No Bake Chunky Monkey Twix Bars (Vegan)

A twist on the classic Twix bar coming together with a bit of Chunky Monkey elements, this recipe will surely become your new go-to treat! There is no baking required, uses simple and healthy ingredients and is completely vegan and gluten free. 

Growing up, Twix bars were hands down my favourite chocolate bar. I remember when I was a kid and after a night of trick-or-treating on Halloween, I would dig through my bag to only look for the Twix Bars (I *might* have also secretly dug through my sisters bags too, but that's okay I traded them with their favourite Kitkats and Snickers :)).

I never miss any kind of food since going vegan, but if someone was to ask me what I do miss they would be Twix Bars. Something about the short bread cookie and caramel combo covered in chocolate... mmm. 

I'm sure I'm not the only one that does this, but I love to eat my treats frozen. I stick most of my protein bars, snack bars and chocolate bars in the freezer and I find it so much more satisfying to eat! I also loved to crumble on chocolate bars over some delicious chunky monkey icecream- and that's when I got the idea of sticking in some frozen bananas into these babies. 

As I'm sure a lot of you know, when you freeze bananas, it becomes a whole new different texture. It becomes denser, more creamier and just... delicious. Blending it up or straight up biting into frozen bananas is like a treat on its own! So I thought twix bar bites + frozen banana chunk (like a lil icecream bite) = deliciousness? I mean, I really didn't think the combination of a short bread cookie, peanut butter caramel, bananas & chocolate could go wrong. 

Note: now I know traditionally, chunky monkey has walnuts in them but 1. I didn't have walnut butter or walnuts on hands and 2. I actually prefer the combo of peanut butter + bananas + chocolate- but of course replace the peanut butter/peanuts with walnuts if you'd like.

Alright, now let's get to know a little bit about No Bake Chunk Monkey Twix Bar:

• made with healthier ingredients
• no baking required
• vegan & gluten free 
• multiple layers of deliciousness
• super creamy lush caramel
• thick shortbread cookie bite

I hope I have now convinced you to try these delicious little bites 🙂

If you make this delicious treat, please share it and let me know what you think by tagging me on Instagram @lisakitahara, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!

Method

1. Blend short bread cookie ingredients in a blender until it comes together
2. Blend all caramel ingredients in the blender until you reach a smooth and creamy consistency
3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and cut the banana into coins (thickness is up to you!)
4. Take a spoonful (around 13-15g) of the dough and roll them into balls
5. Then press them so they become flat around the size of the banana coins) 
6. Add 1 teaspoon of the caramel to each cookie and then top with a banana coin
7. Optional: At this point, you can also add some crushed peanuts/walnuts for a more chunky monkey type effect
8. Place them into the freezer for around 30 minutes or until the bananas are firm 
9. Have melted chocolate ready before taking them out of the freezer and coat each bite in the chocolate
10. Stick them back into the freezer for around 1 hour so the banana hardens or if you really can't wait- until the chocolate is fully firm 🙂

Ingredients

Short Bread Cookie

• ¼ c almond flour
• ½ c + 2 tablespoon oat flour 
• 3 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 small vanilla bean pod scraped or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon butter extract
• pinch of salt

Caramel

• 100g dates, soaked 
• 2 tablespoon peanut butter (or walnut butter)
• ½ teaspoon caramel extract
• 1 tablespoon date liquid from soaking 

Additional 

• ½-3/4c chocolate chips for coating
• 1 ripe banana