How To Make These Granola Bars Without Oats
Using a large flake-like cereal is mandatory, otherwise, your snack bars will fall apart.
I used gluten-free rolled oats, which also ensured a thick, chewy and hearty texture. Avoid using quick oats or steel cut oats.
If you cannot tolerate rolled oats, you can substitute it for quinoa flakes or buckwheat flakes.
Storage And Food Safety
The granola bars can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for about one week. Separate layers with parchment paper to avoid the bars sticking together.
The granola bars can also be frozen for up to three months. Simply wrap single bars in parchment paper and store them in the freezer in a sealed freezer bag or container. Defrost at room temperature prior to eating.
See guidelines at USDA.gov for instructions on the safe handling of fresh ingredients.
How Do You Get Homemade Granola Bars To Stick Together
Pressing the mixture firmly into the pan is key to getting the granola bars to stick together after they are cut. Use your hands or the back of a measuring cup to press tother well. Once in the pan, freeze to set. This will help when youre ready to cut the bars.
Love peanut butter and chocolate? Check out my Reeses peanut butter cup cookies, and my BEST Monster Cookie Recipe.
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What Do I Need To Make Homemade Granola Bars
Heres a quick-reference grocery list of the ingredients youll need to make these no bake granola bars:
- Creamy peanut butter, good quality with minimal ingredients. Look peanut butters that include just nuts and salt and without added sugar or oils. Smuckers Natural creamy peanut butter is a great option, and includes just salt and peanuts.
- Sweetener: either honey or maple syrup. I tested these with both honey and Lakanto Maple Flavored Syrup, which is refined sugar free.
- Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
- Mini Chocolate Chips I use and love Lilys Dark Chocolate Mini Baking Chips.
Are you shopping for ingredients at Target? While youre there, pick up some of my 30 Best Healthy Target Snacks for some quick and easy healthy snack options.
Granola Bar Recipe Ingredients
You only need 7 basic ingredients to make this homemade granola bar recipe:
- Natural peanut or cashew butter It helps bind the bars together, and it adds protein, healthy fats, and irresistible nutty flavor.
- Whole rolled oats They give these bars a perfect chewy texture. If youre gluten-free, make sure that you use certified gluten-free oats.
- Honey Along with the nut butter, it helps all these ingredients stick together! I love its warm amber flavor in this recipe.
- Vanilla extract It amps up the bars warm flavor.
- Sea salt To make all the rich, sweet, and nutty flavors in this recipe pop!
- Pepitas, crushed peanuts, or cashews They add healthy fats, protein, and crunch.
- Mini chocolate chips Who doesnt love nut butter and chocolate?! Be sure to use mini chocolate chips here, as regular chocolate chips are too big to make cohesive bars. If you dont have mini chocolate chips, finely chopped dark chocolate will work in their place.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
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Slice And Store Properly
Use a sharp chefs knife to slice these bars. I like to slice them into squares. Another option would be to slice them into bars like this. I think the squares are a little more sturdy. Be sure not to stack the bars on top of each other, or they can stick. You can store them flat, covered, or wrap them individually in plastic wrap or parchment paper.
Please let me know how your granola bars turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
- Total Time:20 minutes
- Yield:16 bars 1x
How To Make Vegan No Bake Granola Bars:
Follow the recipe with these modifications:
- Use melted coconut oil in place of the butter
- Choose maple syrup instead of honey
- Use a vegan chocolate chip
Done and done.
Also, if you dont have a house full of hungry kids who want snacks all day long, you can make a half batch of this recipe.
Just halve all of the ingredients and use an 8×4 bread pan instead of the 8×8 pan. After they set up in the fridge, you can slice into 6 bars. Everything else is the same.
Finally, lets discuss storing the extras.
I mean, youre probably going to want to chow down on 2 or 3 of these in a setting, but youll likely have a few leftover. I hope so.
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Tips For The Perfect Muesli Bars
Quick and easy to make, quicker and easier to polish off the batch. I promise you will want another batch as soon as theyre gone!
Are Granola Bars Good For You
Granola bars are generally considered to be a healthy snack, but the picture is mixed. Yes, they contain lots of healthy unprocessed or minimally processed fiber-rich foods, such as the oats, nuts, and coconut. Also, many nutritionists recommend eating a small number of nuts each day!
However, granola bars do contain plenty of added sugar that is necessary to bind the ingredients together. And as we all know, theres nothing especially healthy about added sugar in any form, whether granulated or syrup, so dont overdo the sweet stuff in your overall diet.
