The famous Dairy Queen Buster Bars get a sugar-free keto makeover! Creamy low carb vanilla ice cream with peanuts and keto chocolate ganache.
I don’t demand much of you, my dear readers, but today I absolutely demand that you head to the kitchen and make these Keto Buster Bars.
What is a Buster Bar, you ask? Excellent question. Let’s dig into this discussion and afterward, we can dig into this delicious copycat dessert. You with me?
If you love peanuts and chocolate, don’t miss my Keto Peanut Clusters!
What are Buster Bars?
If you haven’t heard of them, don’t feel bad. Neither had I until I decided to make a keto version!
I wasn’t much of a Dairy Queen lover growing up. It’s just one of those places I never went until much later in life. But I distinctly remember the commercials for the Peanut Buster Parfaits.
Soft serve ice cream, salted peanuts, and rich chocolate sauce. The image of the chocolate sauce slowly pouring over the ice cream and peanuts stays with me to this day.
The Buster Bar appears to be an ice cream bar with similar flavors. I spotted this ice cream cake recipe from A Spicy Perspective, and I knew it was ripe for a keto makeover.
Creating Keto Buster Bars
When I researched homemade Buster Bars, I found a lot of what appeared to be ice cream bars with an oreo crust, vanilla ice cream, salted peanuts, and chocolate fudge sauce.
I realized this would be pretty easy to keto-fy. Here’s how I did it:
The Crust:
The crust was easy, as I’ve made this keto chocolate crust many times in recipes like my Keto Chocolate Mousse Pie and Keto Dirt Cake.
It’s good both baked and un-baked, but be sure you are using powdered sweetener if it won’t be baked, to avoid grittiness.
Want to make these nut-free? Simply use sunflower seed flour in place of the almond flour for the crust.
Ice Cream Filling:
I have my favorite Keto Vanilla Ice Cream recipe, which I highly recommend for this recipe. It’s creamy, delicious, and if you use the specified sweeteners, it stays scoopable right out of the freezer.
However, you can also use purchased keto ice cream if you prefer. Some brands are better (and lower carb!) than others, however, so I recommend reading my Keto Ice Cream Review here. You will need 2 pints of keto ice cream for this recipe.
The ice cream needs to be soft enough to spread over the crust. If you make my vanilla ice cream, it should be the right consistency right out of the ice cream machine. Store-bought ice cream will need to soften on the counter for 15 to 20 minutes.
Topping:
The chocolate sauce really just needs to be a ganache or a thick chocolate sauce. I have a delicious keto fudge sauce, and I made it just a bit thicker for the Buster Bars.
Delicious keto ice cream bars!
Before digging into these, you really do need to let the ice cream freeze properly. That means 4 hours at least, but better yet, overnight.
But trust me, these are worth the wait! And the work. My kids loved them so much, I had to fight to keep some for myself.
But how can you go wrong with a chocolate crust, vanilla ice cream, salted peanuts and rich chocolate sauce!
Ready to enjoy some Keto Buster Bars?
Keto Buster Bars
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
Filling
- 1 recipe Keto Vanilla Ice Cream, (can also use 2 pints storebought ice cream)*
- 2/3 cup salted peanuts
Topping
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 cup powderd Swerve Sweetener
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Crust
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, sweetener and salt. Stir in the melted butter until well combined.
- Press firmly and evenly into the bottom of a 9×9 metal pan. Freeze while preparing the ice cream.
Filling
- Prepare the ice cream as directed in the recipe. If it's freshly churned, it will be the perfect consistency for spreading over the crust. If it's not, you may need to soften it a bit on the counter first.
- *If you are using store bought keto ice cream, they usually require at least 15 minutes on the counter to soften enough to scoop and spread.
- Sprinkle the surface evenly with the salted peanuts. Place in the freezer until firm, at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
Topping
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to just a simmer. Add the chopped chocolate and let sit until melted, then whisk to combine.
- Stir in the sweetener and vanilla extract until smooth. Let cool at least 10 minutes (otherwise it will melt your ice cream!).
- Pour the chocolate sauce over the ice cream. Tilt the pan in all directions to get the chocolate to coat the surface evenly. Return to the freezer for 30 minutes or so, to set the chocolate topping.
Notes
Nutrition
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This is so funny and awesome since I worked at my family’s Dairy Queen for 20 years! 🍦I lean lower carb these days as I have felt greater health benefits from doing so. 🥰 Thanks for the healthier recipe!
Blessings!
L
Great to hear!
Being allergic to almond, I’m used to omitting crusts. I love making this topping and putting it on a bowl of low carb vanilla ice cream. Add some red skinned peanuts and it is just like a Peanut Buster Parfait! Delicious!
Keto means I can eat more than one, right?! I love these from DQ! We are eating some king of ice cream treat all summer long & these are going on the list!
These look absolutely delicious. A perfect healthier summer treat!
love that it’s keto friendly. This is super yummy! The perfect summer treat
Oh boy! I just had fun playing with this recipe. Replaced the vanilla ice cream with your no churn coffee ice cream and replaced the peanuts with toasted salted almonds to make a kind of mocha almond fudge bars. That worked!
This looks amazing and can’t wait to try: curious whether baking the crust first will hold together better? Ie a chocolate shortbread crust?
Not really, the freezing is sufficient but you can do as you like!
Oh. My. Goodness!! This is a dangerous recipe! It took all my willpower to keep from eating double portions. I am glad to say I was able to spread the deliciousness over a couple of days (and I did share)!
Hi Carolyn
Living alone is hard to make these, because it serves so many. Do you think I could cut them into squares, wrap in Saran wrap and pop back into the freezer? I sounds so yummy. Just made your chocolate fudge popsicles… Will try those in the morning.
Absolutely, I think that’s a great idea!
This came out exactly as shown as was AMAZING! Incredible!
Sounds amazing.
But 16 servings??? Not in my household!!!
You all got some self control. 6 servings max for us. But hey ice cream is a necessity in Phoenix in the summer, so we will just forget other foods that day. ????????
These are my new found favorite that my family isnegging me to make again and again. I am wondering if theres a trick to getting the chocolate to shine a bit? I use lilys 100% unsweetened chips.
I love all of your ice cream recipes Carolyn! I will be trying this one too and I can tell it won’t disappoint. I look forward to your emails and keto tips! Keep up the great work.
I made this yesterday with homemade keto ice cream. The only substitute I made was toasted almonds instead of peanut. Absolutely delicious! Thanks for another awesome recipe, Carolyn!!
Glad you liked it!
This looks totally delish! FYI though, buster bars do not have Oreos or crust. They are ice cream, hot fudge and peanuts frozen into bar form and dipped in waxy chocolate.
Right, I realize that the original DQ ones did not. But the recipes I was looking up to make a home-made version were more like an ice cream cake, and they all used oreos. Try googling “homemade buster bars” and you will see what I mean.
What is the link for the ice cream?
It’s in the blog post but it didn’t link properly in the recipe itself. I’ve fixed it now.
Such a delicious treat!! Thank you for creating it.