These Vegan Twix Bars are just as delicious as the real thing: a crunchy shortbread base topped with fudgy caramel coated in silky chocolate! They're not too sweet, much healthier than the traditional version and easy to make. They make excellent edible gifts for Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, and everything in between! They're also refined sugar free and gluten-free.
My Vegan Snickers Bars were so popular I decided to make some more vegan chocolate bars! These Homemade Twix Bars have a shortbread base inspired by my Gluten-Free Vegan Shortbread Cookies recipe with a caramel layer inspired by my Vegan Millionaire Shortbread recipe.
The shortbread
The shortbread is made using a combination of ground almonds (almond meal) and brown rice flour.
You need to use brown rice flour, not white rice flour. Using white rice flour would create a soft cookie (like my Sugar Cookies) rather than a crunchy shortbread cookie.
If you can't find brown rice flour in your local supermarket, you'll be able to find it in local health stores or online.
The vegan caramel
The vegan caramel is made using blended cashew nuts for creaminess, coconut sugar for a toffee-like flavour, and cacao butter for a fudgy texture.
You can get hold of both coconut sugar and cacao butter online, in local health stores or large supermarkets.
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together the ingredients for the dough in a glass mixing bowl.
- Transfer the mixture to a one-pound loaf tin.
Tip: Line the tin with greased baking paper to make it easier to remove after.
- Use your fingers to push the mixture all the way to the edges, then use a spatula to press down on it until the surface is completely even.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch.
Tip: Be careful not to burn it, but you want to bake it for as long as possible for it to have a crunchy texture.
- Leave to cool as you make the caramel, although it doesn't matter if it hasn’t cooled completely before putting on the caramel.
- Place all the ingredients for the caramel into a food processor.
Tip: If your food processor isn’t very powerful, it may have trouble with the cacao butter. In this case, melt the cacao butter first using a bain-marie before adding to the food processor.
- Whizz until completely smooth - you might need to mix it around a few times.
- Transfer the caramel onto the shortbread base, pushing it all the way to the edges.
- Use a spatula to press down on it until the surface is completely even.
- Place in the freezer for about one hour until completely firmed up.
- Making sure the caramel has firmed up completely, slice into 8 bars.
- Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl with the coconut oil.
Tip: Using a wide-bottomed bowl makes it easier to dip the bars into the melted chocolate.
- Place the bowl over a pan of boiling water and stir regularly until melted.
Tip: Make sure not to overheat it as the chocolate will ‘split’ if you heat it too much.
- Use a small fork to carefully lift the bars one at a time into the melted chocolate and spoon the melted chocolate over the bar until it has been completely covered in melted chocolate.
- Use the fork to lift the bar out of the melted chocolate and onto a rectangular baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Drizzle the remaining melted chocolate over the top of the bars to decorate, if desired.
- Place in the fridge for a couple of hours until the chocolate has hardened completely.
How long do these keep for?
They keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the coconut oil with coconut butter.
- The ground almonds (almond meal) can be replaced with ground walnuts or ground sunflower seeds.
- You can replace the almond butter with peanut butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter or tahini.
- For a refined sugar free version, use a refined sugar free chocolate.
Substitutions to be careful of
The brown rice flour CANNOT be replaced with white rice flour or any other gluten-free flour - it is essential for the shortbread base to keep its shape and texture.
More vegan chocolate treats
- Healthy Snickers Ice Cream Bites
- Matcha Chocolate Truffles
- Chocolate Truffles
- Hazelnut Chocolate Truffles
- White Chocolate Truffles
- Strawberry Chocolate Truffles
- Chocolate Bars
- Snickers Bars
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.
Watch how to make it
Vegan Twix Bars (Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
For the shortbread:
- 30 g (⅛ cup) coconut oil (or sub coconut butter)
- 5 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other similar sweetener)
- 75 g (⅔ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) *
- 75 g (⅔ cup) brown rice flour **
- Pinch salt
For the caramel:
- 75 g (½ cup) cashew nuts (soaked overnight in cold water or in boiling water for 15 minutes)
- 50 g (⅓ cup) coconut sugar
- 1 tablespoon smooth almond butter (or sub any other nut or seed butter)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 20 g (0.7 oz) cacao butter *** (or sub coconut oil or coconut butter, though this will give it a coconut taste)
For the chocolate:
- 200 g (7 oz) dark chocolate **** (ensure vegan/gluten-free if necessary)
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Instructions
For the shortbread:
- Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave.
