Chocolate and peanut butter is a well-known match made in heaven. But in a world of peanut allergies and strict Paleo diets, alternative nut and seed butters are increasingly popular peanut substitutes.
Whether you’re forever loyal to peanut butter or are looking for ways to get nutty with other varieties, we’ve got you covered with these 25 chocolate + nut butter ideas that require no baking and minimal hands-on work. The chocolate-peanut butter combo will always have a place in our hearts (and bellies), but when it comes to getting nutty with dessert, there’s always room for more.
Almond Butter
1. Chocolate Almond Butter Balls
Semisweet chocolate chips encase a smooth almond butter mixture that's chilled until the outside is crisp and the inside is melt-in-your-mouth creamy. Make it even sweeter—nutrition-wise—by cutting back on the 3/4 cup of sugar that the recipe calls for; you may actually prefer the nuttiness of the almond butter to shine through.
2. Chocolate Almond Butter Popcorn
Next time you’re having movie night at home, whip up a batch of this sweet and savory popcorn. Spruced up with an almond butter coating and a chocolate drizzle, it’s tastier—and healthier—than anything you’ll get at the theater concession stand.
3. Almond Butter Cup Bars
In these triple-layer bars, a creamy almond butter and maple syrup filling is sandwiched between a crunchy nut base and a silky chocolate ganache topping. Chill the pan in the freezer to make the dessert set faster; you’re going to want to dig in immediately.
4. Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cheerio Bars With Flax
Cheerios aren’t just for your breakfast bowl. Put the oat-y puffs to good use in crunchy, chocolate-drizzled bites. With healthy fats from the almond butter and flaxseeds, and whole-grain goodness from the cereal, they’re practically like mini energy bars.
5. Cookie Dough Protein Balls
You don’t even need a __food processor to make these no-bake, no-cook morsels. Just a big bowl and a sturdy spatula will do. With protein powder for an added nutritional boost, these are as perfect for a post-gym snack as they are for dessert.
6. 4-Ingredient Almond Butter Jelly Cups
If your house is a peanut-free zone due to allergies, you can still enjoy a Reese's-like treat—just swap out peanut butter for its almond-based cousin. With the added surprise of jelly inside each chocolate-covered cup, these are even better than the packaged version.
7. Chocolate Almond Cookies
With their dry ingredients held together with a sweetened almond butter mixture, these no-bake bites are like eating little morsels of cookie dough—only they’re actually 100 percent safe to eat since there’s no raw egg in here.
Peanut Butter
8. Chocolate Peanut Butter Sliced Oatmeal Cookies
A more wholesome version of the packaged slice ‘n bake rolls, these chilled, flourless cookies rely on oats, peanut butter, and cocoa powder to come together. Don’t forget the sprinkles on top—everything is better with sprinkles.
9. Crunchy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
A smooth, chocolaty, peanut buttery base made crispy with crushed cornflakes is the highlight of this recipe. But with just a 1/2 cup of honey (for 16 servings) and hardly any processed ingredients, we’re officially declaring this recipe the healthy eater’s answer to a Butterfinger.
10. Vegan No-Bake Peanut Butter Brownie Bites
The fudge factor in these brownies doesn’t come from butter, sugar, or cream; it’s the effect of dates pulverized with cacao powder and peanuts until the mixture is a chocolaty, chewy batter. Topped with crushed peanuts and vegan dark chocolate, they’re the definition of healthy indulgence.
11. Chocolate Peanut Butter Energy Bites
Got 10 minutes and a major craving for something sweet? These five-ingredient treats are the solution to your busy schedule and hunger pangs. Each little bite comes with cacao, peanut butter, oats, and chia, proving that great (and healthy) things can come in small packages.
12. Healthy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Put in just five minutes of hands-on work and get about 24 cookies in return—now that’s the kind of math we love. Plus, with wholegrains, healthy fats, and no unrefined sugars, the equation gets even sweeter.
13. Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies
Using pretzels instead of chow mein noodles and adding old-fashioned oats for some whole-grain benefits, these peanut-y cookies (or birds’ nests, or haystacks, or whatever you prefer to call them) are a must for your snack-time routine. They’re even easily made gluten-free if necessary.
14. Chocolate Peanut Butter Chia Bars
You can whip up these portable goodies in just five minutes. If you’ve got 45 minutes more of patience, let the mixture set in the fridge so you can cut it into bar-size squares, although we don’t blame you if you just have at it with a spoon right out of the food processor.
Cashew Butter
15. Snickerdoodle Truffles
Made with almond flour, dairy-free chocolate, and cashew butter, these Paleo snickerdoodle scoops are the perfect way to satisfy a sweet tooth without going nuts (pun intended) on the portions. We’re not sure if cavemen ever ate cookies, but if they had tried these, we bet they’d totally approve.
16. Chocolate Cashew Butter Swirled Candy Cups
If separate, neat layers are a bit too much effort, just swirl the chocolate and nut butter together like this recipe advises—it still tastes like a peanut butter cup, except with a hint of vanilla added and a touch of honey instead of sugar. It’s just different enough to be extra special.
17. Chocolate Cashew Butter Cups
These Paleo desserts aren’t just imitation Reese’s. With crushed pistachios and macadamias stirred in for extra crunch, and sea salt flakes on top for a savory surprise, they’re a nut-butter cup variety on their own.
18. No-Bake Cashew Butter Chocolate Cookies
Scoop a rich mixture of chocolate, cashew butter, and oatmeal batter onto parchment paper until it's slightly hardened and easier to eat. What makes this healthy recipe even better is that it only makes eight cookies, so even if you eat half the batch in one sitting, you don’t have a stomachache in your future.
19. Raw Chocolate Cashew Butter Mousse
With no chilling time required and about, oh, two minutes to blend together, this raw pudding hits the spot when you need creamy, chocolaty sustenance, stat. Coconut milk, avocado, and cashew butter make it especially rich, so a small serving goes a long way.
Sunflower Seed Butter
20. Paleo No-Bake Sunbutter Bars
No grains, no gluten, no dairy, no equipment—no problem. These bars manage to pack in a ton of rich, wholesome goodness from the melted chocolate layer down to the thick, melt-in-your-mouth base of sunflower butter and nut-based flours.
21. Sunbutter No-Bake Oatmeal Raisin Bites
True to their title, these are essentially unbaked oatmeal raisin cookies, except they aren’t made from your usual butter and sugar-laden recipe. With agave syrup, sunflower butter, gluten-free oat flour, and ground flaxseeds thrown in for good measure, they work as healthy after-school treats, workout fuel, or even part of breakfast.
22. “Peanut” Butter Cup Protein Chia Pudding
Sunflower seed butter and chia seeds help make this chocolate pudding thick and silky, without the need for cornstarch or heavy cream. No need for stirring the mixture over a double boiler, either; just five minutes of blending (or simply whisking) will do the job!
23. No-Bake Oreos With Sunbutter
The “cookie” portion of these Oreos is made from dates, cocoa, and sunflower seeds, while the “crème” is a rich sunflower seed filling. They may be nontraditional, but they still go perfectly well with a glass of (dairy or nondairy) milk for dunking.
24. Chocolate Sunbutter Banana Ice Cream
If you’ve already tried one-ingredient banana ice cream, you know how incredible it is. Now make it even better by adding sunflower butter and cocoa powder to the mix. Even you might not believe it’s not real ice cream.
25. Sunflower Seed Butter Granola Bars With Chocolate Drizzle
You could buy those packaged granola bars with hidden sugars and weird preservatives, but you could also take 10 minutes to throw together these wholesome ones, which taste the same but with ingredients you can actually pronounce. We’re guessing the choice is easy.
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