Copycat RX Bars Chocolate and Sea Salt

by Nick Evans on February 5, 2024
4.45 from 34 votes
1 hour 15 minutes

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Copycat RX Bars - Chocolate and Sea Salt

My kids and I have all become addicted to RX Bars. They are so easy to eat on the go. I thought I would try to make Copycat RX Bars for healthy snacks!

Jump to section:

What are RX Bars?
What Nuts to use for RX Bars?
The Protein Source: Egg White Protein
Finishing the Copycat RX Bars
Cost Comparison Between Bars
Storing the bars for later
Copycat RX Bars – Chocolate and Sea Salt

I’m constantly on the hunt for easy, high-protein snacks for my kids and for myself. There was a phase when I was crushing RX Bars every day – specifically the black chocolate and sea salt bars. Ya, these ones. The only problem I have with this is that they are very expensive. HA! So, I figured I’d try to make some Copycat RX Bars and see how close I could get and maybe save a little coin in the process.

Luckily, the bars conveniently print the recipe on the label. The bars are basically a mix of dates, nuts, chocolate, and egg whites for protein.

The RX Bars that I’ve fallen for tend to run about $2/bar in the store. So if I have one for an after-workout snack and give my kids one to split, that’s $4 in snacks!

So, let’s see if we can improve!

What are RX Bars?

If you aren’t familiar with RX Bars, they are a specific brand of protein bar that is made with whole ingredients. They don’t have a lot of fillers or strange ingredients.

I picked them for a base for my homemade protein bars because I could easily read and understand the ingredients and the flavor profiles were easy to duplicate.

The homemade version of these RX Bars checks a lot of dietary boxes as well. They are gluten-free, vegan, and dairy-free. They are a great source of protein and good, healthy fats as well.

What Nuts to use for RX Bars?

The nice thing about making these is you can use whatever nuts you want really. The wrapper recommends cashews. I used a mix of almonds and cashews.

I decided to process all my nuts so I would have a smoother bar. You could leave some of the nuts in pieces to give a chunkier texture (that’s what RX bars do).

My Big boy food processor is packed away in the depths of my dungeon basement at the moment so I just had this little one to work with. It turned the nuts into a coarse meal rather than a smooth flour. Worked okay, but you could get them finer if you had a better food processor.

The Protein Source: Egg White Protein

The wrapper for the RX Bars lists egg whites as the primary protein ingredient. I thought about trying these with actual egg whites but it would just be too wet of a mixture, which you would then have to bake. UGH.

Instead, I used egg white protein! This mixes easily into the bars. Only downside: EXPENSE. This jar ran me about $30 and was the most expensive thing in the bars by far.

This is a big jar though and I can get 4-5 batches of bars out of it.

I mixed the protein powder with the processed nuts. Looking good.

Finishing the Copycat RX Bars

Next up for these bars: DATES! I love using dates in bars and snacks. They add some great natural sweetness and work as a binder for the bars. Make sure to get fresh ones though that have lots of moisture in them. If you use months-old dates from your pantry, they will probably be on the dry side.

Ideally, you want to pulse the dates and dry stuff together into a paste. I had to do this in a bunch of batches due to my tiny food processor. It still worked though!

My final version was much too dry to stick together but I could tell it just needed a little liquid to get there.

I stirred in my cocoa powder and then added some almond milk and the dough came together beautifully!

Dough for RX Bars. — Actually delicious.

This was really good at this point!

To finish the Copycat RX Bars, just press the mixture into a baking dish lined with wax paper. Sprinkle liberally with coarse sea salt.

Want an even more economical after-school protein snack option? Try these easy after school protein bars or my S’Mores Energy Balls!

I found these easiest to cut after letting them rest in the fridge for about an hour. Then you can chop them up and wrap them individually in wax paper.

The texture of my homemade protein bars turned out much different than the original RX bars. The original bars have a really smooth consistency with big chunks of nuts while mine were a more even texture. This is actually personal preference. My kids prefer the ones without huge chunks. I liked both.

Also, I added way more salt than in the original because salt = delicious.

Cost Comparison Between Bars

I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation on these bars and my bars worked out to about $1.40-$1.50/bar. The ingredients in the bars are still pretty pricy! Nuts are expensive, dates are expensive, and egg white protein is REALLY expensive.

If you wanted to get the price down, you could use a different protein powder and a cheaper nut, like peanuts. That would knock a lot off the price.

As-is though, I loved these bars and they were easy to make and would’ve been even easier if I had a big food processor!

Dive in and make some RX Bars!

Storing the bars for later

While the original RX bars are shelf-stable, the homemade version is not. You should store these in the fridge for up to two weeks.

You can also wrap tightly and freeze these bars for up to three months. Thaw them on the counter before eating or toss them in your bag to thaw while you are on the go.