Tender and sweet, and reminiscent of your childhood! These delicious Keto Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars are a tasty low carb treat.
Okay, hold up, hold up, hold up. I do not eat JELLY. I eat Jam. And really these are peanut butter and jam bars. But Google tells me that this is less recognizable to people. So there you have it. Majority rules.
But regardless of the great jelly or jam debate, these sweet keto bars are a must make. They bring together one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations. But unlike the popular sandwich, they have no added sugars and only a handful of carbs per serving.
Let’s get baking!
Why you will love these keto bars
I grow my own raspberries and I love to feature them in keto desserts. Some of my favorite recipes include Keto Cheesecake Brownies and Keto Victoria Sponge Cake. And the raspberry Sugar Free Sorbet is extremely popular in the warm weather.
For these bars, I created an easy keto jam using raspberries, sweetener, and a little thickener. And the dough for the crust is similar to keto peanut butter cookies. You press part of it into a pan, top with the filling, and crumble more dough on top.
Then you bake it to golden brown perfection. Super simple, super delicious, and only 3.8g net carbs per serving!
Ingredients you need
- Raspberries: You can use fresh or frozen raspberries. This also works with strawberries or blueberries!
- Sweeteners: For best results with the jam, I recommend using some allulose along with other sweeteners. The bars do really nicely with my new keto brown sugar substitute.
- Glucomannan: A little glucomannan or xanthan gum helps make the raspberry filling thicker so it doesn’t spill out of the bars.
- Creamy peanut butter: Choose a sugar-free peanut butter to keep the carb count low. All natural peanut butters tend to separate, so blend it well before adding it to the batter.
- Almond flour: If you need to be nut-free, try replacing it with sunflower seed flour. You will need to add a tablespoon of lemon juice to offset the green reaction that sometimes occurs between sunflower seed flour and baking soda.
- Collagen protein powder: This helps make the bars a bit gooier. You can skip it, but you will want to replace it with another 1/4 cup almond flour.
- Kitchen staples: Eggs, butter, baking powder, vanilla extract and salt .
Step-by-step directions
1. Prepare the filling: Combine the berries, Swerve Confectioners, Swerve Allulose, and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until the berries can be easily mashed with a fork. Stir in the glucomannan and set aside.
2. Melt the peanut butter: In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the peanut butter and butter together, stirring until smooth.
3. Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, collagen powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the melted peanut butter mixture, the egg, and vanilla extract until well combined.
4. Prepare the bars: Press two thirds of the dough into the bottom of an 8×8 inch metal baking pan llined with parchment paper. Spread the raspberry filling mixture evenly over the crust. Take the remaining dough and crumble it over the filling.
5. Bake: Bake at 325ºF for 25 to 35 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Remove and let cool completely, then lift out of the pan by the edges of the parchment. Cut into squares.
Expert tips
Lining the pan with parchment allows you to get the bars out more easily. You could just bake them right in the pan as well. Make sure to let them cool completely before cutting. You don’t want crumbly Keto Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars.
You can also use pre-made sugar free jam if you prefer. ChocZero has some lovely flavors, and the Chia Smash jam is pretty tasty as well.
I don’t recommend allulose for the crust of these bars, as it will make them overly soft and too brown. You can use the new Swerve Brown formula, as it only contains a little allulose. You can also use other erythritol-based sweeteners.
If you are looking to cut back on erythritol, trying using only half the amount, and then sweetening with some stevia or monk fruit extract.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a few good brands of low sugar jams and jellies that you can consume on a keto diet. You can also make something similar to jelly with low carb sweeteners and some thickener like glucomannan. I recommend using some allulose in your jelly to keep it from recrystallizing as it cools.
This keto peanut butter and jelly bar recipe has 6g of carbs and 2.2g of fiber per serving. That comes to 3.8g net carbs per bar.
You can store the bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. They will last for up to a week if you store them in the refrigerator. Wrap individual bars in foil or plastic wrap and freeze the bars for up to 3 months.
More delicious recipes you’ll love
Keto Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars Recipe
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 cup (120 g) raspberries, (fresh or frozen)
- 2 tbsp Swerve Confectioners, (or more allulose)
- 1 tbsp allulose
- 1 tbsp water
- 1/4 tsp glucomannan
Bars
- 3/4 cup (193.5 g) creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup (56.75 g) butter
- 1 1/2 cups (168 g) almond flour
- 1/2 cup (100 g) brown sugar substitute
- 1/4 cup (27 g) collagen protein powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Filling
- Combine the berries, sweetener, and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until the berries can be easily mashed with a fork. Stir in the glucomannan and set aside.
Bars
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF and line an 8×8 inch metal baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the peanut butter and butter together, stirring until smooth.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the almond flour, sweetener, collagen powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the melted peanut butter mixture, the egg, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Press two thirds of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the raspberry filling mixture evenly over the crust.
- Take the remaining dough and crumble it over the filling. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, until the top is lightly browned.
- Remove and let cool completely, then lift out of the pan by the edges of the parchment. Cut into squares.
Notes
Nutrition
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Excellent recipe!!
I made mine with blueberries, and they were delicious!
I did too!! So good.
If I choose to use ChocZero, how much pre-made jelly/jam do you suggest using in this recipe?
About 3/4 cup.
I know these are going to be amazing. Thus far, over the course of a year, I have tried MANY of your recipes and not one has failed me. Most become staples in our keto house. For the PBJ bars, I use my own homemade jam. As a lifelong canner, using my own jam was a no-brainer. We use Pomona’s Pectin as a safe thickener. I wonder if you’ve ever thought about canning in the Keto-verse, how to change those recipes to make them healthy, keto, delicious and safe for canning. I have adapted many keto recipes I find online so that my busy family has many jars of meals, but have yet to discover a recipe book focused on keto canning.
Sounds fantastic!
I’m really not fond of peanut butter, but I love almond butter. Can I substitute?
Thanks for your great recipes. I have tried several of them.
Absolutely!
omg this peanut butter and jelly bars are amazing and all the recipes i tried ,excellent
I do not have an 8” square metal pan, only glass. Will that work?
Glass and metal conduct heat very differently so you will want to keep your eye on them to make sure they don’t over-bake.
The only 8×8 pan I have is glass. Should I adjust the baking time and/or temp? Thanks!
Just keep your eye on them!
I love all your recipes.With this one…could you use a 9 x 9 instead of the 8 x 8 or would it make the crust too thin?
You can try… just keep in mind that they will bake through faster.
Just curious if you have any recipes that don’t include almond flour as some people have nut allergies thank you
You clearly haven’t looked at my recipe index, which has a whole nut free section.
Note that Carolyn always indicates that sunflower seed flour can be used in exchange for almond flour, and to offset the possible green reaction with 1 tbsp lemon juice.
I thought these bars sounded perfect … lol, I have to admit I read it and thought oh she means pb and jam not jelly. .