Easy Date Almond Butter Bars {Refined Sugar-Free & Gluten-Free}
These Date Almond Butter Bars are soft, chewy, naturally sweet, and so easy to make. Made with Medjool dates, rolled oats, almond butter, coconut oil, and eggs, these homemade bars are refined sugar-free and gluten-free. Enjoy them for breakfast, as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea, or even as an easy dessert topped with almond butter and sliced bananas!
I absolutely love dates. Whether for breakfast, snacks, or dessert, I just adore a nice, sweet date.
By the way, y’all, I am talking about the fruit and not dates of a romantic nature.
My love affair with dates started in my teen years when we lived in Abu Dhabi, where date palm trees lined the streets.
These days, I especially love dates when paired with pistachio butter or with almond butter. Which is what lead to these date almond butter bars. If you love the combination of dates and almond butter, these easy homemade bars are for you.
A Quick Glance At These Date Almond Butter Bars
- These bars are an easy snack or breakfast
- Made with a few pantry staple ingredients with minimal kitchen equipment.
- Totally gluten free and refined sugar-free yet, filling and satisfying.
- This recipe makes 8 bars that are ready in about 40 minutes.
- These bars are 377 calories each and contain 7g of fiber and 10g of protein.
What ingredients do you need to make these bars?
One of the things I love about this date almond butter bar recipe is that the ingredient list is short and simple.
You need:
- Rolled oats – These form the hearty base of the bars. If you need the recipe to be gluten-free, make sure your oats are certified gluten-free.
- Medjool dates – These provide natural sweetness and help give the bars their soft, chewy texture.
- Almond butter – Creamy almond butter adds richness and plenty of nutty flavor.
- Coconut oil – A little melted coconut oil helps create tender bars.
- Eggs – These help bind everything together.
- Vanilla extract and almond extract – These add more flavor to the almond butter and dates, and harmoniously unite them.
- Cinnamon and cardamom – A little spice takes these bars from simple to seriously delicious.
- Salt – Just enough to balance all those sweet and nutty flavors.
The cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, and almond extracts are optional. But if you have them in your pantry, I highly recommend adding them.
That little bit of cardamom especially gives these bars a lovely warm flavor and aroma.
The combination of creamy almond butter, sweet bananas, chewy date bars, and those warm spices is so good.
Instructions
These Date Almond Butter Bars are incredibly easy to make.
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Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Step 2: Soak the dates.
While the oven is heating, remove the pits from the dates and place them in a bowl of hot water and let them soak for 10–15 minutes. Soaking the dates softens them and makes it much easier for your food processor or blender to turn everything into a smooth mixture.
Step 3: Prep the pan.
While the dates are soaking, grease a 9×9-inch baking pan with a little coconut oil. Then line the pan with parchment paper, leaving a little overhang so you can easily lift the baked bars out later.
Step 4: Blend.
Once the dates have softened, drain them well and discard the soaking water. Make sure the dates are drained well before adding them to a food processor or blender.
Then comes the easy part.
Add the rolled oats, soaked dates, melted coconut oil, almond butter, eggs, salt, vanilla extract, almond extract, cinnamon, and cardamom to a food processor or high-speed blender.
Blend/process everything until the mixture is smooth and well blended.
You may need to stop once or twice and scrape down the sides of your food processor or blender. That’s totally fine. Spoon the date and almond butter mixture into your parchment-lined pan and spread it evenly.
Step 5: Bake.
Bake at 350°F for about 35 minutes.
Once baked, carefully lift the bars from the pan using the parchment paper and transfer them to a baking sheet or cooling rack.
Step 6: Enjoy!
Let them cool completely before slicing and enjoying.
A few tips for making the best Date Almond Butter Bars
Soak the dates.
Don’t skip this step. Softening the dates makes them much easier to blend and helps create the smooth texture of these bars.
Drain the dates well.
After soaking, drain the dates thoroughly before adding them to the food processor.
Use creamy almond butter.
Creamy almond butter blends beautifully into the mixture and makes these bars rich and nutty.
Let the bars cool completely.
I know it is tempting to slice into them while they’re still warm, but letting them cool makes them much easier to cut.
Don’t worry if you don’t have all the spices.
The cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, and almond extracts add wonderful flavor. However, if you don’t have one or all of them on hand, they can be replaced with some pumpkin pie spice and vanilla bean paste. Or, be omitted entirely.
How to serve these date bars
Personally, I love eating these bars for breakfast with a little extra almond butter spread over the top with some sliced bananas and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup. Paired with a large cup of coffee, these bars are such a tasty and filling breakfast.
However, these can be enjoyed as is. They are a healthy snack that can be wrapped individually and packed to take to work or school for an afternoon pick-me-up.
Want a simple dessert? Pair these with some coconut whipped cream, fresh berries, and a drizzle of melted dark chocolate.
Here are a few more easy breakfast or snack bars to try:
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 12 medjool dates
- 1/2 cup coconut oil melted (I heated it up in a microwave safe dish in the microwave for 10 seconds)
- 3/4 cup Creamy Almond Butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsps pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, soak the dates in a bowl of warm water for 10-15 minutes.
- While dates are soaking, grease the bottom of a 9×9 baking tray (I used coconut oil) and then line the 9×9 baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
- Drain the dates well and discard the water the dates were soaking in. Make sure the dates are dry.
- Add the oats, soaked dates, melted coconut oil, Almond Butter, eggs, salt, vanilla and almond extracts, cinnamon, and cardamom to a food processor or high-speed blender and process/blend till ingredients are all blended and the mixture is smooth. You might have to stop and scrape down the sides during this process.
