These Vegan Millionaire Bars are a healthier version of the classic millionaire shortbread, a no-bake vegan dessert bar 100% gluten-free and refined sugar-free. You will love the buttery coconut flour shortbread base, and soft peanut butter caramel topped with a crunchy chocolate layer. Keep reading to learn more!
A classic millionaire shortbread bar is a rich dessert bar made of three layers: a crumbly shortbread crust, sticky soft caramel, and a crunchy chocolate top layer. Usually, they are made with lots of sugar, dairy, and processed ingredients like sweetened condensed milk, white sugar, white flour, and butter.
Here I am sharing healthy millionaire bars, the vegan version of this classic dessert 100% refined sugar-free, dairy-free, and no-bake to preserve all the nutrients.
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No-bake Vegan Millionaire Shortbread
A healthier version of the classic millionaire bars 100% refined sugar-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free.
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Servings: 16 bars
Calories: 215 kcal
Ingredients
Option 1: Coconut Flour Shortbread crust – gluten-free + nut-free
- 1 ⅓ cup Coconut Flour
- ½ cup Coconut Oil - melted
- ½ cup Maple Syrup - or sugar-free monk fruit syrup if keto
Option 2: almond flour shortbread crust – gluten-free + grain-free + keto
- 1 ½ cup Almond Flour - fine, blanched
- 3 tablespoons Coconut Oil - melted
- 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup - or sugar-free monk fruit syrup if keto
Caramel layer
- ⅓ cup Maple Syrup - or sugar-free monk fruit syrup if keto
- 3 tablespoons Coconut Oil - melted
- ½ cup Peanut Butter (Unsalted) - or almond butter, fresh jar, no added sugar, no added oil
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
Chocolate layer
- 4.2 oz Dark Chocolate - 85% cocoa or 70% cocoa
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Oil - melted
Instructions
- Cover a 9-inch x 5-inch rectangle baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add coconut flour (or almond flour; if so, make sure you respect the correct ratio of ingredients based on the flour you choose), maple syrup, and melted coconut oil.
- Combine with a spatula at first, then knead the dough with your hands. The dough is soft and wet at first and dry as you go, becoming easier to shape into a ball.
- Gather the dough into a ball and place it in the center of the prepared dish.
- Press the ball with your fingers to evenly cover the bottom of the dish. You can smooth the top of the layer using a spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Freeze for 10 minutes while making the soft caramel.
- In a small bowl, add fresh runny peanut butter, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla.
- Combine with a spatula until it forms a consistent, smooth caramel.
- Remove the dish from the freezer and pour the caramel on top of the shortbread layer.
- Spread the caramel evenly with the spatula and return the dish into the freezer for 10-12 minutes or until firm.
- Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and melted coconut oil in a saucepan under medium heat. Otherwise, you can microwave chocolate and coconut oil in a small bowl, by 30 seconds burst, stirring between, until smooth and fully melted.
- Remove the dish from the freezer and pour the melted chocolate on top of the caramel layer.
- Spread with a spatula and return to the freezer for 2-5 minutes or until the chocolate layer is set.
- Remove from the freezer, use the pieces of parchment paper to lift out the bar from the dish.
- Slice with a sharp knife into 16 squares. You can slightly warm the blade under hot water before cutting to make this easier.
Storage
- Store the bars into an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze and defrost 2-3 hours before. It can be eaten half-frozen as well.
Notes
The nutrition panel is for one bar using coconut flour and maple syrup.
Nutrition
Serving: 1bar | Calories: 215kcal | Carbohydrates: 17.5g | Protein: 3.9g | Fat: 15.3g | Fiber: 3.1g | Sugar: 14g
Ingredients and Substitutions
This paragraph gives you all my tips about picking the right ingredients. For the full recipe with measurements, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the post!Go to Full Recipe
All you need to make these healthy no-bake vegan dessert bars are:
- Coconut Flour – or almond flour. Coconut flour contains 4 times more fiber than almond flour, it is also sweeter in flavor, and therefore you can’t swap one flour for the other with the same ratio. That’s why I am providing 2 different recipes for the bottom layer of these no-bake millionaire bars. One recipe is using coconut flour, and one uses almond flour. Of course, you are free to choose the one you prefer based on your diet requirement. But I personally prefer coconut flour. The shortbread texture is way more intense. If you are concerned about eating raw flour, read my article about the raw flours that are safe to eat.
- Maple Syrup – or any liquid sweetener you like. You can also use agave syrup or brown rice syrup – it has a lower GI or, if you watch sugar closely, use Monk fruit syrup. It is a great sugar-free keto option.
- Coconut Oil – You can use refined coconut oil to avoid coconut flavor.
- Peanut Butter or almond butter – make sure you choose pure peanut butter with no added oil, no added sugar. Feel free to use salted peanut butter if you want to make healthy salted caramel bars.
- Vanilla – for flavor.
- Dark Chocolate – I recommend 85% cocoa chocolate simply because the other layers are already sweet, and strong dark chocolate balances the sweetness better.
