If you’ve been following me for a while you know that I used to blog as “Betty Rawker” you know, like a “Raw Betty Crocker”. My diet has always gravitated towards fresh fruits, veggies, and plant based foods, and for a substantial portion of my life I ate a vegan diet, starting at age 13. To make a long story short, in my late 20’s I was hit with a very aggressive and nasty autoimmune disease and I could no longer eat and properly digest the rice, beans, grains, and starches that were always a staple in my diet. For the first few years on my healing journey, I focused on a raw food diet, as I felt amazing going fully raw! But then a couple years into it, I didn’t feel as amazing, and I started craving fish and meats like nobody’s business. So I put the bettyrawker.com website on hold and started blogging at pureandsimplerecipes.com which evolved to forestandfauna.com this year. I chose Forest and Fauna because I am a little obsessed with foraging wild foods and I dream of writing a wild foods inspired cookbook someday. If you dig back into the archives, you will see I brought over a lot of the reader favorite raw food recipes from bettyrawker.com and now have them on this website. The most popular Betty Rawker recipe has been my take on the Snickers Bar. Below you will find my updated recipe. ♥
The original Betty Rawker Snickers bar photo circa 2013.
Updated Snickers Bar Photo 2015, but the next time I make it, I am going to only use 1 cup of macadamia nuts in the base, see notes below. Because it’s really all about the caramel!
If you are looking for an uber yummy caramel treat that is nut free, does not require a food processor or any special kitchen equipment, and is ready in 15 minutes, check out my new recipe for Sea Salt Chocolate Caramels!
Raw Paleo Snickers Bar
Base Layer:
- ·
2 cups1 cup cashews (or macadamia nuts) - · 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
- · 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- · pinch sea salt
Update 10/20/15: I originally had 2 cups of nuts in the base of this candy bar, but I am now suggesting using just 1 cup. In the last batch I made (pictured) I felt like there was just too much of a nut to caramel ratio. I much prefer the caramel, so I am cutting the nut base in half. So if you use just 1 cup of nuts, your base will be half as thick as mine is in the photos, and you will probably love it!
- Blend cashew nuts in a food processor into a nut flour-crumble.
- Add in coconut oil, maple syrup & sea salt. Blend.
- Pat down into a rectangle on wax paper, freeze.
Middle Layer of Raw Caramel:
- · 1 cup almonds (or other nuts of your choice: macadamia, pine nuts, cashews, etc)
- · 6 medjool dates
- · 1/2 cup sweetener, maple syrup or honey*
- · 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- · 2 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
- · 3 pinches sea salt (I ♥ Salty Caramel)
* Reserve for topping:
- · 1/2 cup chopped almonds (sprouted are the best!)
- Blend nuts into a fine powder in your food processor.
- Add in dates, maple syrup or honey, melted coconut oil, vanilla & sea salt. Blend into a sticky caramel.
- Spread caramel out over frozen cashew base.
- Press in 1/2 cup chopped almonds.
- Freeze for 1 hour.
*If using honey, you will likely have to add a little water to get the caramel to soften more and be easier to spread.
Basic Raw Chocolate Recipe for Coating the Bars:
- 1/2 cup Raw Cacao Butter melted (or use coconut oil*)
- 3/4 cup Raw Cacao Powder
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup Maple Sugar or Coconut Palm Sugar (powdered in coffee grinder) or you can use Maple Syrup
- Melt cacao butter in a food dehydrator or double boiler. Stir all 3 ingredients together, into a smooth melted chocolate sauce.
- Cut cashew/caramel block into small “fun size” candy bar pieces. Dip each bar into the raw chocolate, then set on wax paper and freeze to firm up. Make sure to “double dip” each piece again after the first layer of chocolate has set. I like to store these treats in the freezer!
*You can easily substitute coconut oil for the cacao butter, and make great raw chocolates, they just won’t be as shelf stable, so keep them chilled!
Shared at: Healthy, Happy, Green and Natural Party Blog Hop + Savoring Saturdays + Allergy Free Wednesday + Waste Not Want Not Wednesday + Tasty Tuesdays + Wonderful Wednesdays + Whats Cookin’ Wednesday + Real Food Fridays
Reblogged this on and commented:
I have been following Betty Rawker now for several months and ALWAYS have an AMAZING experience with her delicious, amazing, awsome, ‘rawkin’ recipes!
