Vegan Peanut Butter Butterfingers

Maker: Lauren of Flora & Vino

Lauren’s food and lifestyle blog, Flora & Vino, promotes healthy and balanced living through a whole foods diet. All of her recipes are plant-based and made with real ingredients–many of them are also refined sugar-free, gluten-free, and oil-free. Flora & Vino strives to inspire creativity. Check out her website and social media to get inspired!

Blog: floraandvino.com
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A Note from Lauren:

I think these good-for-you Butterfingers will seriously surprise you. After deciding to make my own Butterfingers, I struggled initially with the ingredients to recreate the delicious interior. It needs to be perfectly flakey, crispy, and buttery before encasing in dark chocolate. After some recipe research, I found that other bloggers had success with adding cereal to the mix to achieve that candy crunch! 

At first I was skeptical, but then I remembered how good rice crispy treats are with puffed rice cereal and decided to try it out. Clearly, I was impressed. So impressed that I’m sharing all of the sweet deets with you. They’re nutty, sweet, crunchy, and chocolate-y with real-food ingredients you probably have on hand.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup date paste (or sub pure maple syrup)

• 1/4 cup unrefined coconut sugar

• 1 cup peanut butter (or sub any nut or seed butter)

• 2 cups gluten-free corn flakes

• 1/8 tsp Himalayan sea salt

• 2/3 cup chopped Hu Kitchen Salty Dark Chocolate

Note: Make it local by using Potomac Chocolate Co.’s Worth It’s Salt Bar and Reginald’s Homemade Original Roast Peanut Butter

Prepare

1. Line a bread pan with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Combine the date paste and unrefined coconut sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a low bowl, and simmer for 60 seconds, stirring constantly.

3. Remove from the heat. Stir in the peanut butter and salt and stir until you have a thick paste.

4. Add in the corn flakes and stir well to completely coat, crushing the cereal flakes while stirring.

5. Press the cereal into the parchment-lined bread pan. Place pan in the freezer for 1-2 hours or until completely hard.

6. Once the mixture is firm, lift the parchment paper out of the bread pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut the nougat into 9-12 large rectangles and arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet or plate.

7. Add chopped chocolate to a small saucepan over medium-low until fully melted. 

8. Spread melted chocolate over the rectangles with a spatula or dunk the entire bar in the melted chocolate for more traditional candy bar encasing. Drain any excess chocolate off and place back on the parchment paper. Place bars back in the freezer for 15-30 minutes to re-harden.

Optional: Dunk the frozen candy bars in another layer of chocolate if the coating is thin. I did this to mine to achieve a more even chocolate layer. Alternatively, you can skip this step.

Enjoy immediately from the freezer. Store in the freezer for the classic Butterfinger crunch.

When selecting your cereal flakes, make sure the cereal is gluten-free as needed and unsweetened/refined sugar-free, if possible.

Vegan Peanut Butter Butterfingers will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month, so stash some away for a rainy day.