Homemade Vegan Almond Bark

This homemade vegan almond bark, made with yummy, naturally vegan chocolate from scratch, is so easy to make! And as always, I’ll give you many options to try out—so you can make it the way you love!

To make this easy recipe, you’ll only need 4 ingredients. Yup, that’s it! It’s fool-proof and simple, a 3-year-old could whip it up!

Contents

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

So, what are we waiting for? Let’s have a look at the ingredients and how to make this healthy little snack.

Ingredients

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• raw almonds
• raw cacao/cocoa butter
• raw cacao powder
• maple syrup

OR use your chocolate of choice if you don’t want to make your chocolate from scratch

(see recipe card for quantities)

These are just the ingredients that I prefer. However, rest assured that I’m going to give you a few substitutions later on. Though, I think this version is the healthiest and yummiest.

Almonds: You want to use raw almonds that haven’t been roasted, salted, or processed in any way. You may even opt for organic or pesticide-free to reduce the number of toxins in the foods you eat.

Cacao/cocoa butter: It’s still a bit confusing to me whether there’s actually a difference between cacao and cocoa butter. Usually, cacao is raw and cocoa is processed.

However, you can buy raw cocoa butter (confusing, right??)… I suggest you buy whichever is available to you, just make sure it's 100% unprocessed and pure.

Cacao powder: Of course, you’re more than welcome to use cocoa, if you prefer. It just means it’s processed, as just mentioned, and has fewer benefits compared to raw cacao.

I also often find that cocoa tastes bitterer, almost a tad burnt. If you choose cocoa, you may need to adjust the amount of maple syrup.

Maple Syrup: I prefer using maple syrup because it’s a natural, usually unprocessed form of sugar. It also adds this wonderful caramel flavour to your chocolate and gives a great texture. See substitutions for more options.

Chocolate of Choice: Although it’s insanely easy to make your own chocolate, you may want to shortcut it, using your favourite, store-bought chocolate.

Instructions

Step One. To make the chocolate, we need to create a double-boiler. That simply means, you fill a small saucepan with water (about an inch/2.5 cm deep) and place a heat-proof bowl (metal or ceramic work well) on top.

Make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water. We are using the water steam to gently melt the chocolate. This method ensures that the chocolate won’t burn and spoil!

Step Two. Add the cacao butter to the bowl you placed on top of the saucepan, and bring the water to a boil. Once the water starts to heat up, you’ll notice the cacao butter starts to melt.

I usually turn down the heat once the water starts to boil and set it to a simmer. This will still be hot enough for the cacao butter to melt.

Step Three. When the cacao butter is completely liquid, take the bowl off the saucepan. Add maple syrup and cacao powder and whisk until smooth.

The size of your container or whether you prefer to use the baking tray depends on how thick you want your almond bark to be. I used a glass dish with a 1-litre volume (about 32 oz.).

Substitutions

Almonds: This recipe works with any nuts or even seeds you like! I also like to use macadamias or hazelnuts.

Chocolate: As mentioned earlier, you can simply melt any chocolate you like.

If you prefer milk chocolate, you can replace ½ cup / 40g cacao powder with milk powder. If you’re vegan, you can substitute with any plant milk powder you like. The consistency will be different from plant milk to plant milk.

Cacao Butter: Instead of cacao butter, you may also choose cocoa butter. Another great, and cheaper, alternative is coconut oil. You can replace it 1:1.

However, a couple of things about the oil version: 1) the chocolate will melt quicker, and 2) if you don’t like the coconut flavour, use refined coconut oil.

Cacao Powder: Instead of cacao, use cocoa. The difference between these two is that cocoa has been treated and processed whereas cacao is raw, and therefore richer in nutrients.

Caffeine-free: Just to give you an option, though I haven’t tried that yet, you could replace the cacao powder with carob. Carob is a caffeine-free alternative to cacao.

It has a slightly sweeter and rather caramelly flavour. I suggest you don’t replace the cacao 1:1 but rather use less carob.

Maple Syrup: Maple Syrup can be easily substituted by any liquid sweetener you like. For example, brown rice syrup, agave syrup, honey, or coconut syrup.

You may even use a sugar-free sweetener such as xylitol or monk fruit. However, as I don’t use these alternatives, I don’t really know how much you would need and what the consistency of the chocolate would be like.

Variations

Certainly, you can use any nuts you like here, really. You could also mix nuts and even seeds. Another great add-on is dried fruit like sultanas or chopped dates!

And, obviously, you can change the chocolate and make this almond bark with milk or white chocolate as well!

Storage

I keep my homemade vegan almond bark in the fridge as I live in a hot climate. You may be able to store it at room temperature. It’ll keep for several months.

📖 Recipe