Snickers bars and stuffed dates had a baby, and I think you’re going to love her. Imagine all your favourite flavours of a classic snickers – in these chocolate coated, chewy caramel bites, stuffed with crunchy buckwheat peanut butter, rolled in bittersweet cacao nibs. Be warned, these are not just any old stuffed dates though. Say hello to Snickers Bombs!
By now you’ve probably noticed I have a thing for peanut butter and chocolate. It’s such a brilliant combo – creamy earthy nutty peanuts, combined with sweet rich chocolate. With them you can make Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, Snickers Bar Slice, Peanut Slabs… the options are endless. I’ve even been known to dip a spoon in peanut butter, top it with a square of dark chocolate, and eat three in a row.
How To Make Snickers Bombs
Well now you can make Snickers Bombs. Aka, a stuffed date that tastes just like a snickers bar. Eat them straight from the freezer and all your snickers cravings will be satisfied. I’ve made this recipe as number 2 in my 6-part series with Pathfinder, an ethical KiwiSaver fund here in New Zealand. If you haven’t already read part 1, be sure to check that out first while tucking into a Snickers Bomb here.
What are snickers bombs
I don’t know about you, but anything remotely chocolate-peanut-butter-inspired sets my taste buds on fire. Apparently the genius who first combined the two was a struggling dairy farmer named Harry Reese, first toying with the idea back in 1928. Thus the famous Reese peanut butter cup was created, and two years later the Snickers bar (named after the competing Mars family’s favourite horse). Since then, PB and choc have never looked back.
However the idea of making a full blown multi-layered bar, with a biscuit base, caramel filling, roasted peanuts, and chocolate coating, is way too much for this brain to handle. Plus – that’s at least an hour in the kitchen, and like you – this gal does not have that.
So, I’ve chopped out all those pesky steps, and created the same flavours, with 4 simple ingredients. All the snickers satisfaction, with just 15 minutes hard-earned labour. Plus – happy days, they’re completely whole foods and health packed. Simple plants save the day again.
How to make a healthy snickers bar
Here’s a quick line up of what’s in your average snickers: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, lactose, milk fat, soy lecithin), peanuts, corn syrup, sugar, palm oil, skim milk, lactose, salt, egg white, and artificial flavour. I’m trying to pick which of that list is remotely desirable from a health, animal, or planetary perspective, and am pretty much stumped at cocoa butter, peanuts, and lecithin.
So what are we going to use instead? Four simple ingredients that you probably already have hiding in your pantry:
- Dates (regular are great, or upgrade to medjoul for extra caramel chew)
- Peanut butter (crunchy is best, just make sure you skip the artificial American-style sweet stuff)
- Dark chocolate (70%+ is ideal, just make sure dairy doesn’t feature on the ingredients panel, and sugar isn’t number one in the list)
- Cacao nibs (ok I lied, you may not have these yet. But you should. They add epic texture and crunch with zero sugar. Go forth and acquire)
What foods are beneficial to the planet?
So what is a planet-loving gal to eat? Anything plant-based whole foods is a great place to start, which you can find en masse here on my Be Good Organics blog.
Not all vegan foods are equal though. Any mass-produced commercial chocolate bars are likely to contain palm oil, a monocrop which has displaced thousands of acres of tropical forests across South East Asia, as well as Latin America and Africa. I personally travelled to Indonesia a number of years back, and flying over the land looking down at endless rows of palm trees was a real shock.
The problem is – palm trees are incredibly easy to grow, and give a huge yield in terms of oil. However they are virtually all grown in previously rainforested areas, and this deforestation continue to occurs at an increasingly rapid pace. There is a certification that’s been created in response to this, called “sustainable palm oil”. But having been to Indonesia and speaking with the locals, it’s pretty clear that a sustainable palm oil badge is not hard to purchase, without being sustainable at all.
Astoundingly, New Zealanders still have $11 million dollars invested in the production of palm oil. This is why it’s critical to ensure that not only are you avoiding palm oil-based products (packaged chocolate bars, muffins, cookies, and crackers) but also that your KiwiSaver isn’t involved. Depending on the size of your KiwiSaver, this may even be having a bigger impact than the food you choose to put on your plate each day.
One of the reasons I chose to invest my KiwiSaver in Pathfinder, is that they avoid companies whose business models risk harm to our planet and environment. This includes operations connected to palm oil production and use. By investing your KiwiSaver with an environmentally focussed provider, you can ensure that you’re not supporting the continued deforestation of some of our most precious rainforests, which are major carbon sinks and habitats for the majority of our planet’s animal species. If you want to make the switch now, you can do so in a single click on their website here.
Want More Choc Peanut Butter Recipes? Try these
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
- Snickers Bar Slice
- Peanut Slabs
- Miso Caramel Slice
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
If you try these palm-oil free, rainforest loving Snickers Bombs, let me know! Leave a comment and rating below, or tag me @begoodorganics on Instagram. I love seeing you make my recipes, it totally makes my day.
Snickers Bombs
Ingredients
- 1/4 c peanut butter
- 1/4 c buckwheat
- 1 c dates
- 65 g dark chocolate
- 1/4 c peanuts, roasted & chopped
- 1/4 c cacao nibs
Instructions
- Mix the peanut butter and buckwheat in a bowl and place in the freezer to set.
- Open up the dates on one side, and put half a teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture inside each. Place back in the freezer to set.
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water, and put the peanuts and cacao nibs in a shallow bowl.
- Once firm remove the dates from the freezer, press the peanut butter mix further inside the date and wrap the outsides around it. Dip each one in the dark chocolate with a fork, place in the peanut cacao mix and sprinkle it on top to cover, then place on a plate. Repeat until all done, then place in the freezer for 30 minutes until rock hard. Will keep in the freezer for two months
Equipment
- Food processor
Recipe Notes
- Nut free: Use tahini instead of peanut butter and sesame seeds or extra buckwheat instead of peanuts.
- Sugar Free: Use a dark chocolate made with stevia or xylitol.
Did You Make This?
Tag @begoodorganics
I can’t wait to see your creations!
