Healthy-Adjacent No-Cook Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

These dark days present a real opportunity for us to come together and support the members of our community who need it most.

Forget the ghosts, ghouls, and goblins—we’re dealing with some truly scary real-life circumstances this Halloween. On top of whatever piece of new bad news has broken since I wrote this intro, the government shutdown continues as more Americans find themselves staring down an uncertain economic future, a terrible combination that in November will lead to a pause in much-needed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in at least half of American states.

This is especially bad news for American children and their families. According to the latest numbers we have (from 2023), children account for 39% of all SNAP users nationwide. With one in five American children living in a food-insecure household, these benefits are essential in getting families the nutrition their young ones need to thrive, and the idea of them going away is pretty terrifying.

I know, what a bummer of a way to begin a fun food article about making your own chocolate bars, but what I really want to say is this: These dark days present a real opportunity for us to come together and support the members of our community who need it most. And, in fact, the fun tradition of trick or treating stems from an ancient practice of doing just that.

The Charitable History of Trick or Treating

The tradition we know today as trick or treating started out in the medieval European practice of “souling,” where the poor would pray for the souls of the dead in exchange for soul cakes—small round cakes that resembled shortbread flavored with sweet spices. Irish and Scottish immigrants brought these traditions to the states in the 1800s, and, thus, trick or treating as we know it was born.

The charitable roots of the holiday were mostly dropped when they migrated to the new world, although some community organizations did throw fundraising Halloween balls as an alternative to the general mayhem of early Halloween in America, as some were alarmed by the excesses of young people in bringing the trick part of trick or treating to the foreground.

These days, Halloween is more associated with sugar and spookiness, but the modern iteration of the holiday also has some fun charitable traditions worth celebrating. When I was a kid in the 1990s, my siblings and I always took part in Trick or Treat for UNICEF, picking up those iconic little orange boxes from our school and returning them filled with coins. It always gave me a sense of accomplishment to read the back of the box and learn how many meals and polio vaccinations those quarters and dimes could provide, a feeling even sweeter than all the candy.

Finding Ways to Give Back

Thinking about these things made me consider some ways we could give back to our neighbors this Halloween season, returning to the holiday’s roots. One thing that came to mind was expanding our array of goodies for trick-or-treaters, not getting rid of candy (no way!) but expanding our offerings to include more substantial nutritional support.

We don’t get many trick or treaters on our steep hill, but I’m planning on stocking up on dry goods like canned veggies and dried beans, ramen noodles, and jars of peanut butter and jelly in addition to the sweets, and leaving them out for any trick or treaters or their parents who brave the slope.

I figure that anything that doesn’t get used can be stocked in the little free pantry at the bottom of our street or given to the many organizations that feed our neighbors here in Los Angeles, where 1.5 million people depend on SNAP benefits (called CalFresh here) to feed their families.

Across the country, communities are rallying to support the families who will be impacted by the loss of their SNAP benefits in a few days. Grabbing a few cans of peas won’t do much to move the needle on America’s hunger problem, true, but in a time when I think many of us are feeling helpless in the face of so much national chaos, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

A Treat for The Sweet: Easy Freezer Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

OK, now let’s get to the fun part: this week’s delicious recipe for no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars. After all, you’re being so sweet helping out your neighbors, you deserve a little treat, too. This one has become a classic in our house, and we nearly always have a jar in the fridge for chocolate-eating emergencies (which occur more often than you’d expect with my husband around!).

I initially invented these bars for my sweet-toothed sweetheart, who can put away an entire bag of cookies in a night. I figured having a healthy, whole-food-based treat option on hand might make him feel loved, and I’m pleased to report my plan worked. Initially, I would make these bars as a single layer topped with things like hazelnuts, coca nibs, or a sprinkle of sea salt, but I stumbled on the idea of making a filled version and never looked back.

They kind of taste like a cross between melty fudge and peanut butter cups, take five minutes of active cooking to throw together, and are absurdly delicious. I hope you enjoy them as much as we have in our house, and that they bring a little sweetness to your spooky season!

Healthy-Adjacent No-Cook Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

Great for a snack or quick sweet-tooth satisfaction, I love having a jar of these in my fridge pretty much all the time for when the urge strikes.

¼ cup coconut oil

⅓ cup coco or cacao powder

¼ cup almond flour

2 tbs honey

¼ cup peanut butter

Mix all the ingredients except for the peanut butter in a small bowl.

Pour half the mixture into a parchment paper-lined tin and allow to set in the freezer for half an hour.

Take out the frozen chocolate and pour in your peanut butter. If you want your filling to have a stiffer consistency, add up to ¼ cup powdered sugar. Return to the freezer for an hour.

Once the peanut butter has solidified, top with the second half of your chocolate mix. Freeze for half an hour, and then cut into delicious little squares. Store in the fridge or freezer.

Emily Beyda’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Built, Refinery29, Smartmouth, Fodors, the Thrillist, the Austin Chronicle, and more. Her novel, “The Body Double,” was published in 2021.

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