These vegan and grain-free key lime pie bars have a cool silky texture atop a sweet, crumbly and buttery grain-free crust. They skip the butter, refined sugar, condensed milk, egg yolks and heavy whipping cream for healthier vegan ingredients. This dessert offers plant-based protein, fiber and healthy fats all while staying true to the sweet, tangy taste and creamy, airy texture you would expect from key lime pie.
Vegan & Grain-Free Key Lime Pie Bars
Avocados in the Key Lime Pie Bars
How to Select and Store Avocados
Looking for more key lime pie flavored recipes?
If you love key lime pie flavored treats be sure to check out my Key Lime Pie Pudding Parfaits and my Healthy & Creamy Key Lime Pie Popsicles. Both are vegan and gluten-free.
Now, let’s make Vegan Grain-Free Key Lime Pie Bars!
This Vegan Grain-Free Key Lime Pie Bars recipe will be an instant favorite to serve for an easy dessert. It is vegan, gluten-free, grain-free, paleo and refined sugar-free.
I cannot wait for you to give this Key Lime Pie Bar recipe a try!
Vegan Grain-Free Key Lime Pie Bars
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These vegan and grain-free key lime pie bars have a cool silky texture atop a sweet, crumbly and buttery grain-free crust. They skip the butter, refined sugar, condensed milk, egg yolks and heavy whipping cream for healthier vegan ingredients. This dessert offers plant-based protein, fiber and healthy fats all while staying true to the sweet, tangy taste and creamy, airy texture you would expect from key lime pie.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 ½ cups super-fine blanched almond flour
- 3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil, melted
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
For the filling:
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in advance if possible. Learn more about How (and Why!) to Soak Cashews in this post.
- ½ cup coconut cream from 1 (15 ounce) chilled can of full-fat coconut milk*
- 1 California avocado
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2-3 juicy limes, juiced (¼ cup lime juice) - reserve one lime for zesting and juicing
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot starch
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch of fine salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl stir together the almond flour, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla and salt until well combined. Transfer this mixture to the parchment-lined baking pan. Top with another piece of parchment paper and use the bottom of a cup to flatten the mixture so it is in one even layer covering the entire bottom of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before adding the filling.
- While the pie crust bakes and cools, prepare the filling. Add soaked cashews, coconut cream, avocado, maple syrup, lime zest, lime juice, arrowroot starch, vanilla and salt to a high speed blender. Blend on the highest speed for one minute. Scrape down the sides if needed and re-blend to make sure everything is fully incorporated. Pour overtop the cooled pie crust and place the baking pan on a flat surface in your freezer. Allow to freeze for four hours before slicing and enjoying. If the bars have been in your freezer for longer than four hours you may need to allow them to soften at room temperature for a couple minutes before slicing and enjoying. The bars will start to melt a little bit at room temperature after about 20 minutes so store them in your freezer until just before you plan to serve.
- You can top them off with homemade coconut whipped cream for an airy, sweet, cool and creamy finish. I sprinkled lime zest on top and garnished each bar with a fresh lime slice just to make them look extra fancy.
Notes
* Place a can of full-fat coconut milk in your refrigerator 24 hours in advance of making this recipe. When you open the can the solid white coconut cream will naturally float to the top of the can (leaving the coconut water at the bottom of the can). Use a spoon to carefully separate the solid white coconut cream from the coconut water below it. This recipe only uses the white coconut solid portion. You can save the coconut water for smoothies.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven + Freezer
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: key lime pie
This recipe is sponsored by the California Avocado Commission. All writing and opinions are my own.
Julia says
Hi there! These look delicious and I was planning on making these later this week. I was wondering if you knew about how many grams your avocado weighed? We got avocados from the store but they seem to be pretty small and I was debating whether I’d need to use two!
Elaine Gordon says
Hi Julie, Great question! I have not weighed them but typically I use medium to large avocados in my recipes... never small. So yes, I would say go ahead and double it. It really shouldn't throw the recipe off. Eager to hear what you think! This is a favorite summer dessert of mine! 🙂 Best, Elaine
Mary says
My friend cannot eat dairy or coconut. What can I use in place of coconut cream? Thanks!
Elaine Gordon says
Hi, Mary: I haven't tested this one with anything else. You could maybe try leaving it out and increasing the cashews by 1/4 cup of so. The cashew cream is solid when frozen so it helps the filling stay together and gives it an extra creamy fluffy texture. But, LMK if you give it a try how it goes for you. Thank you, Elaine