinch of pink salt
• 1 tbsp cacao powder

Chocolate Top

• 1 3.17oz dark chocolate bar
• 2 tsp coconut oil

Useful Equipment

• 1 8 inch by 8 inch pan
• brownie pan with dividers (use this if you want the recipe to come out PRE CUT! Such a time-saver!

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Prep

• You can soak overnight the cashews and dates and buckwheat together, but I have been just boiling them together for 5 minutes and it works great. Just rinse very very well once boiled.

  If you are using walnuts INSTEAD of buckwheat groats DO NOT BOIL or SOAK the walnuts.

  Line the pan with parchment paper.

Make the Base

• Put all base ingredients into a food processor.

  Process until thoroughly mixed, and press the resulting sticky dough into a pan lined with parchment. I smooth the surface by putting another sheet of parchment on top and pressing with a spatula.

  Pop this pan into the freezer while you make the soft layer.

Make the Other Two Layers

• Process ingredients for each layer and press the coconut mixture onto the first base layer, and spread the caramel layer on top of that.
• Put back in freezer while you melt the chocolate bar in the microwave at 60 seconds.

  Once melted, pour onto the second layer and freeze the slices with a cover of foil or parchment for at least two hours.
• Then heat a sharp knife by dipping it into hot water, wiping it dry, and cutting. Repeat.
• Store slices in freezer long-term or refrigerate for a week if you don't mind them soft.

Nutrition

Calories: 330kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 18mg | Potassium: 201mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1.6mg

Dee Dine

Dee Dine is founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a plant based recipe blog, and author of the recent cookbook, Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients . On this blog you’ll find incredibly easy recipes with hidden veggies for anyone wanting to eat healthier, regardless of diet. Dee has graduate degrees in sciences and  journalism. More about Dee Dine here.