Healthy Lime Pie Bars
Healthy Lime Pie Bars: A Delicious Dairy Free Treat
Cookie Crust Ingredients for Healthy Lime Pie Bars
The no bake cookie crust for these lime pie bars are made from a combination of real food ingredients instead of traditional graham crackers and refined sugar.
For the crust you will need:
- Whole raw cashews
- Dates
- Almond flour
- Cinnamon
- Vanilla extract
- Sea salt.
The dates give the crust its sweetness and break down when added to a food processor to form a sticky sweet crust. The pinch of sea salt helps to balance out the sweetness for the perfect flavor.
A Perfect Sweet Yet Tart Vegan Lime Filling
These bars get their creamy texture from whole cashews! When soaked and blended, the cashews break down to form a creamy filling that is completely dairy free. With the addition of a few more ingredients, they create a delicious filling that tastes like lime pie.
Here is what you’ll need for the key lime filling:
- Soaked Cashews: Let your whole cashews soak overnight in water to get that perfect creamy texture.
- Full Fat Coconut Milk: Use canned full fat coconut to help give the filling the right amount of creaminess.
- Lime Juice: Of course, you can’t have lime pie without fresh lime juice. The amount of lime juice depends on how tart you like your lime pie. I like to start with ¼ a cup and add an additional ¼ cup at a time until it’s the desired tartness you prefer. Usually ¼ a cup to ½ a cup of lime juice should do the trick.
- Maple Syrup: These bars are naturally sweetened with pure maple syrup. Feel free to use a bit more if you like things on the sweeter side.
- Vanilla Extract: An obvious addition that adds just the right amount of maple flavor.
- Coconut Oil: Coconut oil helps to solidify the bars once cooled.
How to Make These Easy Lime Pie Bars
Step One: The first step in making these key lime pie bars is to soak the cashews in water overnight. Soaking the cashews helps to soften them and gives the key lime filling a nice creamy texture.
If you do not have time to soak the cashews overnight, you can pour boiling hot water over them and let the cashews soak for three to four hours until tender. The filling might not be as smooth and creamy, but it will still work.
Step Two: Add the crust ingredients to a food processor and pulse until a sticky dough forms. Use your fingers to press the dough into an 8×8 baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Put the crust in the fridge or freezer while you prepare the key lime filling.
Step Three: Add the soaked cashews, lime juice, lime zest, maple syrup, coconut oil, coconut milk, and vanilla extract to your food process or high powered blender. Blend the filling until silky smooth and creamy. You want to make sure that there are no lumps or bits of cashew remaining in the filling. Next, give the filling a taste and adjust it based on your tastes. This is the perfect time to add more lime juice if you like your key lime pie to be more tart or add more maple syrup if you want the bars to be a bit sweeter.
Step Four: Once the filling tastes how you want it to taste, pour it over the prepared crust crust.
Step Five: Freeze the lime pie bars overnight or until completely solid. When you are ready to serve, remove the bars from the freezer and sprinkle with a little extra lime zest. Then, use a sharp knife to slice the bars into 9 or 16 pieces. Serve and enjoy!
Tips, Tricks, and Storage Details
These bars are incredibly easy to make but here are a few of my favorite tips and tricks to make sure that they come out absolutely perfect every time!
- Use fresh lime juice! The bottled shelf-stable stuff is not going to work for this recipe.
- Do not forget to remove the pits from your dates before adding them to the food processor.
- Do not over process the crust. It should be sticky, similar to a cookie dough, not smooth like a nut butter.
- Let the bars freeze until they are completely solid before slicing. It will be tempting to dive in right away but freezing them until firm makes the bars much easier to slice.
- Store these bars in the freezer. I like to freeze them completely and then add them to a storage bag. When you are ready to eat, pull one bar out at a time for a few minutes before you are ready to eat.
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