- Spoon the blended date and almond butter bar mixture into the lined 9×9 baking tray and place in the preheated oven. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, grab the parchment carefully, and pull the bar out of the baking tray, and place them on a cookie sheet to cool completely before slicing. These Easy Date Almond Bars can be enjoyed for breakfast with some Almond Butter and sliced bananas.
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Nutrition
F.A.Q.s
Can you make these Date Almond Butter Bars ahead of time?
Absolutely. These bars are convenient to make ahead because you can bake them, let them cool completely, slice them, and have them ready whenever you need a quick snack or breakfast. For the best texture, let the bars cool completely before storing them in an airtight container in the fridge.
Are these Date Almond Butter Bars gluten-free?
Yes, make sure to use certified gluten-free rolled oats and check the labels of other ingredients for any potential cross-contact with gluten.
Are these date bars refined sugar-free?
Yes. These Date Almond Butter Bars don’t contain added refined sugar. The sweetness comes primarily from Medjool dates. However, brown sugar can be used instead according to your preferences.
Can Deglet Noor Dates instead of Medjool dates?
Deglet Noor dates tend to be firmer and less sweet than medjool dates. From several tries, I strongly suggest using medjool dates in this recipe for the best taste and texture. While technically Deglet Noor dates can be used instead, I have found that the resulting bars are more dense and less sweet.
I love the ingredients!
I gently pressed some sliced almonds on top before baking to add some visual appeal connected to the contents.
I make these often and adore them
I love everything in these bars: oats, daytes, alomond butter … I’ll bet they’re fantastic!
The mixture was so thick it broke my ninja… But I’m still excited to try them! I made this recipe before and they weren’t as thick so maybe I did something wrong this time but anyway last time they tasted fantastic.
I was so excited to try these. They smell great as they are baking. However, at the end of 35 minutes, there was a large amount of “oil” on top. Did I not combine the ingredients well enough? The dough looked thoroughly combined.
Oh this looks yummy Shashi. I love any kind of nut bars.. I’ve been hooked onto Perfect Bar, but i love making my own. Yum!
Hello, good recipe, worked well for me with less dates and more figs in replacement. Also used ready made healthy oat and falxseed costco cereal instead of rolled oats. tastes excellent without seeming very sweet or sugary.
Question: Do these have to be kept in the fridge? Or can they be stored outside the fridge? If so how long would they be useable before they get spoilt / bad?
Thanks
B. Rao
So sorry for the late reply – these are best stored in the fridge – maybe for 3-4 days, they haven’t lasted longer than that at our home. Thanks for stopping by.
Looks like they last well for over a week, no problem – but like you said, it is better kept in the fridge.
Aside: Using Apple Sauce instead of eggs works just fine too, even if a bit more crumbly. But I am sure this is old news for you and most your readers.
I was so excited to try these. They smell great as they are baking. However, at the end of 35 minutes, there was a large amount of “oil” on top. Did I not combine the ingredients well enough? The dough looked thoroughly combined.
Dave, I am so sorry to hear about the large amount of “oil” on top. I have a few questions – did you drain the dates well before adding them into the blender? Also, did you use Maranatha Almond Butter? The reason I ask is if there’s water in the dates, that could maybe lead to a more liquid type mixture. Also, different nut butters seem to have a different amount of “oil” in them … I didn’t overmix the dough – in fact, as soon as the oats and dates were blended, I turned my blender off. Also – when you removed the tray from the oven, did you take the bake out of the tray and let it cool on a cookie sheet? If you answered yes to all this, I am so sorry I don’t have a solution. I tried this recipe out twice – once each with both types of MaraNatha Almond Butter and didn’t have the extra oil – if you figure it out, I would love to know. Thanks so much for making these – once again, I am so sorry.
hi,
could you please tell me how you came up with the nutrition information? the carlories are much more than you have listed. Thank you and i hope to receive an answer this time.
Hi Belinda,
So sorry for the delay in replying – I used https://www.verywellfit.com/ to calculate the nutritional data – hope this helps. Thanks for stopping by and the reminder email 🙂
Do you discard the soaking water?
Hi Brittany, Yes, you do discard the water used to soak the dates in. Thanks for stopping by. Hoping you get to try these bars out and enjoy them as much as I did.
Is there a substitute for the oats? I’m paleo
Hey Debbie, I haven’t tried making these with a sub for the oats – maybe you could use Paleo flour (Bob’ Red Mill makes one). Thanks so much for stopping by.
Why do you oil the pan and then add parchment paper? Are they both necessary?
Hi Julie, I’ve used the double oiling and parchment method for awhile now especially when working with bars and tray bakes that do not have a lot of butter/oil in them, I think I first saw it in a recipe on Better Homes and Gardens a long time ago. Also, oiling the parchment keeps it from curling up while in the pan. Basically, it’s double insurance that these bars don’t burn. Thanks for stopping by – if you make these, I sure hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
These look delicious! Can’t wait to make them!
Can these be made without eggs? Is there a substitute?
Hi Arianne, you can use a flax egg (one tablespoon ground flaxseed meal with three tablespoons of water and let sit for 15 minutes before adding in) or 1/4 cup applesauce – the texture is slightly different but it will work. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.
Oh this looks yummy Shashi. I love any kind of nut bars.. I’ve been hooked onto Perfect Bar, but i love making my own. Yum!
Wow, these bars sounds super cool Shashi. I really feel like having some of them now. Pinning for sure!
These look amazing Shashi. I make my own Almond Oat Bars with almond butter, I’m wondering if I could add medjool dates and a little cinnamon to that recipe. Hmmmm inspiration! Thanks for that! Hope you are doing well! 🙂
Can I have a couple of slices? They look so good with almond butter! New profile photo looks GREAT!