Delicious healthy homemade snickers cups made with date nougat, almonds instead of peanuts, and Cassava flour, a healthy gluten-free and grain-free and nut-free flour that you will love. Vegan, gluten-free and nut-free option.
Healthy Homemade Snickers Cups
These snickers cups are easy to make, vegan and gluten-free, and full of fiber and proteins and plenty of flavor and nutrition to both satisfy your snack cravings and give you an energy boost!
My favorite candy bars of all times are Three Musketeers for the fluffy nougat and Kit Kats for the cookie. I sort of liked Snickers when I was a candy-munching child, but I wasn’t thrilled with the peanuts. I don’t know why, but I often choose almonds over peanuts.
So making this Snickers cups today with the nought and cookie and almonds was a natural and (genius?) invention.
And I took it as an opportunity to try out Cassava flour, a gluten-free flour, that is rapidly gaining a following because of it’s ability to replace all of a wheat flour in most recipes. Most gluten-free baking involves patching together different flours which is why gluten-free baking is considered rather unpredictable.
Well, move over unpredictability, make way for Cassava flour.
The Benefits of Cassava Flour
Cassava flour is fast becoming sought after as the best replacement to wheat flour and as a nut-free flour. It is gaining popularity because it is very neutral in flavor and is not grainy but more powdery.
And best of all, it works in many recipes as a 1:1 replacement of wheat flour, making it a top pick for gluten-free, grain-free and nut-free baking.
It’s important that cassava flour be treated properly in preparation so I always choose Bob’s Red Mill‘s brand. If you follow my recipes, you know by now that I find his flours and products extremely dependable. And I use them all the time.
The last two recipes I made using his products was an easy apple cranberry crisp and a pumpkin cake using another one of his flours.
As alternative flours rise in popularity (Read Whole Food’s article here on how alternative flours are going to be the big trend in 2020), Bob’s is my go-to brand (as I tell you all the time, haha) for his wide variety of flours including this one, Cassava!
What is Cassava Flour?
Cassava flour is made from the root of a cassava plant, native to Asia. It is a starchy root, similar to yam or plantains or even potatoes. Cassava flour in general is high in carbohydrates. There is not a huge amount of cassava flour proportionally in this recipe, but the flour in general is not for you if you follow a low carb diet.
How to Make Homemade Snickers Cups
These cups are so simple, sort of..I mean, I happened to bake the crust to make it crunchy. That step makes this recipe a baked recipe, so not quite as easy as a “no-bake” recipe. Still, unlike most no-bakes, there is no freezer-time wait. So overall, this is one easy recipe.
Just mix up the crust ingredients, toss them into mini paper cupcake cups, bake at 350 F until brown. You might be able to tell in my picture that I over-browned mine. I kept them in about 14 minutes because Peri (my Pom) picked that moment to go out of one of his (sit and sniff the air for ages) walks. I think 12 or even 10 minutes might be best.
Let the crusty cups cool and then blend up this yummy date nougat. Don’t like the spoon too often like I certainly might have didn’t or you might not have enough for your cups! Spoon about 1 tsp or more of nougat onto each crust. Sprinkle almond slivers on top.
Then, melt up the chocolate chips in the microwave – about 60 seconds in a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup. Spoon on top, sprinkle on more almond slivers, freeze for JUST 15 minutes, and they are ready to eat! I store them refrigerated…although that means the nougat will remain soft.
And to be honest that crunchy crust is everything so that to keep it crunchy, either eat these babies straight-away or keep ’em frozen. Although, we did not freeze ours; we ate all ours right after my photoshoot, haha.
Quick tip, leave off the almond slivers to make these nut-free!
How Healthy is Date Nougat?
Well my date nougat is made of dates and coconut milk. Dates, of course, contribute fiber, magnesium, iron and loads of essential minerals. And the coconut milk’s benefits (I actually used lite coconut milk) are to increase metabolism and actually lose belly fat.
Now let’s be real, these cups are tiny and the proportion of coconut milk is quite small so don’t be thinking you can pop these baby’s to lose belly fat. Me thinks it will be a wash.
