Nourishing No-Bake Chocolate Chip Crispy Treats
I have another great recipe using cereals to share with you. Enjoy!
Do you ever find yourself hungry for something a little sweet, but not wanting to go the full-blown dessert route or ruin dinner? Enter the health-ified version of Rice Crispy Treats. This recipe classifies as a relatively nutritious, hybrid snack-treat that is not too sweet, yet slightly indulgent.
So what makes these different from your ordinary Snap, Crackle, and Pop version? Let’s see … no refined sugars, in fact pretty low in sugar overall; two whole grain cereals for the price of one; coconut oil instead of butter or margarine; a little flax seed and nut butter for good measure; and, well, chocolate is a health food now, right?
They store really well in the refrigerator, where the coconut oil helps to keep them firm and crisp, but they will travel well (just a wee bit softer) and pack nicely into lunch boxes. And, if you aren’t in a chocolate mood, you can substitute raisins (and maybe some cinnamon) or other dried fruit for the chocolate chips / nibs.
Chocolate Chip Crispy Cereal Treats
This recipe is Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Soy-Free, Refined Sugar-Free, optionally Vegan, optionally Nut-Free, and optionally Gluten-Free.
- 1/4 Cup Honey or Agave Nectar
- 1/4 Cup Nut Butter (peanut, almond, cashew, or even seed butter, you choose! I used cashew butter in the version pictured)
- 2 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
- 1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract (optional)
- Generous Pinch of Salt (omit if using salted nut butter)
- 1 Cup Crispy Brown Rice Cereal (brands such as Erewhon have gluten-free varieties)
- 1 Cup Kamut Flakes Cereal (you can substitute more brown rice cereal or another small flaked or crispy cereal, if desired)
- 1 Tablespoon Flax Seeds, ground in your spice grinder
- 1/4 Cup (or more) Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips, Chunks, or Nibs
Lightly grease a dozen muffin tins (if you have silicone muffin cups or good non-stick tins, then you can skip this step).
In a small saucepan over low heat, gently melt together the honey, nut butter, and oil. Keep in mind, you are just trying to melt them and combine, not cook them! Stir in the vanilla and salt, if using.
Remove from the heat and stir in the cereals and ground flax seed. Allow the mixture to cool for a couple of minutes, then stir in the chocolate (if you stir it in too quickly, it may melt a bit).
With a spoon, scoop the mixture into your muffin tins/cups, and gently press it in, evening it out with the back of your spoon. If you use your fingers, the mixture may stick a bit.
Freeze for at least 20 minutes. Pop out, and enjoy! Store any leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container. This will help to keep them crisp, firm, and fresh.
Yields a dozen snack-worthy treats
31 thoughts on “Nourishing No-Bake Chocolate Chip Crispy Treats”
Great mix of ingredients!
Sounds like a perfect breakfast bar! Gotta get those cereals!! 🙂
oh wow, love the sound of this! looks like i’ll be going cereal shopping tomorrow 🙂
Sounds like a great way to use up random cereal ends, random ends of nut butters, and still be healthy & impressive all at the same time! The healthy version of Rice Krispy treats!
These look amazing! I have half a bag of plain puffed kamut leftover from a detox I did in the summer and they are calling out to be used up in a recipe like this. I wanted to make some kind of rice crispie like treat, but didn’t want to succumb to marshmallows, so this recipe is perfect for me! I can’t wait to try it. I’ll let you know how they turn out.
This is one of my favorite quick desserts!
These look delicious! What a great snack idea, I can’t wait to make them 🙂
What an interesting version of that good old treat! Yum!
I really like this idea. Way to bring rice krispies treats to a whole new level. And yes, chocolate is definitely a health food. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.
Yum, those treats look delicious! Like rice krispy treats, but 10000 times better!
I was completely addicted to Sarris chocolate when I was pregnant, yummy. I just ordered their solid chocolate turkeys to use for our Thanksgiving centerpiece. This desert will go great with it! Sarris Turkeys
Those look pretty darn tasty!
love these! I was totally in the mood for something like this last night. We ended up at the grocery store at 12:30 am, in sweats, buying donuts. 🙁 This would have been better!
holy chocolate chips, batman. these look awesome.
Awesome ingredients! Wish I would have included such a recipe in my new book on chocolate. This should be marketed! Please send. Will write for a batch.
oh man! What a great recipe. My husband would love these- I must give them a try.
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Hey!! Thanks for posting on my site! I love new readers. Totally makes my day! Your cereal bars look absolutely amazing. Oh my! I cannot wait to try these out! Your whole site it great. Love it! Have a great night.
I’ve got so much half eaten boxes of cereal, peanut butter and chocolate chips lying around – this would be perfect!!
Mmmmm. That looks great! I’m sure my kids wouldn’t even know they’re NOT eating junk food. Very cool.
Oh this is so creative and looks delicious! Great photos!
really health-ified!!!
no more guilt to eat too much sweets now. haha!
Amazing! Thanks for sharing! The recipe not only looks delectable, but it is super good for you! That makes the perfect recipe in my book.
Uh oh. These could get dangerous.
There is a recipe similar to this in Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. It uses brown rice syrup, and macadamia nut butter. The macadamia nut butter makes it pretty amazing. I like to use a mixture of puffed brown rice and puffed kamut, making almost a hybrid rice crispy-puffed wheat square treat.
How you tempt me! I do love chocolate! Thank you for sharing this on Friday Foodie Fix.
We really liked these. I made them with all brown rice cereal since that is what we had on hand. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi,
I just made these for my coworkers and they were a hit! I doubled the ingredients and made them in an 8-inch pan and then cut them into squares. I used both agave nectar and brown rice syrup to balance the sweetness. They were excellent! Thank you for the recipe!
I just made these and I’m not sure there will be any left when my husband gets home from work! I just used Brown Rice Cereal, since it was all I had. Fantastic!
It looks yummy sometime they use puffed rice for the same version especially in tamilnadu on avani attam festival day.
I just made these, I added a touch of molasses and slightly less honey. They turned out great. Thank you for the inspiration.
These are awesome!!! I make several variations, making for Halloween with sprinkles and sun butter since my daughters school is nut free!
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