I am absolutely going to be trying this recipe!! Thank you!
i have been making all my raw treats using cupcake wrappers, so i can add each layer and pop it in the freezer to firm up,
Such a great idea and way to do it! I love using the cupcake wrappers made by “If You Care” http://tinyurl.com/kvddkwv as they don’t stick to my treats and they are eco-friendly too! Thanks for sharing!!
Oh divine! Can’t wait to pop one of these babies into my mouth!
No such thing as raw cocoa butter. You have to grind your nibs into a liquid and then press them at 300 psi to get the butter out. In the factory it’s done between 190-210 F.
Hi Holly,
You are definitely entitled to your own opinion on this. But my opinion and belief is that you can purchase raw cacao butter. I currently get my raw cacao butter through my raw organic wholesaler, and they went through great lengths to source a raw cacao butter that is not heated above 120*F and usually processed at an average of 104*F. Here is the info on the raw organic cacao butter I use: http://hummingbirdwholesale.com/products/item/650/Cacao-Butter
Thanks!
Betty Rawker
These look and sound amazing! Any idea if I could use something to replace the dates? I am on a low FODMAP as well as wheat, soy and dairy free diet due to a whole host of GI issues, and dates are not allowed. I’d appreciate any replacement suggestions!
Hi Linda!
I also always avoid wheat, soy and dairy without question, and it has totally helped me beyond belief heal up my GI issues. As for replacing the dates, you can experiment with omitting them, and only use a little maple syrup, adding it to the ground almonds and coconut oil as needed to create a caramel like consistency? Or use coconut nectar instead of maple syrup, as that has a very stick caramel like texture naturally.
Hope you enjoy!
xoxo
Snickers bar! I love it. I grab it whenever I’m hungry. I’m definitely going to get my hands on this. It’s been explained very clearly here, I’m going to make it.
Thanks so much for sharing! These look a little too sweet/decadent for me, but would be just great for my all-natural Halloween Party —to give as treats to the kids.
Don’t you know…I have every single ingredient on hand for this and I’m on a Whole 30, so I can’t have it! This is going into the, “I can’t wait til this 30 days is over so I can have this” file!
OMG, yum!!!
These are amazing!
Is it okay to substitute another type of nut for the bottom layer? I am allergic to cashews and peanuts
I really like it also with macadamia nuts in the bottom layer! Or try raw almonds that have been blanched or soaked over night to remove the skins. I hope you enjoy!
Made this today and veeery yummy!
I haven’t been cooking for very long but managed this with ease. With my baking spree waning, I feel my obsession switching to freezer baking! Much less worrisome than heating the nuts flours.
I’m seriously proud of myself for having no more than a ‘taste’ of this (until tomorrow *cackles evilly*). I expected myself to demolish the entire reaping.
I didn’t have anything to aid the shaping accept for those rings which you crack eggs into. So my ‘bars’ look more like those old wagon wheel chocolates 🙂
My poor old blender had an awful time making the ‘caramel’. I should have blended the dates a little first before adding all the goo. I used honey for the caramel (which is my favourite part btw!)
This recipe made 10 ‘egg ring’ sized bikkies for me (in case anyone wants to know the quantity).
I think it’s worth mentioning that there is a lot of dipping chocolate left over. I improvised by using it up in a simple rocky road (don’t know if that was successful yet).
I also found the dipping chocolate quite bitter. That might just be my untrained taste buds though.
Thanks for the recipe!
(Disclaimer: I’m mildly dyslexic so excuse spelling or grammar mistakes!)
Hi Tessa!
Thanks so much for the review! I love the detail you have added! And I hope you enjoy the bars tomorrow! And I hope you will find the rich and dark dipping chocolate coating a nice compliment to the sweet snickers bar filling inside. I think they play really nicely together. But then again, I also LOVE homemade dark [low sugar] chocolates plain by themselves as a late night treat, easy to digest after a larger dinner and I still have a hankering for a sweet! Love your idea of making “rocking road” with the left overs too!!
Oh and I should mention, if you are using regular “cocoa” powder instead of “raw cacao” powder, the regular cocoa powder will be more bitter. But if you use raw cacao, it will have a pure chocolate taste you can’t help but fall into love with! I ♥ Raw Cacao.
