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Tasty Vegan Recipes

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

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Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

Crispy chocolate, buttery salted caramel, and toasty popped grains!

Doesn’t that sound like the perfect way to start the weekend? Salted caramel meets popped amaranth and chocolate in these to-die-for bars. The fact that they all disappeared in a matter of hours proves how good they are!

This recipe is very easy to prepare, the hardest part is waiting for it to firm up in the fridge.

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

The crust consists of popped amaranth, rice crisps, and oat flour mixed with a sticky sweetener. I went with coconut nectar because I like its subtle caramelized flavor, but you can use maple or brown rice syrup. To help firm up the crust a bit I also added some coconut oil.

Have you ever tried making your own popped amaranth? It’s a fun process, you heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add your raw amaranth. Cover and let it pop! It’s THAT easy! And much cheaper than buying popped amaranth.

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

The combination of popped amaranth and rice crisps give these bars a toasty flavor and crispy texture that balances so well with the soft and buttery caramel.

For the caramel, I went with my go-to caramel base that I used in this Twix Chocolate Caramel Spread, or these Salted Caramel Chocolate Pancakes. It’s a mix of 5 ingredients: almond butter, maple syrup, cocoa butter, vanilla, and sea salt.

Almond butter brings the creaminess, maple syrup the caramel flavor (I recommend using a dark maple syrup for a deeper caramel flavor), and cocoa butter helps firm up everything. Vanilla and sea salt are optional but highly recommended. Who doesn’t like a hint of salt with caramel?!

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

Finally, the thin chocolate layer comes to give even more flavor. It’s made with only three ingredients: cocoa butter, cocoa powder, and maple syrup. It’s super chocolatey, crispy, and perfectly sweet.

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

If you are a caramel lover you will love these bars, they are sweet, salty, buttery, and super crispy!

If you have a brother like mine around, these caramel bars won’t last long! Quick tip: hide them very well in your refrigerator if you don’t want them to disappear too quickly! May I recommend putting them under a box of blue cheese? Its stinky smell should keep most of the gluttons away.

Let me know in the comments if you try this recipe!

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars
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Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

Popped Grains Salted Caramel Bars

Popped amaranth bars with a soft salted caramel center, topped with a crispy layer of homemade dark chocolate. Buttery, salty and chocolatey, it’s the perfect treat!


★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
  • Yield: 8 Large Bars
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Ingredients

Popped Grains Crust

  • 1 and 1/4 cup oat flour
  • 1/4 cup coconut nectar (or other sticky sweetener)
  • 3/4 cup popped amaranth
  • 1/4 cup rice crisps
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Salted Caramel Layer

  • 6 tbsp maple syrup
  • 6 tbsp almond butter
  • 6 tbsp melted cocoa butter
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt

Chocolate Topping

  • 1/4 cup melted cocoa butter
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp maple syrup

Instructions

Popped Grains Crust

  1. Line a baking dish with parchment paper. I used an 8×4 inch baking dish.
  2. In a mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, coconut nectar, popped amaranth, rice crisps, melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Mix using a wooden spoon until you get a sticky mixture.
  3. Transfer the mixture to the baking dish, cover with another layer of parchment paper and press very firmly using the bottom of a glass. You want the crust to be very firmly packed. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour (or 30 min in the freezer).

Salted Caramel Layer

  1. In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup and almond butter. Stir in the melted cocoa butter, vanilla extract and sea salt. Whisk until fully combined.
  2. Remove the baking dish from the refrigerator and pour the salted caramel on top on the popped amaranth crust. Place in the refrigerator for another 2 hours, or until the caramel layer is firm to touch.

Chocolate Topping

  1. Once the caramel layer is firm: in a bowl, combine the melted cocoa butter, cocoa powder, and maple syrup. Pour over the salted caramel layer and slightly rotate the baking dish to distribute the chocolate evenly. Place in the refrigerator for another 10-15 minutes.
  2. Once firm, remove from the baking dish. Run a large knife under hot water, pat it dry and carefully cut into bars. I cut mine into 8 large bars but you can definitely cut it into 16 bite-size bars!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1
  • Calories: 396
  • Sugar: 17.6g
  • Fat: 28.4g
  • Carbohydrates: 32.9g
  • Fiber: 3.3g
  • Protein: 5g

Did you make this recipe?

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Related Posts:

  • Vegan Aged Camembert CheeseVegan Aged Camembert Cheese
  • Vegan Cultured ButterVegan Cultured Butter
  • Chocolate, Caramel & Vanilla Yule LogChocolate, Caramel & Vanilla Yule Log
  • Vegan Blue CheeseVegan Blue Cheese

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Comments

  1. Dawn | KitchenTravels

    October 31, 2017 at 7:07 pm

    Wow, this looks amazing! Do the bars hold their shape at room temperature?

    Reply
    • Thomas

      November 1, 2017 at 5:31 pm

      They do! That’s the magic of cocoa butter 🙂

      Reply
  2. Frances

    November 22, 2017 at 10:18 pm

    Have made this twice now and they are so good and so easy to make. I substituted the almond for peanut butter for first time and now the maple syrup for brown rice syrup. Bit cheaper alternatives and still tastes great. Thank you.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  3. Rick

    September 25, 2018 at 8:33 pm

    Hey Thomas! This bar looks incredible!!
    I was wondering if there’s any replacer for the oat flour, since the no-gluten options are a bit expensive where I live.
    Perhaps sunflower seed?

    Reply
    • Thomas

      September 28, 2018 at 2:17 pm

      Hey Rick,
      Thanks! I’m not sure sunflower seeds will work here, maybe try brown rice flour, or buckwheat flour.

      Reply

Hey! I'm Thomas, welcome to my blog! Here you will find simple, healthy and tasty plant-based recipes. Experimenting in the kitchen is my passion.
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