These vegan Nut Clusters, or Mini Peanut Butter Bars (Nut Bites), are a quick and easy homemade snack recipe that is healthy and delicious! These little power bars are gluten-free, high in fiber, and perfect for munching and sharing. Use any nuts and flavors and create your own flavor!
Mini Peanut Butter Bars aka Nut Clusters
I love nut bars in all variations and flavors! Most of the time, however, the conventional bars are too big for me, because I prefer to snack several smaller bites in between meals. So I came up with the idea of making typical Nut Bars in smaller sizes. But you can also leave them bigger, of course – just as you like!
And because these crunchy mini bars taste similar to Nut Clusters, this recipe is like a homemade version of that. I opted for a peanut cinnamon flavor but you can modify this cluster recipe any way you like and use other nuts and other nut butters.
Create your own nut bar version
The puffed quinoa makes the nut clusters lighter and gives them more volume. However, feel free to use puffed amaranth, coconut flakes, cacao nibs or dried fruit pieces instead.
You can also get creative with the flavors or spices! I added some cinnamon, but other ingredients like vanilla, chai spice, pumpkin spice, etc. are also very delicious – just get creative!
If you like, you can also dip the nut clusters in some melted chocolate at the end. Then let it harden and enjoy your yummy treats!
3 Ingredients Nut Clusters
To make homemade Nut Clusters, you basically only need 3 main ingredients: Nuts, nut butter and rice syrup – plus a pinch of salt and optional puffed quinoa and cinnamon or other ingredients and spices to your taste!
- Nuts: I use roasted peanuts, but you can use any nuts you like such as almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, macadamias or peanuts. Various seeds are also great such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, etc.
- Nut butter: again, you can choose any variety like cashew, almond, hazelnut or sesame butter (tahini). For my Peanut Cinnamon Cluster version, I use peanut butter, of course.
- Puffed Quinoa: feel free to use other ingredients or simply omit them. Some suggestions are mentioned above.
- Rice syrup: this has a thicker and chewier consistency than other vegan syrups. Therefore, it is just perfect for this recipe. Alternatively, you can use vegan dandelion honey.
- Cinnamon: as mentioned above, you can also use other spices and flavors to your taste and preferences.
- Salt: to balance out the sweetness and enhance the flavor.
How to make vegan nut clusters – Here’s how easy the recipe is!
As always, I recommend checking out this step-by-step instruction and the recipe video first. Then you’ll find the full recipe with exact measurements in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Make the nut mixture
First, coarsely chop the peanuts in a food processor or with a sharp knife, then place in a bowl. Add cinnamon, salt and quinoa and mix everything together. Next, add peanut butter and rice syrup and mix everything with a spatula until you get a sticky mixture.
Step 2: Bake Nut Clusters
Now transfer the mixture into a baking pan lined with parchment paper, spread evenly with the spatula and press firmly. Bake in a preheated oven at 356 °F (180 °C) for about 12 minutes, or until the surface is golden brown. Then let cool briefly and cut into pieces of desired size.
Tip: You can also bake the peanut butter bar mixture on a baking tray. Depending on the thickness of your nut mixture, it can also be ready faster. Therefore, please keep an eye on it so that it does not burn.
How can I store Nut Clusters?
Just like Granola and other nut bars, peanut clusters are best stored in a sealed container at room temperature. There they can be kept for 2-3 weeks.
Theoretically, you could also put the peanut bars in a freezer bag or freezer-safe container and freeze them for 3 months. When needed, just pull them out and let them thaw. If they aren’t still crunchy, you can just bake them in the oven again for a few minutes. However, I find they taste best when freshly made!
A great gift idea
If you’re still looking for a homemade gift idea to surprise your friends, family or neighbors, these nut clusters are absolutely perfect! Just like pralines, truffles, bliss balls, or cookies, you can wrap up these mini peanut bars as a lovely gift.
This recipe for Vegan Peanut Cinnamon Clusters is:
- Quick and easy to make
- Fuss-free
- Gluten-free
- Refined sugar-free
- Fiber-rich
- Made with natural ingredients
- Crunchy
- Nutty
- Not too sweet
- Super tasty!
- Healthier and better than regular candy!
More easy recipes for vegan sweet snacks
- Bliss Balls Nut-Nougat
- Bounty Bars
- Coconut Balls (Raffaello)
- Hazelnut Truffles (Rocher)
- Peanut Chocolate Bars (Snickers)
- Kinder Milchschnitten
- Pecan Pie Bars
- Nut Corners
- Almond Horns
- Granola Bars
- Apple Hand Pies
- Granola Cups
If you try this easy vegan recipe for peanut butter bars, feel free to leave me a comment and a star rating! And if you take a photo of your treats and share it on Instagram, please tag me @biancazapatka and use the hashtag #biancazapatka because I love seeing your creations! Enjoy! 🙂
Peanut Cinnamon Clusters
Author:You do not have a fitting cake pan at hand right now? Try my Cake Pan Conversion Calculator!
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups (225 g) roasted peanuts unsalted, or sub other nuts (*see notes)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¾ tsp salt
- 4 tbsp puffed quinoa or other ingredients (*see notes)
- 3 tbsp (40 g) peanut butter or other nut butter (*see notes)
- ⅓ cup (80 g) rice syrup or dandelion honey
Instructions
*Note: Feel free to check out the recipe video + step-by-step pictures at the top of the post!
- Preheat the oven to 356 °F (180 °C) and line a 8x8-Inch (20x20 cm) baking pan with parchment paper.
- Coarsely chop the peanuts in a food processor or with a sharp knife, then place in a bowl. Add the cinnamon, salt and quinoa and mix everything together. Then add peanut butter and rice syrup and mix everything with a spatula until you get a sticky mixture.
- Transfer the nut mixture into the prepared baking pan, spread it evenly with the spatula and press it firmly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until the top is golden brown (if you bake the mixture on the tray and it is flatter, it will be ready faster. Therefore, please keep an eye on it so it doesn't get too dark).
- Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. Then carefully lift out of the pan and cut into pieces of desired size with a sharp knife. Allow to cool completely and then enjoy!
Notes
- Nuts & nut butter: You can also use other varieties like almonds, cashews, macadamia, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc. or combine different varieties. Seeds are also great!
- Quinoa: You can also use puffed amaranth, cacao nibs or dried fruit pieces instead.
- Cinnamon & Salt: Feel free to use other flavors and spices like vanilla, chai spice, pumpkin spice, etc. - Get creative!
- Chocolate: If you like, you can dip the nut clusters in some melted chocolate at the end.
- More information and helpful tips for making this recipe are mentioned in the blog post above!
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I made the recipe to the exact measurements and flattened it out in a baking tray. Mine was slightly over 8 inches so was probably a little flatter. When cutting the slices once cooled the mixture was very crumbly and more like granola. I would only get around 12 slices as well. I have cut them slightly and put them in the fridge overnight to set. If they are still crumbly I will use it for granola instead. Lovely ingredients but I don’t know how you got yours to stick together into bars and how you managed to get 36 slices. Thank you for the recipe. I am sure it will taste lovely once set.
Hi Rebecca,
I used an 8×8-inch pan. These “clusters” are very small so I cut it into 36 small squares as you cam see in the video. It’s important to press the mixure firmly into the pan to ensure it sticks together. I recommend watching the recipe video before you try it again! 🙂
Greetings,
Bianca
Hi, Could I use puffed rice instead of the quinoa? This looks like a good recipe, very tasty!
Sure! 🙂