You will have to let me know how they turn out and what you think of all the flavors when they are combined together!
xo
Hi! First off, I LOVE your recipes. The paleo snickers and samoas are my fave- I make them regularly and have to limit myself so I don’t eat the whole batch! I have a question regarding the snickers. I’m really struggling with the icing. I just can’t seem to get the sugar dissolved right. Any suggestions?
Hi Magellan!
I like to grind the coconut sugar in a coffee grinder into a fine powder, but honestly, even then it is still slightly grainy in chocolates. Often times if I plan to just keep the chocolates in the freezer or at least chilled, I just use maple syrup in place of the coconut sugar, same measurement. Maple syrup will dissolve right in and make a nice smooth chocolate.
Warning about not doing it with honey though, as honey seems to be like oil and water when it comes to mixing it with chocolates. Whenever I try using honey it always separates from the base chocolate for me, but I never have any issues with maple syrup.
Also, if using the coconut sugar powder, I often let it melt together for quite a while in the food dehydrator to get it to integrate a bit more. In my opinion coconut sugar makes a slightly more shelf stable chocolate, though again maple syrup is always so smooth no matter what.
Thanks so much for the most awesome compliment!
xo
I made this and I love it.
I just have to say……What a genius name! Bettyrawker…..I love it so much I can’t even be mad that I didn’t come up with it!!! 🙂
Aw, thanks Jenifer!! You just made my night!!
xoxo
I have just recovered from a period of catatonia where I sat here stiff as a board for an unknown period. I may have just been abducted by aliens but I think it is more likely that I was overcome with incredible lust for these. I think I need to make these…and then I need privacy. I just met my true love
Thank you for your lovely culinary creation!
This is just a little note to let you know that I have featured your delicious looking coconut candy recipe on my blog.
Thank you for all that you do 🙂
http://www.colorfulcanary.com/2014/11/go-ahead-overindulge-14-guilt-free-raw.html
Thanks so much! Honored to be included in your candylicious recipe round up!
xo
thanks for share. i trying
Very simple yet interesting recipe. Great share.
Thanks so much for stopping by Ray!!
Whoa! These look beautiful and so delicious! Pinned and sharing.
Thanks so much Emily!! xx
I enjoyed reading the background on your diet. Many of us have gone through changes in our food tolerances, preferences and sensitivities. I have been following a plant-based diet for many years–going from vegetarian to macrobiotic to vegan to raw and back to vegan. Thanks for sharing your healthy and delicious Raw Paleo Snickers Bar recipe with us at the Healthy Happy Green and Natural Party Blog Hop! I’m pinning and sharing.
Hi Deborah!
I really appreciate your sweet comment! Cheers to listening to our bodies and eating foods that help us thrive!! ♥
Hi Emily,
I appreciate you sharing your journey on your food diet changes. I have many food intolerance’s and allergies and I can’t eat any grain, many vegetables and fruits are poison to my body. I eat my own raw homemade yogurt but don’t eat much other dairy. I do well with most meats, but they are all from local farmers and mostly organically raised. We all need to find what is best for our own bodies. I love your recipe -what a wonderful treat that is still healthy. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays. Pinned & twitted.
Hi Marla!
Thanks so much for your kind words! It has taken me many years of trial and error, but I am happy to finally be eating a diet that makes me feel good on all levels! I am so glad you found a diet that works well for you too!! I still love so many raw recipes, but for balance my body feels best with the addition of some goat cheese and pastured meats too. Thanks so much for sharing!!
♥
Hi Andrea,
I’m sorry I just realized I called on Emily. – what a stupid thing to do.
You are so sweet! No offense taken 😉
You are so sweet. No offense taken 😉
I am SO making these Andrea! Featuring your recipe…AGAIN!! We have some pretty similar taste-buds because I always see to be drawn to your recipes!
Hi Tessa!
You are so sweet! And I totally love your recipes too! Definitely have similar taste buds!!
Thank you so much for featuring the raw snickers bar!! I LOVE the caramel in this recipe too, it makes fabulous caramel apples, just simply spread it over the apples, roll in nuts, and put a stick in it.
xx
These look AMAZING! Thanks so much for sharing them on WNWNW, I’m featuring them this week 🙂
Yum, I’m going to have to give this a try! Snickers used to be my favorite candy 🙂