Tahini Hemp Seed Bars
These baked vegan tahini hemp seed bars are easy to make and have the most amazing chewy texture and sweet, nutty, sesame flavour. Perfect for a whole-food snack or dessert!
Recipe Features
- Dietary Needs: Vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free, nut-free and oil-free.
- Quick and Easy: You’ll need just 6 ingredients and a few minutes of prep time
- Travel well: Perfect for a lunchbox, road trip, hiking or camping
- Crisp on the edges with a delicious soft and chewy on the inside.
Ingredient Notes
- Tahini. Good tahini will be wonderfully creamy with a nutty flavour that’s not overly bitter. Look for tahini with just one ingredient: sesame seeds.
- Hemp seeds. High in protein, iron, vitamin E and antioxidants, hemp seeds really pack the nutrition into these bars. Hemp seeds are sometimes called hemp hearts.
- Coconut. Use unsweetened fine or medium shredded coconut. It may be labeled as desiccated coconut.
- Maple syrup. The maple syrup acts as a binder and sweetens the recipe. You can substitute agave or brown rice syrup but I wouldn’t recommend switching to a granular sweetener.
- Dates. Soft, moist dates are best for this recipe. I recommend medjool or sayer dates. If your dates are very dry, soak them in hot water for 15 minutes then drain well before using, however, I recommend using dates that are nice and soft.
- Oats. Use quick, rolled or old fashioned oats. The oats will be processed into a grainy oat flour so any oat variety except steel cut oats works.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1. Blend the oats into a coarse, grainy flour in your food processor.
They don’t have to be as fine as oat flour but they should be mostly broken down. This should only take a few seconds.
Step 2. Add the rest of the ingredients and process into a thick dough.
You have a couple of ingredients for mixing the dough. If you have a large food processor you can toss everything in and pulse a few times to combine.
If not, add the dates to the oats and blend to combine, then transfer to a mixing bowl and mix with the rest of the ingredients.
Firmly press the dough into a baking pan, bake, cool for 15 minutes then slice and enjoy!
Notes
- Storage: Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or freeze in a container or freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.
- Tahini: Can be substituted with peanut butter, almond butter or sunflower seed butter.
- I would recommend lining your baking dish with parchment paper for easy removal.
Related Recipes
- Salted Caramel Tahini Cups
- Tahini Date Cookies
- No-Bake Cashew Tahini Bars
- Chocolate Tahini Energy Bars
- No-Bake Superfood Energy Bars
- Easy Vegan Tahini Sesame Cookies
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
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Tahini Hemp Seed Bars
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 16
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These crowd-pleasing homemade nut and seed bars have the most amazing, chewy texture and sweet, nutty flavour. You will love these for a healthy dessert or snack anytime!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (100 g) quick or rolled oats
- 1 cup (160 g) hemp seeds
- 1 cup packed (220 g), pitted soft dates
- 1/2 cup (50 g) unsweetened fine shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup (120 g) tahini
- 1/4 cup (75 g) maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Place the oats in a food processor or high-speed blender and pulse a few times to create a grainy oat flour. I prefer to use a food processor here.
- You have a couple of options for mixing the rest of the ingredients. If you have a large food processor, add everything to the oats and blend until fully combined. If not, you can add the dates to the oats and blend to combine, then transfer to a bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients by hand.
- Prepare a 7-8 inch square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or line with parchment paper so it sticks out over the edge. Parchment is best so you can easily lift the bars out of the pan once baked.
- Press the dough into the pan, taking a few minutes to press it into all corners and getting it as flat as you can.
- Bake for 30 minutes then let cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes. Slice into 16 squares and carefully lift out of the pan. If you used parchment paper, you can lift the whole thing out the pan and slice on a cutting board.
Notes
Storage: Let cool then store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or freezer for up to 3 months.
Tahini: Sub with peanut butter, almond butter or sunflower seed butter.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 200
- Sugar: 15 g
- Fat: 10 g
- Carbohydrates: 24 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 5 g
Update Note: Originally published August 15, 2016. Updated with new photos and text February 2020.
Incredible but mine crumbled apart easily. Any idea what I did wrong? I live at 8,000 ft so maybe I needed more moisture?
Just wanted to remark on my earlier comment about the bars falling apart. They became firm after allowing to cool! Just needed more than 15 minutes. More like 30-45 minutes.
Thanks for following up and your feedback! Glad you enjoyed them.
Hi!
I’d love to try these but I can’t eat oats. Could I use quinoa flakes instead? Just wondering about the texture.
You should be able to, yes. I haven’t tried it though so I can’t say what the texture will be like.
Any ideas on a substitute for the coconut? Or a similar and easy recipe to try instead?
I think you can just omit it or replace with a bit of extra oats and hemp seeds. I haven’t tried it though! I don’t have else anything baked like these but some of the no-bake energy bar recipes may work for you.
Do you think this would work with steel cut oats?
I wouldn’t recommend steel cut oats for this recipe, sorry! Any other kind works though.
I’m out of regular oats! I have made this recipe a bunch of times and it’s my fav!! Guess I’ll be running to the store 🙂
I was just thinking maybe you could steel-cut if you blended them really well. I just don’t want them to be hard in the bars for you and I haven’t tried it myself. If you do end up trying it, let me know!
Loved this recipe! Easy, tasty and fun to eat. Deryn adds such helpful notes for substitutes and for alternative methods to try (for example, the “small food processor” adjustment).
I’ve made this recipe at least 50 times. It is so good, so easy. I think the quality of the result depends on the quality of the tahini. You really want good tahini. That and don’t over cook!!
I’m so glad you love them! Yes, so true…good tahini makes a big difference. Thanks for adding that!