Nut Bar Recipe
Paleo Bars with Nuts and Chocolate Drizzle – These homemade protein-packed snacks are crunchy, sweet, and deliciously wholesome. Plus, this easy nut bars recipe also happens to be gluten-free, paleo, and vegan!

Why We Love This Paleo Nut Bar Recipe
I’ve made healthy granola bars, energy bars, and energy balls plenty of times before. However, my latest Paleo Bar Recipe with Chocolate Drizzle is a real winner, because it’s made solely out of nuts, organic, non-GMO sweeteners, and a little spice.

Sommer’s Recipe Notes
Both of my kids LOVE this Nut Bar Recipe with Chocolate Drizzle. The reason they love them so much is that these Paleo Bars with Chocolate Drizzle are sweet and super crunchy. And I, as a parent, love them because they’re all of those good things, PLUS they are:
- Paleo
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
- Vegan
So, unless you’re dealing with a nut allergy, these bars are perfect for everyone!

Ingredients You Need
Here’s everything you need to make this fabulous sweet and lightly salty snack:
- Raw nuts – we use a combination of whole cashews, almonds, pecans, and walnuts
- Raw pepitas – AKA lil pumpkin seeds
- Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
- Organic Blue Agave
- Vanilla extract – I recommend organic for the best flavor
- Sea salt – a generous bit to balance the sweetness
- Cinnamon – the “secret” ingredient to make sweet dishes taste extra delicious
- Dark chocolate – organic 80% dark chocolate is my fave
Ingredient Note: Once the coconut sugar melts into the agave, it creates a sticky base for the bars that will harden enough to form the bars, yet it isn’t tough on your teeth. The touch of vanilla, salt, and cinnamon gives these snack bars extra oomph, making them hard to resist.

How to Make Homemade Paleo Nut Bars with Chocolate
Find the full Nut Bar recipe with ingredient proportions, detailed instructions, storing instructions, and a video tutorial in the printable form at the bottom of the post.
Pro Tip: Spread the bars apart after slicing them. If you leave them right next to each other, they can get sticky and essentially glue themselves back together.


How to Make a Vegan Dark Chocolate Drizzle
You can enjoy these nut bars as-is, or drizzle the tops with a little dark chocolate. Here’s how:
- Break a bar of dark chocolate into pieces and place over a double-boiler to melt.
- Once melted, pour the chocolate into a plastic bag.
- Snip off a tiny portion of the corner, and pipe the chocolate over the bars. Allow the chocolate to dry before eating or wrapping.


Paleo Bar Recipe with Chocolate Drizzle
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole raw cashews
- 1 1/2 cups whole raw almonds
- 1 cup chopped raw pecans
- 1 cup chopped raw walnuts
- 1 cup raw pepitas pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup Wholesome!™ Organic Coconut Palm Sugar
- 1/3 cup Wholesome!™ Organic Blue Agave
- 1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 ounces organic 80% dark chocolate optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a 9×13-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix the cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts, and pepitas.
- Pour the Wholesome!™ Coconut Palm Sugar, Agave, vanilla extract, sea salt, and cinnamon in a large sauce pot. Bring to a simmer and stir to dissolve the sugar. The moment the sugar is completely melted, and the edges are bubbling, turn off the heat and pour in the nuts. Quickly mix the nuts into the syrup with a wooden spoon, until they are completely coated. Pour the nut mixture out onto the prepared baking sheet. Use a piece of wax paper to press the mixture firmly together.
- Bake the nut bars on the center rack for approximately 20 minutes until the tops are golden. Then (this is the hard part) allow the nut bars to cool for at least 45 minutes in the pan.
- Lift the whole pan of nut bars out of the pan, by the edges of the parchment paper. Cut into 24 bars. Spread the bars apart. Break one 4 ounce bar of dark chocolate into pieces and place over a double-boiler to melt. Once melted, pour the chocolate into a plastic bag. Snip off a tiny portion of the corner, and pipe the chocolate over the bars. Allow the chocolate to dry before wrapping. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1 week, or in the fridge for up to a month.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t like a particular nut, feel free to make substitutions. Just be sure to have 3 cups whole nuts and 3 cups of small nut pieces, so they hold together well.
Yes, they are! These snacks do not have any dairy, eggs, or honey.
Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1 week, or in the fridge for up to a month.
For easy lunchbox treats, wrap them individually and keep them in the freezer. That way, they’ll keep a long time and cool the rest of the lunchbox items as they thaw.
We will be making this again and again!
I love this recipe!
Wow! These are CRAZY good. I was skeptical when it called for raw cashews and almonds but Holy Smoke these are good. I’ve seen a few questions in these comments about if these are truly Paleo with so many nuts and using Blue Agave. Any response to these questions? I’m trying to eat more Paleo and have started working out at Orange Theory Fitness. I wanted these to eat after my workout and perhaps an occasional snack. Really, really good bars. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Great recipe. Subbed white sugar, doubled walnuts to sub for almonds, added chopped dried figs. Used a lot more chocolate and applied prior to cutting so less chocolate waste.
All my reviewers loved them.
Could i add protien powder for a high protein and if so how much?
Hi Kristy,
Definitely! However, I haven’t tried that so you would have to experiment a little to determine the proper amount. If it were me, I’d start with about 1/2 cup protein powder on the first test batch, then add or subtract from there. Good luck! :)
Could you use pure maple syrup or honey instead of the agave?
Hi Vickie, Absolutely!
Mine turned out very sticky and most of the syrup went to the bottom… any ideas? I would habe hoped they could be hand held, but mins are falling apart
I saw this recipe on Pinterest and I just want to leave a comment and let you know that this Nut Bar recipe is amazing. Thank you for sharing this delight with us.
Thanks so much for the kind note, Boyan! So glad you like them. :)
WOW! these are delicious. i found you on pinterest and i’m so glad i did. thanks for this recipe!!!
Have you ever tried to substitute blue agave with honey?
Hi Joyce!
Yes, you can definitely do that. :)
Is there a way to make these less sweet?
Hi Jo,
You can reduce the amount of agave and palm sugar by one-third. Just make sure you stir it extremely well so it still sticks together. It won’t coat the nuts as well, but it will still taste great!
I’ve been making these for a couple of months and can’t seem to master them. I either burn them or don’t cook them enough and they don’t stick together. Do you use a baking sheet or a baking dish like a pyrex? Any tips to get them to stick together?