You know how some recipes are so perfect you don’t need to change a thing to make them work for your family? I can’t tell you how much I love it when this happens, especially since we are fairly high-maintaince with all our “exceptions.”
These Congo Bars (or Blondies…. or Cookie Bars…. or Cookie Cake….. take your pick) are simply phenomenal just the way they are. They are reminiscent of Finn’s allergy-friendly chocolate chip cookies.
What did you call these bars growing up? We called them Congo Bars. Justin’s family called them Cookie Bars. My brother’s friend called it Cookie Cake. Hmmmm…. so much confusion to such a classic!
These allergy-friendly bars are dairy-free, soy-free, peanut-free, refined sugar-free, grain-free, gluten-free, wheat-free.
Here’s what you’ll need…
Mix 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1/3 cup honey, 1/4 cup almond butter, 1 egg and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Our honey is from a local farmer who delivers to our home. Finn calls him a cowboy… and he is… an amazing cowboy! Buy local, especially your honey!
In a separate bowl, combine 1 1/4 cups almond flour, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/8 tsp. baking soda, and 1/2 tsp. salt and whisk to combine.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients and add the chocolate chips. We normally use Enjoy Life (allergy friendly) chocolate chunks for cookies, but this time I used the mini chips. The mini chips are perfect for this recipe. Enjoy Life is a fantastic brand, void of all 8 major allergens. Additionally, their products were recently verified non-GMO. You will start to see this on their labels soon.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Watch them closely, especially if you used coconut oil to grease your pan. Pull them from the oven, let them cool and then cut into squares.
Almond Butter Congo Bars from The Unrefined Kitchen
Ingredients:
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup almond butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 – 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8×8 pan with coconut oil or line with parchment paper.
2. Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well with an electric mixer.
3. Combine almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well with mixer.
5. Mix in chocolate chips and spread batter into pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Just made these, yum!!
Hey Kerry! I found your bars on Pinterest and I loved them!! sharing on my on an inhale fb now
So glad you liked them! Thanks for sharing
I just made these and wow what a tasty treat! I’m not a huge baker but this was my first experience with almond flour and I am definitely a converter!
So glad you liked it. Yes, almond flour is FANTASTIC!!!
I just made these. I made them into mini muffins. They are INCREDIBLE! Also, definitely watch them cook closely, as they only needed 10 minutes to cook in my oven due to them being in the mini muffin tins.
I made these this weekend and they were great!!
YAH!!!
Where do you live? How on earth did you get a farmer to bring honey to your house?! I NEED that! I am just getting up the gumption to drive 15 miles NW to get mine and I can’t even do that! It’s just easier to get it when I’m grocery shopping (still some local options on the shelf).
My mom called them Cake Cookie Bars.
Are you in Iowa? Check out Tom at Thankful Harvest – http://www.thankfulharvest.com/.
A 2 lb jar of honey was $10. He also brought farm fresh eggs and a few cuts of meat. He’s awesome!
He makes stops throughout the month to different locations.
Hi Kerry! My daughter has a nut allergy, so these won’t work in their current form. Could we sub out the almond flour for white/whole wheat, then sub the almond butter perhaps for sunflower seed butter? Just curious, as I’m not familiar with the almond flour to whole wheat flour conversion, if there is one.
I’m not sure how it will turn out. I know that the conversions for something like almond flour (which is considered “low carb or high protein”) are different than white or wheat flour. Since we can do both, I haven’t ever tried it. Google it and see what you find. If you try something, please let me know so I know for next time
Thanks!!!
Yum!!
I made the pumpkin spice bars from the Detoxinista blog at Thanksgiving. Got rave reviews. It might work well for your special needs. Made with almond butter, pumpkin and spices (may need to use egg sub – I used real eggs). She also has a great cauliflower pizza crust that was wonderful with step by step on how to get moisture out so it really holds together like a real crust. Never would have believed it was made from cauliflower had I not made it myself. A bit of labor but worth it!!
She may have more recipes for you.
Thanks for the tip!
Just made the congo bars. FABULOUS. I actually doubled it and will freeze a few.
These sound amazing, can’t wait to try!