Peanut Butter Protein Bars

Like many, I love peanut butter. Not only is it addictively delicious, but it's also rich in protein and nutrients while being relatively affordable. Peanut butter is a great addition to a vegan keto diet. Being a legume, it contains a slightly different range of vitamins and minerals than other "nuts," and so can help you diversity your diet and meet your nutritional needs through variety. For those who cannot eat peanuts, feel free to make these tasty bars with almond butter and almonds or sunflower seed butter and toasted pumpkin seeds. These peanut butter protein bars have a melt in your mouth quality that goes wonderfully with a mid-morning coffee, which is how I've been enjoying the photographed batch. Happy snacking!
Yield: 8 servings of 1 bar each, totaling 8 bars
Macros (per serving): 195 calories | 13g protein | 13g fat | 3g net carbs
Prep: 20 minutes (+ some inactive time) | Cool: 20 minutes
Storage: refrigerated or at room temperature for 7 days (or longer). If stacking in a storage container, separate with pieces of parchment to prevent bars from sticking together. ✎
Ingredients:
  • ​½ cup (96g) granulated allulose ​✎
  • ​1 Tbsp (15ml) water
  • ½ Tbsp sugar-free vanilla extract (optional)​
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 1½ Tbsp (30g) thick sugar-free maple syrup or "honey" ✎
  • ½ ​cup + 2 Tbsp ​(160g) unsweetened peanut butter​​
  • 2 Tbsp (18g) oil-roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
  • 2 Tbsp (23g) vegan keto dark chocolate chips or cacao nibs
  • ⅔ cup (56g) plain pea or soy protein powder ✎​​
Directions:
  1. Put the allulose, water, vanilla extract, and salt in a small microwave-safe mixing bowl. Microwave for 60 seconds. Pause to whisk after 30 seconds. Monitor to make sure it doesn't bubble over. The contents of the bowl will be scalding hot, so be careful. Transfer to the fridge to cool until room temperature, about 20 minutes. ✎
  2. Add the peanut butter and syrup to the allulose mixture and whisk until smooth.
  3. Add and mix in the peanuts and chocolate chips.
  4. Add the protein powder and mix with a stiff silicone spatula or spoon until no dry patches remain.
  5. Press the dough into a parchment-lined 6-inch (15cm) square cake pan.
  6. Refrigerate to cool and set for about 20 minutes.
  7. Cut into 8 bars and enjoy at room temperature.
Peanut-Free Options: replace the peanut butter and peanuts with almond butter and almonds or sunflower seed butter and pumpkin seeds. I'd suggest toasting the almonds and pumpkin seeds for a satisfying crunch.
Macros (per serving almond): 195 calories | 12g protein | 12g fat | 3g net carbs
Macros (per serving seeds): 205 calories | 12g protein | 14g fat | 2g net carbs ​
✎ Notes:
  • Allulose melts into a syrup, but will eventually return to its solid form. What this means here is that your bars will start become a little harder over time.
  • I have tried making a similar recipe with erythritol-based granulated sweetener and it did not work out at all, so I would not expect it to work in this recipe. This recipe will also not work with pure stevia or pure monk fruit as they have little bulk and do not melt into a syrup when heated. I have not tried the recipe with xylitol. If you happen to try it, please let us know how it turns out.
  • For syrup, I am using ChocZero honey or maple syrup, which are very thick and contain no water in the ingredient list. The main ingredient is resistant dextrin.  Some keto syrups are very watery and I don't know how this would impact the recipe, or the texture after a few days of storage.
  • You could use a flavored protein powder, or a mixture of plain and flavored, but you might find the result overly sweet. Another option here is to replace some of the protein powder with peanut flour or peanut butter powder. This would likely decrease the protein and increase the net carbs, but would also add to the peanut butter flavor.
  • The main reason for the 20-minute cooling period is to prevent the chocolate chips from melting. If you're omitting the chocolate chips or using cacao nibs, you can cool the mixture for just 10 minutes, or until warm but not hot.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the honey/syrup (ChocZero) chocolate chips (dark, ChocZero), protein powder (Now Foods plain pea), sunflower seed butter (SunButter), and pumpkin seeds (Bob's Redmill).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.