- Add the maple syrup, ground almonds, brown rice flour and salt and mix well – add a splash of plant-based milk if it’s looking too dry to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to a loaf tin lined with greaseproof baking paper - I used a one-pound loaf tin.
- Use your fingers to push the mixture all the way to the edges.
- Use a spatula to press down on it until the surface is completely even.
- Bake in oven for 25 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch - be careful not to burn it, but you want to bake it for as long as possible for it to have a crunchy texture.
- Leave to cool as you make the caramel, although it doesn’t matter if it hasn’t cooled completely before putting on the caramel.
For the caramel:
- Drain the soaked cashew nuts.
- Place into a food processor with all the other ingredients.
- Whizz until completely smooth – you might need to mix it around a few times.
- Transfer the caramel onto the shortbread base, pushing it all the way to the edges.
- Use a spatula to press down on it until the surface is completely even.
- Place in the freezer for one hour to firm up completely.
For the chocolate:
- Making sure the caramel has firmed up completely, slice it into 8 bars.
- Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl with the coconut oil (using a wide-bottomed bowl makes it easier to dip the bars into the melted chocolate).
- Place the bowl over a pan of boiling water and stir regularly until melted – make sure not to overheat it as the chocolate will ‘split’ if you heat it too much.
- Use a small fork to carefully lift the bars one at a time into the melted chocolate and use a spoon to spoon the melted chocolate over the bar until it has been completely covered in melted chocolate.
- Use the fork to lift the bar out of the melted chocolate and onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Drizzle the remaining melted chocolate over the top of the bars to decorate, if desired.
- Place in the fridge for a couple of hours until the chocolate has hardened completely.
- Keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.
Video
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.
Denisse
What could I use instead of cashews?
Rhian Williams
Very well-soaked blanched almonds!
soosa
I really wanna make this ! looks so good
can I replace the rice flour with sth else ?
thanks !
Rhian Williams
Thank you! You can use an all purpose gluten-free flour, though the texture won't be as crunchy!
Olivia
I don’t get it; I’ve been making these for a while, successfully. And then suddenly I try it having not made them for a while and it all goes wrong. I just don’t understand. They’re still edible and nice, they’re just not the same as they were before.
I usually bake for 25mins in a mini individual Twix shaped mould my sister bought.
I usually use maple syrup. I tried to make the bases last night w agave as I didn’t have any maple. I know 1tbsp is a standardised 15ml so 5tbsp works out at 75ml/g. So instead of measuring 5tbsp of agave I just added 75g. Oilier than I remember it being so I add extra GF flour (not brown rice flour but Dove’s GF plain flour which I’ve used every time) and they were a little bit chewy after I let them cool. I mean I know they won’t be as crunchy as brown rice flour but they’ve never really been chewy.
So I make them again w agave syrup. Bake them as normal, although someone in my house turns down the oven temp the last few mins as they look like they’re going to burn. Still kind of chewy.
I make them again now, using maple syrup and measuring 5tbsp (which somehow gave me 95ml) and Dove’s GF flour (again) and it was really really oily, possibly even oilier than the last batch and I ended up throwing the mix as I was worried it would still be oily when I cooked them.
What am I doing wrong? I’m using the same brand of coconut oil (refined so it doesn’t taste coconutty) and melting it in the warm oven while I add everything else to the bowl (which usually works) I’m using the same brand of GF flour, I’m using the same individual Twix moulds and filling each cavity with 15g of the mix and smushing it down evenly...
I just don’t get where I’m going wrong. It’s frustrating and disappointing as I used to make these (with a different caramel made of cashew coconut condensed milk, coconut sugar and vegan butter) a lot and I miss making them and I miss being able to eat a twix.
Rhian Williams
Hi - I'm so sorry to hear about this and thank you so much for sharing your feedback. Are you use ground almonds? And have you been using the same type of ground almonds as you used to use before?