Of all the candy out there, normally almond joy would not be my first choice. Not because I don’t like them, but I have just never really had them that often. I’m not sure why I haven’t discovered the amazing combination of flavors sooner. Chocolate, coconut, and almond together makes for a delicious dessert.
The real motive behind making this recipe was my mom. She said that she wanted me to make a recipe that had almond in it. I also know that she really likes coconut, so these almond joy protein cheesecake bars were perfect. It just so happens that her birthday was on Tuesday, so it was nice that I could make them specially for her!
The crust for the cheesecake was really easy to make and not high in fat like most. It was just shredded coconut, coconut flour, whole wheat flour, and applesauce. That coconut flour helps give some good fiber in each bar. Really, overall this whole recipe was much lower in fat and lower calorie than normal cheesecake. In fact, there wasn’t even any cream cheese at all but it still tasted just like a full fat cheesecake!
In the filling, I used cottage cheese and Greek yogurt instead of cream cheese. I also added some vanilla protein powder. The Greek yogurt and cottage cheese combined with the protein powder gave each bar 13 grams of protein. You can definitely not feel any guilt when you eat this cheesecake! I even ate a bunch of the batter when I was making it. It was just too good!
After letting the cheesecake sit in the refrigerator overnight, I melted milk chocolate and dark chocolate together and poured it over top. While the chocolate was still a little gooey and war, I sprinkled some chopped almonds and coconut to give it an awesome almond joy flavor.
Almond Joy Protein Cheesecake Bars
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 5 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Yield: 8 bars 1x
Description
These healthy almond joy protein cheesecake bars are packed with delicious almond and coconut flavor and topped with melted chocolate, shredded coconut, and sliced almonds.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1/4 cup (28g) coconut flour
- 1/4 cup (30g) whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup (30g) unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup (113g) natural applesauce
Filling
- 1 1/2 cups (340g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 3/4 cup (168g) reduced fat cottage cheese
- 2 large whole eggs
- 1/2 cup granulated stevia or erythritol
- 1 scoop (34g) MusclePharm vanilla combat protein powder
- 2 tbsp. (16g) sugar free cheesecake pudding mix
- 1/2 tsp. almond exract*
- 1 tsp. coconut extract
Topping
- 2 tbsp. (35g) sugar free dark chocolate chunks**
- 2 tbsp. (35g) sugar free milk chocolate chunks**
- 2 tbsp. (14g) almonds, chopped
- 1 tbsp. (5g) shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275F.Spray a 6×8 baking dish with nonstick spray. Add all crust ingredients to a food processor. Process until ingredients are blended together and make a thick dough consistency. Add dough to baking dish and flatten out evenly with a spoon to make the crust. Bake for about 5 minutes.
- Clean out food processor. Add Greek yogurt, cotage cheese, and eggs. Blend until smooth. Add stevia, protein powder, and pudding mix. Process again. Lastly, add almond and coconut extract and process until smooth. Pour batter into baking dish on top of crust. Tap the bottom of the dish against the counter a few times to get out any air bubbles.
- Bake cheesecake for about 1 hour and 5 minutes. Once done, take out of oven and let completely cool for a couple hours. Then put cheesecake in fridge to set overnight.
- After cheesecake has chilled overnight, melt chocolate chunks in the microwave. Spread melted chocolate evenly over the top. While chocolate is still a little warm, sprinkle chopped almonds and shredded coconut over the top.
- Slice into 8 bars and enjoy!
Notes
Notes
*Use 1/4 tsp. almond extract if you prefer more cooconut flavor than almond.
** You can use whatever kind of chocolate you prefer for the topping.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 200
- Sugar: 4
- Fat: 9
- Carbohydrates: 19
- Fiber: 4
- Protein: 13