Easy no bake low carb bars with a truly crispy crunch! These Keto Chocolate Crunch Bars are a one-of-a-kind treat.
The keto ingredient landscape is truly changing faster than you can bat an eye. It’s really quite mind-blowing! And for this baking obsessed gal, I can hardly tell you what a boon it is, all the new ingredients I get to play with.
Heretofore, something like Homemade Crunch Bars wouldn’t really have been possible on a keto diet. There just wasn’t a really good replacement for the rice crisps that conventional crunch bars use.
Well, there was, but it wasn’t an option that everyone completely embraced. I used crushed pork rinds in my Keto Scotcheroos and while it worked really well and is virtually carb free, not everyone found that so tempting.
But I will say, don’t knock it until you try it.
Keto protein cereals – crispy goodness!
I honestly don’t quite understand how they do it, but a number of brands have turned protein powders into crispy cereal bites. These are not something you could easily achieve at home – trust me, I’ve tried!
The three brands that I know of that are truly keto friendly are The Cereal School, Magic Spoon, and HighKey.
I have tried them all and of the three, I like HighKey the most by far. I like it best for flavor, as both the others have an aftertaste for me. My kids feel the same way. But that’s not to say you won’t like the other two brands.
Plus the HighKey Protein Cereal is more like little rice crisps, so it’s going to be really fun to play with for other desserts and treats.
Starting with these easy no-bake Keto Crunch Bars. So delicious, so crispy, so chocolatey!
How to make Keto Crunch Bars
These no bake keto chocolate bars are so easy, you can whip up a batch right now and enjoy them within the hour. I do still have some tips and suggestions, so you get the crunchiest, crispiest homemade Crunch Bars.
- You will see I simply said nut butter of choice. You really can use what you like here. I used my homemade Keto Nutella because I can never get enough of it. But you could use peanut butter, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter.
- Do make sure your nut butter isn’t too oily. If it’s the kind where the oil separates out, make sure to stir it well before measuring.
- Use a powdered sweetener and sweeten to taste. It needs to be a confectioner’s style sweetener to avoid grittiness. And how much you decide to add depends on whether your nut butter is pre-sweetened or not.
- Melt everything except the sweetener and the crisps together double boiler-style, to keep the heat very gentle. You don’t want to overheat your chocolate.
- Remove the mixture from heat before stirring in the protein cereal crisps. An overly hot mixture will make your crisps less crispy!
Can you make these bars without the protein cereal?
You can indeed, but you’re looking at using crushed up pork-rinds. Please see my Keto Scotcheroos (linked above) for the full instructions.
Can you make these dairy-free?
Again yes, but you won’t be able to use the protein cereals, as almost all of them are made with whey protein. Sorry, my dairy-free friends, looks like you’re stuck with pork rinds again.
How to store your Keto Crunch Bars
These easy bars are best kept in the fridge, as they get rather soft at room temperature. Cut them into individual pieces and place in an airtight container.
There’s nothing here that will spoil so they can last several weeks.
More delicious keto no bake bars
- Keto Peanut Butter Bars
- Keto Nanaimo Bars
- Keto Buster Ice Cream Bars
- Keto Protein Bars
- Keto No Bake Pecan Bars
- No Bake Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars
Keto Crunch Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup nut butter of choice
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate chopped
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil
- ¼ to ½ cups powdered Swerve Sweetener (sweeten to taste)
- 2 ½ cup crispy protein cereal (I used the cocoa cereal)
Instructions
- Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment or waxed paper, with overhanging sides for easy removal.
- In a heatproof bowl set over a bowl of barely simmering water, combine the nut butter, unsweetened chocolate, and coconut oil, stirring until smooth and melted.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the sweetener until smooth, then stir in the cereal crisps and stir to coat.
- Spread the mixture in the prepared baking pan as evenly as you can. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Cut into 16 bars.
Lisa says
Yum! Those look delicious!
Kari Bohning says
How could I turn these into scotcheroos using Lil’ys butterscotch chips?:)
Carolyn says
I think you probably could… are you referring to my scotcheroo recipe? I’d probably replace some of the butter and some of the peanut butter with the chips and then reduce the sweetener and no caramel extract.
Lynn says
Yet another win we from Carolyn’s kitchen. I made these with pork rinds because I wasn’t willing to pay that much for cereal. I mean, why would I? My cereal is Carolyn’s granola clusters. As gross as it sounds to use pork rinds, this turned out amazing…just like a Nestle Crunch bar without the carbs. Hopelessly gratifying for anyone who’s a chocolate lover.
Carolyn says
Doesn’t sound gross to me! I used them in my Scotcheroos too. Tasty!
Rachael Yerkes says
The perfect sweet treat to combat my forever sweet tooth
Betsy says
My kids adore these! It’s like candy except a little healthier! 🙂 Going to have to make these a whole bunch! Yum!
Sarah says
Hi Carolyn,
Would switching the coconut oil for butter also work? I found these on Amazon? What do you think? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088KSZQDW/ref=twister_B089ZCPMPP?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Carolyn says
Butter would be fine but I cannot speak as to those puffs. I haven’t tried them.
Peggy says
Carolyn,
You have done it again! Just made these and they were great. Thank you for telling us about the High Key Cereal Products, they worked perfectly in this recipe. Felt like I was eating a Nestle Crunch Bar without the quilt! I melted my chocolate, peanut butter and coconut oil in a bowl in the microwave, and that made things a little easier and with less dishes. Overall this was a very easy and quick recipe. Next time I will adapt the recipe to a slightly larger portion so that I can just use the whole box of the High Key cereal (I only had 1 1/2 cups left after making this) so that the remaining portion won’t go to waste, and I can make more of these delicious little goodies. Thanks so much for this recipe!!!!!