How To Make Vegan Millionaire Shortbread
Call these as you like, caramel bars, millionaire bars, or chocolate caramel bars! They are simply delicious no-bake shortbread bars with a soft peanut butter caramel and dark chocolate layer.
- Line a 9-inch x 5-inch rectangle baking dish with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour (or almond flour, ensuring proper ingredient ratios if using almond flour), maple syrup, and melted coconut oil.
- Initially, use a spatula and then knead the dough by hand until it transforms from a soft, wet consistency to a dry one, becoming easier to shape into a ball.
- Place the ball in the center of the prepared dish, pressing it with your fingers to evenly cover the bottom. Use a spatula or the back of a spoon to smooth the top. Freeze for 10 minutes while preparing the soft caramel.
- In a small bowl, mix fresh runny peanut butter, melted coconut oil, maple syrup, and vanilla until a consistent, smooth caramel forms.
- Pour the caramel over the shortbread layer, spreading it evenly with a spatula. Return the dish to the freezer for 10-12 minutes or until firm.
- Meanwhile, melt chocolate and coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat or microwave them in a bowl in 30-second bursts, stirring between, until fully melted. Pour the melted chocolate over the caramel layer, spreading it with a spatula. Return to the freezer for 2-5 minutes or until the chocolate sets.
- Remove from the freezer, use parchment paper to lift the bar from the dish, and slice into 16 squares with a sharp knife. To ease cutting, you can slightly warm the blade under hot water.
Step-by-Step Video
More No-Bake Vegan Desserts
If you love no-bake vegan desserts, I recommend you also try:
Can you make the caramel layer with honey instead of maple syrup?
Sure
Thank you Carine for this amazing recipe and for your website! Everything is so delicious and I realize I don’t miss the “usual” ingredients for my previous sweet treats. I was gluten free for a long time and now I’m dairy free and corn free. All of your recipes are so well organized by diet type and ingredients so it’s been really fun trying all of options available.
This recipe is an absolute knockout and my husband and mother in law who are not gluten, dairy, nor corn free love it too. I did not find the coconut taste to be overpowering at all, I used the almond crust option but for my liquid sweetener I did use coconut nectar and it tastes great.
I use Crazy Richard’s 100% peanuts peanut butter, it is runny and only one ingredient. I used the crunchy type and it came out amazing.
I did double the amount of chocolate to have a heavier chocolate layer. I used the enjoy life chocolate chips and melted them down. They’re allergen friendly and the taste is divine.
I did have a little trouble not having the caramel layer and chocolate layer not run together too much. I put the caramel layer in the freezer for 12 minutes per the recipe, but does it need to be in there longer than that to achieve the separation in your photos?
Thanks again for all of the amazing recipes for my family including baby!
I’d never heard of these before, but saw someone make them on a cooking show. I don’t ever use wheat flours or refined sugars so was so excited to find this recipe. It did not disappoint. Shared it with my kids and grandkids and they LOVED it! Even my granddaughter, who hates anything coconut and immediately could taste the coconut oil in them, later texted me telling me “they were insanely good!” and asked for the recipe.
PS: I used the almond flour since I prefer the taste of that to coconut flour. So thanks for including that option.
Just ok. The recipe is super easy go follow but since it has coconut in every layer, it tastes just like a coconut dessert and nothing like Millionaire Bars.
Feel free to use the almond flour crust to avoid coconut flavor and use refined coconut oil that has no coconut flavor at all.
Could I use powdered PB, the kind I would ass water to make it creamy. Also when you say maple syrup, you mean a jar of pancake maple syrup. There are so many to choose from is there one you recommend.
I don’t think it will work very well because powdered PB is made of water/almond milk and it has a runnier texture. The caramel won’t be sticky and gooey
I was so excited to make these and finally did last night. The coconut taste was so strong and overpowering. Anyone else experience this? I was so bummed.
Coconut flour has a strong coconut flavor including unrefined coconut oil. For no coconut flavor, use the recipe option made of almond flour and use refined coconut oil, it has no coconut flavor.
I made this without the chocolate topping. Actually was planning to make the topping, but took a taste and OMG Fantastic! I want to make for a friend who cannot have anything with any kind of coconut in it. So wondering if there’s another oil that could be used for the caramel? Avocado oil perhaps, no taste.?
Thanks for the lovely feedback! Coconut oil solidify under 23C and give a special texture to the caramel and firm up the crust. The only other fat that can have the same property is pure cocoa butter. Enjoy!
So the flavour is insanely delicious. I’m having trouble with the Carmel being so runny (even after an hour of freezing) that cutting them into squares is causing all the filling to just squeeze out everywhere and the chocolate layer just slides off. Any tips?
I followed the recipe to the letter.
That’s interesting, did you use natural peanut butter or a peanut butter with added oil? The only reason why the caramel won’t harden at -4Cis if the oil content is higher.
But anyway, if you freeze them longer, at some point it will harden and to slice it, warm the knife blade under a blade then slice them
Can I use tahini instead of peanut butter?
Sure
My absolute favourite!!