Name: No Bake Coconut Chocolate Bars
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 7 min
Total time: 17 min
Ingredients: 1 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut shreds; 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped; 1/2 cup cashews, chopped; 1/2 tsp sea salt; 1/2 cup pure maple syrup; 3/4 cup sunflower seed butter, divided; 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted; 1/4 cup raw honey; 1/2 cup cacao powder; 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

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I'll say it: coconut chocolate bars are the bomb.

ESPECIALLY when they're no bake dessert bars you probably already have all the ingredients to make.

With a crunchy and chewy base made from nuts and coconut, and filled with a rich cacao and sunflower seed butter fudge, these coconut chocolate bars are easy, fuss free, and are gluten free, vegetarian, and paleo.

No bake coconut chocolate bars on a baking sheet

Ingredients needed for coconut chocolate bars

As I wrote above, you probably have most—if not all—of the ingredients you need for these no bake bars on hand. And guess what? No sweetened condensed milk!

For the base/topping, you'll need:

unsweetened coconut shreds (preferably toasted)
walnuts (preferably toasted)
cashews (preferably toasted)
maple syrup
sunflower seed butter (OR peanut butter)

Mix all that together, and you get a crunchy and chewy base and topping for these fudgy no bake bars.

For the chocolate filling, you'll make a no bake fudge using:

sunflower seed butter (OR peanut butter)
coconut oil
raw honey
cacao powder (OR cocoa powder)
vanilla extract

(Psst - I've got a recipe just for this "peanut butter" fudge, too!)

Hand holding a homemade no bake coconut chocolate bar with a bite taken out of it

How to make no bake coconut chocolate bars

The goal for this recipe was to make a really simple, straightforward dessert bar that's also gluten free and paleo-friendly.

With that said, here's a quick walkthrough for these coconut chocolate bars!

— Chop the nuts. Pretty straightforward! Obviously you'll want to spread the nutty flavor across the bars, so chop pretty well.

— Mix together the base. Then take ⅔ of the mixture and press into a square cake pan.

— Stir the filling together. Make sure the coconut oil and honey are melted so everything is smooth!

— Pour the "fudge" over the base. Then sprinkle the remaining topping on top.

— Refrigerate until set. Then dig in!!

Stack of gluten free coconut chocolate dessert bars

Variations for this no bake dessert recipe

No bake recipes like these coconut chocolate bars provide an insane amount of leeway with variations and adjustments!

Here are just a few of my suggestions for ways to make this recipe your own:

— Use different nuts. Really, you could use any combination of nuts in place of the walnuts and cashews! You can always use all walnuts or all cashews as well.

— Swap the sunflower seed butter for peanut butter (or any nut butter). I like using sunflower seed butter because it's so smooth and crazy flavorful, but peanut butter would work just fine! Also, I have dreams of using hazelnut butter for this recipe... you can totally steal that dream.

— Use all maple syrup or all honey. If you're missing either real maple syrup or honey, you can use all of the other. However, I do personally prefer having both in this recipe. Raw honey tends to solidify a bit when cold, which helps the fudge part of these bars keep their shape. On the other hand, I like the flavor of maple syrup with the nuts and coconut.

Have any other suggestions for variations? Please put them in the comments!

Stack of paleo no bake coconut chocolate bars without sweetened condensed milk

Last tip for this recipe: toast the coconut and nuts

Okay, so I KNOW this technically goes against the "no bake" part of this recipe.

BUT I highly suggest toasting the coconut and nuts!

Whenever I'm using coconut or nuts as a "mix in" in baking recipes, I usually toast them beforehand whether or not the recipe calls for it. You'll get more flavor — and isn't that why you're mixing nuts/coconut in anyway?

To toast 'em, just spread the coconut and/or nuts on a baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 7 minutes. Done!

I've included the toasting instructions as an optional step in the recipe.

Make sure to let these ingredients cool a little bit before mixing into the base!

Stack of homemade coconut chocolate bars

How to serve these no bake bars

Since they need to be chilled, these bars will make an excellent spring/summer treat. You know, on those hot days when you really want a treat but making ice cream is too much of a pain.

These coconut fudge bars freeze incredibly well, too, and they taste fantastic straight out of the freezer!

I can definitely see these being a big hit at summer potlucks and BBQs, and I'll probably be making them numerous times throughout the year...sometimes to share, and sometimes all for myself. A girl's got to live, you know.

More gluten free dessert recipes for hot summer days

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