No-Bake Gluten Free, Vegan Peanut Butter bars

You need some peanut butter bars with some crunch and nutty awesomeness. They are no bake and gluten free but full of flavor!

Growing up in an Italian home you could almost always find a jar of Nutella in the house. It was not uncommon to slather Nutella on a nice piece of crostini bread and bring it to school for lunch. Most Italian kids my age loved their Nutella sandwiches. I was not one of them. Sadly, a jar of peanut butter was not on the top of an Italian family’s grocery list in the 70’s. I still remember with deep fondness when I was introduced to my first peanut butter sandwich. One day, I decided to swap my Nutella sandwich with someone else’s peanut butter sandwich (there was no such thing as a nut free school in those days). I had never heard of peanut butter. “Peanut butter, what’s that?” I remember saying to my non-Italian friend. “Want some?” she said. From that time on, if I had a Nutella sandwich for lunch, I would call upon my favorite friend who almost always brought peanut butter sandwiches to school and swap lunches. That’s when my love affair with peanut butter started.

These bars are dedicated to that special friend who introduced me to peanut butter. These bars are super quick, easy to make, gluten-free, and vegan. This delicious treat not only satisfies your sweet tooth, but your peanut butter craving as well. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am just cuckoo for peanut butter!

It’s best to keep these bars in the fridge or freezer so that they last longer. They taste better if kept cold. Personally, I enjoy eating them frozen.

I decided to use raw cacao nibs instead of chocolate chips. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy chocolate from time to time, but it does not have to be a staple food in my diet. I find that the cacao nibs add a nice crunch to the bars.

I sweetened these bars using raw honey however, feel free to experiment with other sweeteners of your choice. If you are truly a peanut butter lover, you can skip the sweeteners altogether since these bars taste delicious without the sweet stuff.

Just be forewarned, you can easily polish off the whole batch at once.