Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 4-5 hrs Rest time: 30 mins Total time: 5-6 hrs
Servings: 6-8 bars
Make it Dairy-Free: Use animal fat other than ghee or butter
A healthier, animal-based version of the classic CRUNCH candy bar.
What you need to make Crunch Bars [with Beef]
Ingredients:
- Unsweetened chocolate
- Ground beef
- Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- Raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off); Note: I recommend local or Manuka
- Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Equipment:
- 8×8 baking pan
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper (optional, but highly recommended)
Substitutions
You can substitute the ghee for your animal fat of choice, although I do highly recommend ghee with this recipe due to its sweet and buttery flavor.
How to make Crunch Bars [with Beef]
Make the beef.
Cook the ground beef on the stovetop until done. Don’t add any fat while cooking.
Once the ground beef is cooked, drain out all of the fat.
Transfer the cooked ground beef to a plate. Pat the beef dry with a towel to soak up as much of the remaining fat as you can.
Transfer the ground beef to a baking sheet. Spread the pieces out in as thin of a layer as possible to promote even cooking.
Dehydrate the ground beef in the oven at 200 degrees for 4-5 hours. You may have to rotate the pieces while cooking. I usually swirl everything around with a fork every 30 minutes or so or when I remember. The pieces should be hard and crunchy when done. I typically keep an eye on mine at about the 2.5-hour mark.
Once the beef is fully dehydrated, remove the beef pieces from the oven and let them cool.
Make the chocolate.
Combine the ghee and unsweetened chocolate in a melt-safe bowl. Heat on low heat until fully melted.
As soon as the ghee-chocolate mixture is fully melted, remove it from the heat. Add the raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off) and sea salt. Mix well to incorporate the honey evenly – at least 60 seconds or so.
Note: If you prefer your bars on the sweeter side, add 3 tbsp of honey. If you prefer them less sweet, add 2 tbsp of honey. I added 3 tbsp to mine.
Make the bars.
Place a sheet of parchment paper in your 8×8 baking pan. Parchment paper is optional, but it makes the bars WAY easier to remove and cut.
Note: Before mixing the chocolate mixture and the dehydrated beef, make sure both are at room temperature.
Pour the beef pieces into the bowl with the chocolate and mix.
Pour the chocolate-beef mixture into the baking pan, forming an even layer.
Store the mixture in the fridge for 2-3 hours to firm it up.
Once firmed up, remove the chocolate block (you’ll thank yourself if you used parchment paper here) and cut it into bars.
Enjoy! Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days, or in the freezer for up to a few weeks.
Tips to make the best Crunch Bars [with Beef]
- After cooking the ground beef, make sure to drain out and soak up all of the fat. The less fat you start out with, the faster the beef will dehydrate in the oven.
- When dehydrating the ground beef pieces, spread them out in a thin layer and as far away from each other as possible. They will cook faster this way. This should also prevent you from having to rotate the pieces as much.
- If you prefer your bars on the sweeter side, add 3 tbsp of raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off). If you prefer them less sweet, add 2 tbsp of raw honey (ASHLEYR for 10% off).
- Before mixing the chocolate mixture and the dehydrated beef, make sure both are at room temperature.
- Add a sheet of parchment paper to the 8×8 baking pan to make your life easier when removing the chocolate block and cutting it into bars.
A few of my other favorite sweet eats:
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Blueberry Beef Liver Waffles with Honey Butter
Beef Liver Pancakes with Strawberry Glaze
Crunch Bars [with Beef]
Crunch Bars [with Beef]
Equipment
- Baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 6 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 2-3 tbsp raw honey (local or Manuka - ASHLEYR for 10% off)
- 1 tbsp grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Instructions
- If you’re interested solely in the recipe, skip this bullet point and keep on reading. For those interested in sourcing nutrient-dense food, low-toxic household products, and discounts on brands that may support your AB journey, you may find value in my product guides. Head over to this page if you’d like to check them out. All are free (and always will be).
Make the beef.
- Cook the ground beef on the stovetop until done. Don't add any fat while cooking.
- Once the ground beef is cooked, drain out all of the fat.
