These Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are soft, chewy and fudgy. They're refined sugar free, date-sweetened, grain-free and oil-free too. Great for dessert or a snack, and also perfect for meal prep and packed lunches. Also perfect for Christmas cookies!
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Place the soaked and drained dates, almond butter, salt, vanilla and plant-based milk in a food processor or blender.
- Whizz until completely smooth.
- Transfer into a mixing bowl, add the ground almonds and chocolate chips and mix well.
- Transfer the batter into a square baking tin.
Tip: Line the tin with greased baking paper to make it easier to remove the cookie bars after.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares!
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of nut or seed butter - almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter etc.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk - almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk, rice milk, oat milk etc.
- You can replace the ground almonds with ground walnuts or ground sunflower seeds.
- For a nut-free version, replace the ground almonds with ground sunflower seeds, replace the almond butter with sunflower seed butter, and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
- For a refined sugar free version, use refined sugar free chocolate chips.
- You can omit the chocolate chips.
Ingredients you can use instead of chocolate chips
- Raisins or sultanas.
- Dried cranberries.
- Chopped dried apricots.
- Chopped dried figs.
- Chopped dried mango.
- Chopped dried pineapple.
Ingredients you can add to the cookie bars
- Dried cranberries.
- Desiccated coconut.
- Chopped pecan nuts or walnuts or macadamia nuts.
- Fresh or frozen raspberries.
How long do these Cookie Bars keep for?
These Cookie Bars keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days - the taste and texture remains unchanged, which means they're great for meal prep and making ahead for entertaining.
More gluten-free vegan cookie recipes
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Chocolate Cookies
- Carrot Cake Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 150 g (⅔ cup) pitted dates soaked overnight in cold water or 10 minutes in boiling water
- 4 tablespoons smooth almond butter (or sub peanut butter)
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (or sub any other plant-based milk)
- Pinch salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250 g (2 ¼ cups) ground almonds (almond meal) * (or sub ground walnuts)
- 100 g (⅔ cup) dark chocolate chips ** (ensure vegan/gluten-free if necessary)
To serve (optional):
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Drain away the water from the soaked dates.
- Place the drained dates, almond butter, almond milk, salt and vanilla in a food processor or blender.
- Blend until completely smooth, mixing it around a couple of times if necessary.
- Transfer into a mixing bowl, add the ground almonds and chocolate chips and mix well.
- Transfer the mixture into a square or rectangular baking tin lined with greased baking paper - I used a 23cm/9inch square baking tin.
- Scatter over more chocolate chips to decorate, if desired.
- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. They should be slightly cracked on the top and slightly firm inside but still quite gooey - be careful not to overcook!
- Sprinkle over flaky sea salt, if desired.
- Leave to cool before cutting into squares.
- Keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
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