There are other ways you can make your granola bars healthier. For instance, if preservative-free is your goal, then ensure the ingredients youre adding meet this requirement. You can also try substituting peanut butter for the butter, and cut back a tiny bit on the amount of sugar and honey.
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Minute No Bake Granola Bars
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No Bake Granola Bars are so easy youll never buy expensive breakfast bars again. This easy recipe is made with granola, dried fruit and nuts, these make a great healthy grab and go snack for busy mornings!
Have your kids grab a make-ahead egg muffin, healthy breakfast cookies, peanut butter oatmeal bars or one of these on their way out the door and they can munch them on the way to school.
Blueberry = Master Mix + Almonds + Cup Dried Blueberries + Cup Shredded Coconut
Notes: I’m obsessed with dried blueberries right now! You can get really tasty ones at Trader Joe’s , and I also bought a bag of unsweetened ones from Bob’s Red Mill online and had them mailed to my house. These were very hard but still delicious. In an effort to soften them up a bit I tossed them in the butter mixture on the stove and let them sit in the hot liquid for about 10 minutes which worked fine. You can use traditional shredded sweetened coconut or you can buy shredded unsweetened coconut, both were delicious, though I like the texture of the unsweetened coconut better.
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How To Make Granola Bars
This granola bars recipe goes from start to finish in a flash. No prepping, and very little clean up too! Similar to Extra Chewy Rice Krispie Treats, simply heat, cool and eat!
Cool and then cut into squares and serve or store.
Want to switch things up? You can substitute to your hearts content here! Add raisins, dried cranberries or any other dried fruit. Try sunflower seeds, pepitas, or other nuts could in these no-bake breakfast bars. Dark chocolate chips are another optional add-in, or peanut butter!
Sunflower Pecan = Master Mix + Almonds + Cup Sunflower Seeds + Cup Candy Coated Sunflower Seeds + Cup Shredded Coconut
- You can use cup honey and ¼ cup brown sugar in this recipe if you like a stronger honey flavor.
- I’m 90% sure you could replace the brown sugar with coconut sugar though I haven’t tried it yet.
- These store super well in the fridge or freezer.
- If you are going to add chocolate, you’ll want to wait until the hot honey and oat mixture cools a little bit and is closer to room temperature or all the chocolate chips will melt .
- Toasting the nuts and oats is optional but it makes the granola bars taste like cookies. I highly recommend it.
- I tried a batch with coconut oil in place of the butter and it turned out great though they seemed to not hold together as well.
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No Bake Granola Bar Mix
If youre wondering what mix-ins go with homemade granola bars, the answer is anything you love!
Here are a few options to consider along with my all-time favorite ingredient combination. Use up to 1 1/4 cups total.
- Dried fruit, like cranberries, raisins, cherries, or apricots. Chop if larger than a dime.
- Mini chocolate chips.
- Sunflower seeds, chia seeds, or hemp seeds.
- Slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, pecans, or pistachios.
My Favorite Combo. 1/4 cup dried cranberries, 1/4 chopped dried cherries or raisins, 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips, 1/4 cup chopped pecans or almonds, and either 1/4 cup sunflower seeds or other nuts.
Granola Bar Recipe Tips
- Use runny nut butter. Look for natural cashew or peanut butter with a smooth consistency to make this recipe, not the dry, stiff stuff that you might find at the bottom of a jar. If your nut butter is too dry or thick, it wont bind the oats, chocolate chips, and nuts or seeds into cohesive bars. Use creamy nut butter, not crunchy.
- Dont cut the chilling time short. Its tempting to slice and eat these bars as soon as you press the oat mixture into the pan, but in order for them to be chewy and cohesive, they really need to chill. Pop the pan in the fridge for at least one hour before slicing and eating the bars.
- Store them in the fridge or freezer. Once you slice the bars, cover the pan and store it in the fridge, or transfer the bars to an airtight container. I recommend storing them with a sheet of parchment paper between layers so that the bars dont stick together. Theyll keep for up to a week in the fridge, but you can also freeze them for up to 2 months. I like to eat these granola bars straight out of the fridge, but if theyre frozen, let them thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes before you eat.
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How To Store Homemade Granola Bars
These granola bars can keep at room temperature, in a sealed container. However, they tend to remain soft and will be quite sticky in texture.
