Happy Valentine’s Day! I like a good pun, so making date bars for Valentine’s Day was a no-brainer. Dates are nature’s candy(or is that beets?) and their flavor is as sweet as the sweetest valentine. I’ve also been wanting to make these for a while and being out of cocoa powder seemed like a sign. I love the flavor of almonds in the shortbread crust; if I made these again I’d definitely add nuts on top for a more intense flavor.

Almond Butter Date Bars

Ingredient:

• 1 cup dates, diced
• 1/4 brown sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 3/4 almond butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour(I used gluten-free)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• coconut flakes(optional)
• chopped nuts(optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To make the filling, combine the dates, brown sugar, and water in a sauce pan. Boil until the water has evaporated and the dates are soft and mushy. Add more water if necessary.

In a separate bowl, combine the almond butter, sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and egg and mix until it makes a coarse and crumbly dough.

Press 2/3rds of the dough into a greased 8×8 baking pan.

Spread on the filling mixture in an even coating.

Sprinkle on the remaining dough in crumbs. Mix in any nuts or coconut if using.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the topping starts to brown.

These were soft and crumbly, and definitely sweet enough with the date filling. The cinnamon added a good earthiness to balance the almond butter. Like I said, if I made these again I’d add coconut and hazelnuts on top. Maybe next Valentine’s Day; nuts are great on Valentine’s Day(I told you I liked puns).

I’m usually not an impulse shopper. I always take a list to the grocery store and would rather wait to buy a book on sale at Amazon than pay the full price at a Barnes & Nobles. Hell, I’m so cheap I’m waiting for The Social Network to play on TBS to see it. But I have my weaknesses.

Dandies brand vegan marshmallows were on sale at Whole Foods and I threw them in my cart out of habit. How could I not? They were a dollar off. Never mind that I don’t care for regular marshmallows—it was a bargain.

When I asked Twitter what to do with marshmallows, a resounding number of people said s’mores. Now, I’m not the biggest s’more fan(shocking, I know), but add peanut butter and I wouldn’t complain. Slowly but surely that lead to these bars, which are about as rich and sweet as you can imagine a dessert to be. Besides being incredibly delicious, they’re no-bake and took me about 20 minutes from start to finish. So put on a fire, make some hot cocoa, and start baking(or not).

No-Bake Peanut Butter S’mores Bars

For the crust:

• 16 graham crackers or 8oz graham crackers crumbs
• 3 tablespoons butter(or non-dairy alternative such as Earth Balance)
• 6 tablespoons natural style peanut butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

For the filling:

• 1/3 cup natural style peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons butter(or non-dairy alternative such as Earth Balance)
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup mini-marshmallows, or 1 cup regular marshmallows cut into bite-sized pieces

For the top:

• 6oz(about 3/4 cup) chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon butter(or non-dairy alternative such as Earth Balance)

Melt together the butter and peanut butter until it’s thin and creamy.

Break the graham crackers to coarse crumbs. You might want to use a food process for this. In a large bowl, add the peanut butter mixture to the graham cracker crumbs and sift in the powdered sugar. Work the dough until the ingredients have come together and press it into an 8×8 pan.

To make the filling, melt together the peanut butter and butter again. Sift in the powdered sugar, and pour the mixture over your crust. Spread it out to cover all parts. Next, press in the marshmallows over all parts of the filling.

Lastly, for the top, melt together the chocolate chips and butter. Pour it on top of the dessert in an even layer. The less you have to spread it to cover all parts, the better. Put this in the refrigerator to harden. Cut cold and serve at room temperature for best results.

This is everything a dessert should be: rich, sweet, chocolate and peanut butter. It’s really hard not to want to eat the whole pan. You can use different brands of graham crackers to make it gluten-free and/or vegan depending on who you’re making these for. And no one will leave disappointed.