The Best Nut Butter Bars

I am happy to be snowed in with an entire week off from teaching school - as long as the groceries last, I'm happy to have time to spend on creative recipe development. Look what happens! These bars happen. They are gluten-free, no-bake, vegan, practically raw, easy, and delicious. You notice I didn't say paleo - they have a few chocolate chips melted on the top. Oh, well. They are really nice without the top layer, but I think they make it the Best Nut Butter Bars.

I put the following ingredients into a small sauce pan:

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup almond butter

1/2 cup peanut butter (or one cup of either nut butter)

1/2 cup maple syrup ( or honey)

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp sea salt

I stirred this mixture up on low until smooth and then stirred in:

1/2 cup pecans

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut (the big chunky stuff)

1/3 cup cranberries

1/2 cup almond flour

I put parchment paper into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish, pushing it into the corners. Then I poured the mixture into the dish and placed it in the freezer for 45 minutes.

You could eat it just like this but I like to have a little chocolate layer on the top so in ia small sauce pan I melted:

1 cup Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips

1 TBSP coconut oil

I stirred this over low heat until it was warm and smooth and then poured it over the bars from the freezer.  I put them back into the freezer for another 45 minutes.

I took them out and cut them into 9 big pieces but 16 small pieces would work, too.

Heaven. They are the Best Nut Butter Bars!