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!
What Are Vegan Millionaire Shortbread Bars?
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.
Ingredients and Substitutions
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
Frequently Asked Questions
A classic millionaire shortbread bar has a crumbly baked shortbread crust.
If you are looking for a similar sensation and texture, you can definitely bake the crust on it is own before adding the raw caramel.
I recommend baking the crust at 350°F (180°C) for 15 minutes and cooling the crust for 15 minutes before adding the caramel layer.
Millionaire bars are no-bake vegan desserts so these bars are dairy-free and egg-free, and therefore they can be stored easily in the fridge for up to 5 days.
It is better if you store these in an airtight container to prevent the caramel from drying.
If you want to freeze them, I recommend you place a piece of parchment paper between each bar.
It makes it easier to defrost the bars one by one. You can then keep them for up to 3 months.
Thaw them in the fridge or eat frozen!
More No-Bake Vegan Desserts
If you love no-bake vegan desserts, I recommend you also try:
Did You Like This Recipe?
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No-bake Vegan Millionaire Shortbread
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.
These are fenomenal! Thank you so much for sharing the receipe. I just finished my ery first piece and about to demolish another one! 😉 I also did the no-bake brownies some time ago and was also blown away by it! Very happy to find something so indulgent, satisfying and healthy at the same time.
Thanks Nat, I am so glad you love them so much. Take care, XOXO Carine
This is my 5th time making this! As a vegan, keto, low FODMAP person I am so glad I came across your recipe!!! It’s so hard for me to eat treats that don’t irritate and cause my endo flares. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!
Amazing news! Thank for being here with me, Take care, XOXO Carine
Made these for myself and a friend. Amazing! try just eating one. Lol 😉 I stirred the caramel on the second batch for longer and it froze better. Not sure why but thought it was worth sharing. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your tips ! I am happy you love the bars, Take care, XOXO Carine
These are amazing. So easy to make and super super tasty. We all love them at home.I had to hide a batch in the freezer!
Thank you so much ! I am so happy all your family love it too. It is a great idea to freeze them or it is easy to eat the whole batch in a day 🙂 XOXO Carine
We recently started an elimination diet for my husband, and as the chef of the house, I had to get a little creative as I am used to cooking/baking with butter, dairy, eggs, etc. This entire experience has made us both re-asses our food choices – who knew being DF, GF, egg free, etc etc would be easy and simple? I’ve made this recipe twice in 5 days because we both love it so much. It’s incredible, and you feel a lot less guilty eating it! Try it – you won’t be sorry!
I am happy you found my blog, all my recipes are DF, GF and egg free! Enjoy, XOXO Carine
Absolutely heavenly! This was the last in our weekend recipe fun and we are in love! Easy to follow recipe and taste incredible!
When we visited Scotland we felt in love with the Millionaire Bars, but they are loaded with sugars and calories. Carine’s recipe is perfect. What I love the most is the caramel! I have been using that caramel for lots of other desserts. Regarding these bars, I was looking to make a healthy but sweet snack to which I was able to incorporate protein power. I followed her instructions but I added two scoops of protein power to the bottom later (I adjusted the liquid ingredients to about to much dryness). I got 16 bars and my husband ate them after his daily run. I haven’t done the bars by itself without the protein powder, but if they were great with the “Vanilla, Protein and Greens” power, they must be amazing without it.
Do you think there’s a way to use less or none oil for this? What could I replace it? It just seems like a lot of coconut oil and trying to keep it low on the use because of all the saturated fat. Thanks for all your recipes!
Unfortunately you can’t make no bake recipes without coconut oil. Coconut oil is the only vegan fat that solidify at room temperature (weel, there is also cocoa butter but it is very expensive) and that is this chemical property that allow you to create no baked goods. Without coconut oil or less coconut oil you will end up with a crumbly dough and it will never form a shortbread. Take care, XOXO Carine.
Hello, looking at these now and they look delicious! How does baking the short bread base turn out? I’m craving a biscuity base and feel that freezing the base may result in a kind of “fridge cake” sensation. Should a try baking it rather? And then would it be possible to substitute syrup for dates? If so do you know the ratio I should use. If not no worries! Thanks so much, super keen to make them :D.
Sure, you can bake the base for 10-12 minutes at 180C (350F). I didn’t try using date in the caramel it will probably work but it will be thicker in texture. Enjoy the recipe. XOXO Carine
So good! Very easy and fun to make, and sooo yummie! 😀