- Transfer the cooked ground beef to a plate. Pat the beef dry with a towel to soak up as much of the remaining fat as you can.
- Transfer the ground beef to a baking sheet. Spread the pieces out in as thin of a layer as possible to promote even cooking.
- Dehydrate the ground beef in the oven at 200 degrees for 4-5 hours. You may have to rotate the pieces while cooking. I usually swirl everything around with a fork every 30 minutes or so or when I remember. The pieces should be hard and crunchy when done. I typically keep an eye on mine at about the 2.5-hour mark.
- Once the beef is fully dehydrated, remove the beef pieces from the oven and let them cool.
Make the chocolate.
- Combine the ghee and unsweetened chocolate in a melt-safe bowl. Heat on low heat until fully melted.
- Note: If you prefer your bars on the sweeter side, add 3 tbsp of honey. If you prefer them less sweet, add 2 tbsp of honey. I added 3 tbsp to mine.
- Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I'm so happy we did!
Make the bars.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper in your 8x8 baking pan. Parchment paper is optional, but it makes the bars WAY easier to remove and cut.
- Note: Before mixing the chocolate mixture and the dehydrated beef, make sure both are at room temperature.
- Pour the beef pieces into the bowl with the chocolate and mix.
- Pour the chocolate-beef mixture into the baking pan, forming an even layer.
- Store the mixture in the fridge for 2-3 hours to firm it up.
- Once firmed up, remove the chocolate block (you'll thank yourself if you used parchment paper here) and cut it into bars.
- Enjoy! Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days, or in the freezer for up to a few weeks.
What I used for this recipe:
Looking for some more easy sweet eats? Try one of these recipes:
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Blueberry Beef Liver Waffles with Honey Butter
Beef Liver Pancakes with Strawberry Glaze
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Ashley Rothstein develops tasty, whole food, animal-based recipes that include a moderate amount of “minimally toxic” plant foods. To fix her own health issues, she bounced around between the carnivore, keto, and paleo diets for a few years. After experiencing and studying each diet philosophy, she learned she feels her best by merging the three and following an animal-based diet. As a glut at heart, she likes to channel her creativity and create meals that are healthy but also satisfy her inner gluttonous spirits.
Love it!! My grocery store sells a grass fed milk chocolate crunch bar but it’s a little pricey and uses puffed rice, which I’d rather avoid. This is such a great idea using dehydrated ground beef and I’m glad I don’t need a dehydrator for it.
Crunch bars are my favorite and this works really well. I used raw organic honey instead of manuka but it was fine. I also made a batch with some drops of lemon essential oil and one with peppermint, and it was soo tasty!
Author
Omg, peppermint oil in the crunch bars sounds dreamy! I’m going to have to try that the next time I make a batch.
Could we use keto syrup instead or would be too watery…
Author
Unfortunately I’m not sure as I’m not familiar with keto syrup. If you end up giving it a go, let me know!
I have been dying for some sort of carnivore chocolate and this hits the spot! I only needed 3 hours to dehydrate the ground beef. I would suggest pouring the ground beef into the melted chocolate bowl, mix, then pour in the baking pan.
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I did wonder why your suggested step was not part of the original recipe. I would think to do it that way too.
Author
Great idea! I’m going to revise to include your suggestion.
Question – have you ever weighed out the beef once it’s dehydrated and the fat is drained off? Wondering how much that 2 lbs would reduce to.
Author
Never weighed it, but it does reduce quite a bit. Whenever I make these next, I’ll weigh out the beef post-dehydration if I remember.
Would this recipe work with ground pork? If so, would you make any adjustments? Thanks!
Author
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with pork. It may take a little bit longer to fully dehydrate the meat since pork is pretty fatty, but other than that, don’t think you’d need to make any other adjustments.
I made these for my 6 year old daughter! Can’t wait for her to try them tomorrow. If she likes them, next time I think I’ll do 2 lbs. of beef instead of one. Maybe have the second pound be an organ blend.
Just made these today! They’re absolutely delicious and totally satisfy that chocolate craving! I will definitely be making these again! Also I never thought to dehydrate ground beef before and it was really yummy! I kept sneaking snacks of it!