What's your favorite Clif bar flavor? Mine are chocolate chip and white chocolate macadamia. Yeah, I know, nothing really exciting, I stick to the classics. I'm looking forward to taste the carrot cake and pumpkin flavor though.
These no-bake energy bars taste just like white chocolate macadamia clif bars, if not better. The texture is chewy, but firm enough to keep them at room temperature, meaning: you can bring the bars with you when you go mountain climbing.
My first tries were far from being perfect, too chewy, not holding together, bad taste, etc. BUT after wasting 2 boxes of rice crisps I finally cracked the recipe! It requires less than 10 ingredients and it comes together in 20 minutes!
The bars are made with the basic energy bar ingredients: oats, rice crisps, brown rice syrup and nut butter. I also added some oat flour and a few dates to help bind everything together. I also highly recommend you add some white chocolate chips because...well, chocolate makes everything better.
The secret to get the distinctive flavor of the macadamia clif bars lies in the flavorings. I recommend you add some caramel extract, I am pretty sure it is the one used in the clif macadamia bars. I used the Watkins caramel extract, a little goes a long way since just a few drops are enough to add a nice flavor. Considering the low amount used, I don't consider this stuff "unhealthy".
You put everything in your food processor (in the right order), make a dough and then form a log. After about one hour in the fridge you can cut the bars and drizzle with melted white chocolate.
The white chocolate drizzle is made with cocoa butter, powdered sugar, almond butter and vanilla extract. I tried using coconut sugar but it doesn't dissolve as well as powdered sugar. The almond butter is here to help bind everything and add creaminess to the chocolate. If you don't have cocoa butter and want to save time, feel free to use vegan white chocolate and melt it over a double boiler.
Once you bars are generously drizzled with white chocolate, put them back into your refrigerator until the chocolate is set.
The bars will be a little bit soft at first, but after about 1-2 days they will firm up.
As always, let me know if you try this recipe in the comments!
Vegan White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bar
Ingredients
Bars
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup oat flour
- 4 small dates
- 6 tablespoon brown rice syrup
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoon almond butter or other nut butter
- 1 and ½ cup brown rice crisps or regular rice crisps
- ⅓ cup macadamia nuts
- ¼ cup white chocolate chips optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon caramel extract optional
White chocolate drizzle
- 2 ounces cocoa butter
- 1 teaspoon almond butter
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Bars
- Add the rolled oats, oat flour and dates to a food processor.
- Process for about 10-15 seconds until the dates and rolled oats are finely chopped.
- Heat the brown rice syrup, coconut sugar and almond butter in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved and small bubbles start to appear.
- Pour over the oat and dates mixture and process for another 10-15 seconds until well combined. You will get a sticky and soft dough.
- Add the macadamia nuts, brown rice crisps and vanilla/caramel extracts to the bowl of the food processor. Process for a few seconds until combined (you don't want to process for too long to keep a crispy texture). You might have to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. If you want to add chocolate chips: transfer the mixture to a large bowl, add the white chocolate chips and mix with your hands until just incorporated.
- Transfer the mixture to a baking pan line with parchment paper. Using clean hands, form a log and flatten until desired thickness. Press the mixture very firmly.
- Put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Cut into 6-7 bars.
White chocolate drizzle
- Add all ingredients except vanilla extract to a small saucepan.
- Heat on low, stirring frequently until the cocoa butter is melted.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract and mix again until everything is well combined.
- Let sit for about 10-15 minutes until the white chocolate is a little bit thicker. Be careful, it can firm up really fast if your kitchen is cold.
- Using a spoon, drizzle the bars. Put in the refrigerator until the chocolate is hard (about 30 minutes).
- Wrap the bars with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
- The bars will keep for at least 2 weeks at room temperature.
I'm always on the hunt for healthy and delicious nut bars and I can't wait to try these! Pinning for later 🙂
I made these and they taste just like the clif bars! My usual recipe does not but are just as delicous - they also have like 1/10 of the sugar... I may try these again but without the 1 /4 c sugar because the brown rice syrup is super high in sugar already 🙁
These sound amazing. My son is hooked on clif bars and I'd love to find a homemade option that works for him. Have you stored these in the freezer? I'm worried we won't go through them fast enough and I'd like to make them ahead and store if possible. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks Allison!
I never tried putting these in the freezer so I'm not sure about the results. I recently released a recipe for chewy energy bars that stay chewy for a long time, maybe you can check it out and tweak it with macadamia and white chocolate 😉
You mentioned substituting the oat flour with protein powder. Do the bars bind as well? These are the only cliff bars my son will eat and I really like the idea of less sugar and no soy, but looking for more protein. He has quirks about presentation and texture so I'm hoping it all works out the with protein powder.
Yes, the bars bind well with protein powder, make sure to use one that tastes good though, or has a neutral smell/flavor. I like Sprout Living Epic Protein.
Just made these, slightly different though. Here's what I did.
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 white whole wheat flour
4 dates (~100g)
4T Honey
1T Molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp almond butter
1 and 1/2 cups puffed wheat
4T Water
1/3 cup macadamia nuts
28g white chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2t salt
1/4t cinnamon
Same method you used, but with the different ingredients, I had to add a bit of water after the puffed wheat to get the proper texture. Going to keep tweaking this a bit and see what I can come up with. Going to need them for the upcoming century ride I have!
Thanks for the original!
Thanks for sharing Hal! Good luck with your ride! 😉
I made this! I popped my own brown basmati rice by cooking it, then drying it out in the oven on 200 for about 2 hours, then frying it in coconut oil! (It only puffs slightly without commercial pressure poppers.)
I also used raisins instead of dates, because I didn’t have any. I stuck to the rest of the recipe pretty closely, Thomas...I even added caramel flavor! Yum! You were right! The rice I popped gives it such a wonderful, crunchy texture, and a warm, nutty flavor. I love them! So satisfying. I made them for my son; I don’t even LIKE these in the Clif version. But these are more flavorful and less dry. I WILL say, mix by hand (verrry sticky and difficult) or use your kitchen aid with dough hook attachment, if you have a cheap food processor...I nearly killed mine!
Making your own popped rice! That's awesome 🙂 I tried it once and I agree, it's super crunchy and nuttier than store-bought rice puffs.
I'm so glad to hear you and your son liked the bars!
Regarding the sticky mixture: you are right, it's so sticky it can stop the food processor from running, it happened to me once. I will update the recipe to add that information.
Thanks for the rating Amanda!
Hi Thomas! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’m really excited to try this out. Do you think I could substitute the rolled oats with instant oats instead?
Thanks!
Hi Mary,
Sure! Instant oats should work great too!
What can I use substitute for the dates? I follow the low FODMAP diet and dates are high FODMAP
You could try adding a couple of tablespoons of brown rice syrup, although dates help the mixture hold better together.