Susan Pelter says
Carolyn, these are absolutely delicious and the texture is spot-on! Since I’m not a hazelnut fan, I tried to reverse-engineer peanut butter into kinda-sorta nutella, which just ended up making the chocolate too strong. So I added a little HWC and they weee fine. The High Key cereal is without a doubt the best protein cereal out there, I have tried all the others and they were disgusting, but I can eat this right out of the box. Anyway, the bars are a keeper! Thank you 😉
Rebecca Friedman says
These are amazing!!!!
Adrian says
I ordered a box of the HighKey cereal to try out. I got the plain frosted type. And OMG it is incredibly sweet! I mean, the flavor is OK (no weird taste) but far sweeter than Rice Krispies. I’ve been using ProMix unflavored protein puffs which are just protein—no sweetener. They aren’t good plain, since they are unflavored, but if you want to add crunch to something they are excellent. In fact, the HighKey cereal has a kind of stale crunch in comparison to the ProMix.
Carolyn says
Maybe mix them together?
Adrian says
Just to be clear, I wasn’t complaining, just observing. I thought people with a similar reaction to ours might like to know that there’s a different category of protein puffs out there without added sweetener. I am always interested in trying out new ingredients and sometimes I like them….sometimes I don’t. I used up the Highkey by making a batch of Scotcheroos where I cut back on the sweetener to compensate for the sweetness of the cereal, and it worked OK, so I was able to put it to use. I also found just mixing it with nut butter worked, with the cereal sweetening the nut butter. Mixing the sweetened and unsweetened puffs is a good idea, but I didn’t see your suggestion before I had used up the Highkey.
Carolyn says
I was just giving a suggestion on how to cut the sweetnes if it doesn’t work for you!
Kate says
This comment is not a review of this recipe but it is about new keto products. Went into my local Walmart today and holy moly, they had lilys butterscotch chips ,caramel chocolate and chocolate mint. They did not have lilys white chocolate chips but I did pick up a bag at whole Foods this week – Of the three brands available, these are definitely my favorite. Walmart also had all four flavors of the Bake Believe chips (milk chocolate is new) and chocolate bars. Its a great time to be keto and low carb.
Kate says
PS, Carolyn, I think you could go to town with the butterscotch chips. They were quite yummy.
Carolyn says
I would love to get my hands on some!
Sarah says
Hi Kate, I looked online and only found salted caramel flavor, is that what you meant? I can’t believe they have chocolate mint too. Either of these chips would go so well in Carolyn’s vanilla ice cream. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/perfect-low-carb-vanilla-ice-cream/ Best ice cream hands down!!
Thank you for the heads up, I would never have known 🙂
Kate says
Sorry I didn’t see your question until now. My local walmart now has Lilys whie chocolate and bars, buterscotch, salted caramel, chocolate mint and a seasonal flavor, pumpkin spice.
Sarah says
Hello. I’m new to keto, please tell me the name of the cereal you used. Thank you!
Carolyn says
It’s linked right in the recipe.
Nicole says
I can’t wait to try these! Gotta say that using pork rinds before these cereals were available was genius! I’m not a fan of pork rinds but love your scotcheroos recipe. I couldn’t tell pork rinds were in there at all (and neither could anyone else I gave them too!).
Carolyn says
Thanks, Nicole. Some people really were put off by the pork rinds but it does work!
Molly says
My bars are in the fridge as we speak!! I love the high key “rice” cereal! I’ve had the frosted and they totally tasted like rice crispy treat cereal! I saw this recipe post and happened to have the chocolate and cinnamon waiting to be opened on top of my fridge. For those asking, I used the chocolate cereal for the bars I just made. I think chocolate or the frosted would work best for this recipe.
Jasmine says
These bars look delicious!! I’m super excited to try that 0 net carb rice cereal you linked to in this recipe. I love learning about new products that work with low carb and keto recipes and lifestyle 🙂
Patto says
Yep, me too!!! Which cereal did you use? 🙂
Carolyn says
Cocoa!
Joyce Pickett says
I’m wondering which cereal to order as well. There’s a selection of fruity, chocolate, cinnamon and frosted. I can’t wait to make these!
Carolyn says
Cocoa is what I used here!
Dough says
As a vegan, I’m able to make many of your recipes work for me, (yes, I’m talking to you, Keto Nutella). Want you to know there’s a new porkless-Pork Rind out that’s even better than the ones with meat. Called PigOut. Check em,and thank you for such wonderful recipes!
Carolyn says
Seriously? That’s wild! Glad you are making things work for your diet.
Marcy says
Wow!! Looks delicious! I followed your link to the cereal, but was wondering which flavor cereal did you choose? They have lots to choose from and I’m excited to try several of them.
Carolyn says
Sorry, I should have specified… I used the cocoa. But I think the frosted would be great too.
Kristan Schrader says
I used the frosted rice…..these are soooooo good! The crispy cereal is perfect!
Carolyn says
Glad you liked it!
Leann Ring says
Hello, love all your recipes, which High Key cereal did you use for the Keto Crunch bars, there are quite a few? Thank you!
Carolyn says
I used the cocoa crisps but you could easily use the frosted ones too.