To combat this, keep your granola bars refrigerated, as they will remain firm and also keep longer- They will last up to 2 weeks!
These granola bars are also freezer friendly and can be kept frozen for up to 6 months.
More No Bake Snack Recipes
Easy Homemade Granola Bar Recipes
8 easy homemade granola bar recipes that come together in a snap. These easy no bake healthy snacks are made with oats, honey, nut butter, and EIGHT different flavor mix-in’s so that you can make your dream granola bar every time.
Homemade granola bars are awesome! They taste delicious, they travel well, they are just plain easy to make, and they are inexpensive. Need a snack for preschool, after t-ball, or to take in the car to a game? Granola bars will be there, no matter the need! This recipe makes perfectly chewy granola bars.
What you’ll love the most is that this post includes a basic granola bar recipe that you can turn into 8 different types of granola bars, all of which are amazing!
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Why To Use Brown Rice Syrup
I try my best to use regular pantry ingredients in my recipes, but this is one case when using brown rice syrup really adds a deliciously chewy texture and helps the ingredients hold together nicely. I live in a small town and can find it in my regular grocery stores near the sugar or agave and it usually costs under $5 for a jar.
One 21-ounce jar will make two batches of these bars. You can also order it online, though its often more expensive . An opened jar lasts for months in the fridge so you can use it again whenever youre ready.
TIP: My Soft-Baked Granola Bars are another easy option if you dont have or cant find brown rice syrup.
Why Are Conventional Granola Bars Unhealthy
Granola and pre-packaged granola bars commonly make the list of secretly unhealthy foods for good reason. The problem with most granola bars on shelves today is that they are not made of healthy, whole-food ingredients. Instead, they are loaded with refined sugars and unhealthy fats yet low in fiber, healthy fat and vital nutrients. The source of sugar in many conventional granola bars is often health hazardous high fructose corn syrup.
The high sugar content of most granola bars, even many homemade granola bar recipes, is something you really want to avoid for the sake of your health. Consuming too much sugar is well-known to lead to weight gain, inflammation and even wrinkles plus negative health effects for your teeth, joints, liver, kidney, pancreas, and heart.
Conventional granola bars are also known for containing unhealthy partially hydrogenated oils, which means they contain trans fat. This is a highly concerning ingredient since trans fat increase LDL cholesterol in the body while lowering HDL cholesterol.
This recipe completely skips the refined sugars and gets its sweetness from raw, organic honey and dark chocolate chips. These bars wouldnt be the same if they were totally unsweetened plus the honey helps to bind the ingredients together. If youre not a fan of honey, molasses is another natural sweetener with a similar consistency to help hold the bars together.
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Ingredient No Bake Healthy Granola Bars
These healthy granola bars are an easy no bake recipe that can be customized with your favorite add-ins. They take only about 10 minutes to make and are a delicious snack. The recipe is easy enough that you can also make it with kids.
Back-to-school may be looking a little different this year, but snacks are still needed. Granola bars are a go-to snack in my house, so I love making my own whenever possible. What I love about these is that they are super easy to make, dont require baking and can be customized with various dried fruits, nuts, chocolate, or whatever you prefer in your granola bars.
Healthy No Bake Granola Bars
Healthy no bake granola bars take just 10 minutes to prep and are so chewy and delicious! Theyre great for an anytime of day healthy snack.
This post is sponsored by Bobs Red Mill. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
We had a quiet weekend at home, and while thats been most weekends the last few months, I was really feeling it.
I cleaned out some old toys, finally took our donations in, fixed up our bird feeder and started a paint-by-numbers painting my mom gave me. We also played some board games, took some walks/bike rides, watched some movies and made some tasty meals in the kitchen. Good times!
But alright already. Lets talk food.
Now, we love and adore my ultimate homemade granola bars, which really are the best ever.
Ive made those on repeat for YEARS, including the day after I came home from the hospital after giving birth to my second child. Couldnt go without.
BUT. Sometimes you want an easier, no-fuss and especially no oven recipe to satisfy those granola bar needs.
Particularly in summertime, which gets awfully hot here in the South.
And so, enter these healthy no bake granola bars, which are chewy and perfectly sweet and just awesome for an afternoon pick-me-up.
Theyve got a bit of peanut butter and chocolate, which is one of my favorite combos, and they have a great texture.
And they set up and hold together so well. You can grab one to go or have a quiet moment and savor.
Either way, snacking never had it so good!
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