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Raw Vegan Snickers Cups

I’ve been trying to figure out when I might have last eaten an actual Snickers bar. 10 years ago, maybe? So, I might not be the best person to tell you that these healthy, unprocessed, raw, vegan cups made from mostly dates & nuts taste just like a Snickers bar, but they really do taste just like a Snickers bar!

They’re a delicious, rich, and easy/fun dessert to make. And just like Snickers, these have three major flavors: the nougat, the caramel, and the chocolate. Each one is made from a base of dates, but they all have totally unique flavors and textures. The nougat layer is made with cashews and macadamia nuts. The caramel layer with almond butter, salt, and vanilla. The chocolate layer is made with coconut butter and cocoa/cacao powder. Whip up each component in a food processor, layer them into cupcake liners and chill – it’s that easy.

Plus, you can grind up some peanuts and sprinkle them on top to create “snow” and you’ve got the perfect healthy holiday dessert 😉

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Makes 10 two-serving cups

Ingredients:

  • About 1 1/2 cups pitted medjool dates
  • 2/3 cup cashews
  • 1/3 cup macadamia nuts
  • 1/3 cup almond butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1/3 cup coconut butter

Step One – Nougat

To make the first layer, soak 1/3 cup raw macadamias with 2/3 cup cashews in warm water for at least 30 minutes. Drain the soaking water and combine the nuts with 5 large medjool dates in a food processor. Blend until the nuts & dates are completely broken down and incorporated into a firm consistency. Divide this evenly between 10-12 cupcake liners and press down until the nougat evenly covers the bottoms of the liners. Pop these into the freezer while working on step two.

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Step Two – Caramel

You’d be amazed how much dates + almond butter taste like caramel, add some salt and vanilla and it’s an amazing flavor. That’s what we’ll do here. Combine 1/3 cup raw almond butter with 6-7 large medjool dates, process until combined, then add a few dashes of salt and a teaspoon of vanilla and pulse until smooth. Again, divide evenly and press down onto the nougat layer.

Also at this point, add a few whole or crushed raw peanuts onto the cups and press them into the caramel.

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Step Three – Chocolate

Finally, to make a creamy raw chocolate layer, combine 6 large medjool dates in the food processor with 1/3 cup of softened coconut butter (the pureed flesh of a coconut, available by the nut butters) and 2 tablespoons of either cocoa powder (not raw) or raw cacao powder. Blend until smooth and you know the drill – add on top of the caramel/peanut layer.

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Feel free to pulse a few peanuts in the food processor into small pieces and dust the tops of each cups for garnish. Pop these in the freezer in a sealed container and store there until ready to serve. They won’t freeze solid, but will firm into the perfect texture.

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11 Comments

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  1. Wowzers is all I can say!
    I have a care home I run for special needs people, and I am always looking for some thing new for snacks, that will satisfy all allergies and tastes, these went fast!
    I was able to taste one, and now I know what heaven tastes like 🙂
    I am tripling this batch next time, and keeping some aside for me

    Great job!

    • That’s so awesome, Tobius! I’m glad you all enjoyed them – and extra credit for making these within hours of the recipe going live! haha

      • Ha ha ha, yeah I practically live at your web site waiting for new ones to come out, what can I say, I am addicted to your web site and recipes 🙂

  2. This is really great, a few changes I’ll make next time I make it though:

    1. No little cups.
    I’ll lay it out in a pan and cut it into bars. Filling the cups is way too time consuming.

    2. Real chocolate on the top layer.
    Dates in all three layers is a bit too much dates for me. It all blends into one flavour.

    3. More salt in the caramel layer.

    Thank you so much for your amazing work!

  3. Thank you for the recipe! I love, love, love snickers and know how terrible they are (health wise). I just need to pickup some coconut butter and will make them tomorrow. Can’t wait.

  4. Hi there

    I was wondering if I could use Coconut Oil instead of Coconut Butter and if the process is still the same?

    Thank You

    • Hi Kimberly. I get that question a lot, but probably not for this recipe. Coconut butter is just the blended flesh of a coconut, so it would be kind of like substituting olive oil instead of crushed olives. 🙂

  5. Hi Andrew,
    I made these this weekend. They were delicious! However, something funny happened with the chocolate topping layer, and I was wondering if you might know what happened. I made my own coconut butter in the Vitamix with dried, unsweetened coconut. It was smooth and pourable when I finished. When combined with the dates and cocoa in the food processor, the result was very crumbly and not pourable or spreadable. So I added pure unsweetened soymilk, which happily resulted in a creamy whipped topping that worked great with these little desserts. But it was different than I expected. Any thoughts?

    • By the way, I am going to try making a giant batch of this recipe and make a kind of chocolate mousse pie, which I think will work great for Thanksgiving. Something healthier for me that doesn’t compromise flavor and enjoyment. Nice recipe.

    • Hi Rebecca! Interesting… I’ve never even thought of making my own coconut butter so I probably couldn’t say too much about why it didn’t work out as intended. But I have noticed that when I combine coconut butter and cocoa powder the butter absorbs the liquid and it can become dry, almost like chocolate that has seized. The way I remedy this is with a tablespoon of water (or coconut oil if you don’t mind the extra fat). Just a little bit will go a long way towards creating a melty chocolate that will solidify in the fridge.

      But nevertheless, I love the idea of making a mousse with soy milk… I’ll have to try that! 🙂

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