Still, overall, I’d take the nutritional profile of this nougat over the one in the real Snickers, wouldn’t you?
Sweetness Level Can Be Lowered on Homemade Snickers Cups
I’d definitely treat these cups as a sweet treat since the dates bring the sweet level kind of high. I don’t like tons of sweetness so I made a few of these with extra crunch cookie crust and thinner layer of the date nougat just for me.
My friend Christina over at Christina’s Cupcakes would love my customization as well.
But overall, this recipe is actually quite fool-proof which is not always the case with gluten-free baking, and delicious. A perfect energizing treat for any afternoon slump.
Questions Answered About Homemade Snickers
1. Do they store?
Yes, feel free to refrigerate them for 3-4 days or freeze them covered for 3 months.
2. Can you swap out the flours?
If you don’t need to bake gluten-free or nut-free, you can use almond flour.
3. Can I use water in the date nougat instead of coconut milk?
Yes, but that means you are adding date paste, not date nougat. Nougat is lighter and creamier than date paste. But the taste is similar.
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Healthy Homemade Snickers Cups
Ingredients
Cookie Crust
- 1/3 cup Cassava flour
- 1/4 cup almonds or rolled oats to make nut-free
- 2 tbsp coconut palm sugar
- 1 flax seed egg
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tbsp cashew butter
Date Nougat
- 6 medjool dates soaked overnight and pitted
- 3 tbsp coconut cream solid part from a chilled can of lite coconut milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Chocolate Topping
- 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Prep
- The night before or four hours before making these, submerge your dates into water to allow them to soft before pitting.
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a 12 cup mini cupcake pan with paper liners
- Make flax seed egg by stirring together 1 tbsp ground flaxseed, and 3 tbsp of water. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Make Crust
- Into a food processor, add dry ingredients, the flour, nuts, sugar. Remember, replace the nuts with rolled oats if you are making a nut-free dessert. Process until combined.
- Add in flax egg, coconut oil and cashew butter until you have a crumb that actually looks exactly like graham cracker crumbs.
- Spoon about 1-2 tsp into each mini cupcake cup, press flat with your finger. If you want to make cups that have more crust than nougat, double that.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until brown. Watch them! Mine browned too fast. Once browned, set aside to cool. Took mine about 1/2 hour to cool. You want them cool so the crust stays crunchy after you add the next layer.
Make Date Nougat
- In processor, add pitted dates, coconut cream, vanilla and salt. Blend until creamy, there will be date specs.
- Spoon a tbsp of date nougat onto each cup. Spoon less onto any cups that have double the crust for a less-sweet option. Use your spoon to level the nougat. Sprinkle on almond slivers if you intend to. (Leave off for nut free).
Make the Chocolate Top
- Melt the chocolate chips in a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup (or container of your choosing) in a microwave for 60 seconds. Stir to make sure all chips are melted. If not, microwave again for 30 seconds and stir again.
- Spoon the drippy chocolate on to the nougat and sprinkle on almond slivers or leave off for nut-free.
- Put the pan in the freezer for 15 minutes to set.
- Ready to eat! Or photograph as the case may be, haha.
Thank you Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post. The recipe, ideas, content and opinions expressed here are all my own. I do recommend you try Bob’s Red Mill products, you will be so inspired by all their healthy unique products!
Dee Dine is the recipe developer and writer behind Green Smoothie Gourmet. She shares her super healthy wholesome recipes on her blog and her Instagram that she feeds her family and friends. She gravitates toward recipes that are fast to create, plant-based, nutritious, easy, and use familiar ingredients. And chocolate is always a good idea! More about Dee.
Fia
Hi, can I use some other flour than cassava? It’s hard to get here in Germany 😐
Dee Dine
Yes, Fia, all purpose flour is fine to use, the crumb will be a little denser.
Almosthealthy
Hi. Is there any replacement for flax eggs as I have an aversion to the taste of flax..its super weird but I can’t eat anything with flax.
Dee Dine
Sure, just use 3 tbsp of apple sauce.