Clean Chewy Nut Fruit & Dark Chocolate Granola Bar Recipe
One of the first food items I wanted to find a recipe for was granola bars. My kids eat them like they are going out of style, but after studying the back of the box I knew there had to be a better alternative. I could have probably purchased an organic version from the store, but if I make them from scratch I know exactly what’s in them and I can customize them for my family’s likes and dislikes.
With the addition of the dark chocolate chips this recipe become more of a grown up favorite than the kids. Our next batch will include dried fruit to make them a bit sweeter and appealing to the kids.
- 2 cups old fashioned oats (we used organic)
- ½ cup sunflower seeds (we used raw)
- 1 cup chopped almonds (we used raw)
- ½ cup peanuts (we were out so we used pumpkin seeds)
- ½ cup raw honey
- ⅓ cup of homemade/natural peanut butter
- 1 oz butter (we used organic)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1½ cups dried fruit (we didn't have any so we used ½ organic dark chocolate)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oats on half pan in oven for 15 minutes. Place in a bowl when done and reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
- Meanwhile, combine honey, PB, vanilla,butter, and salt in saucepan and cook on medium, stirring constantly until well-combined. Immediately pour over cooked oats. Add nuts, fruit &/or chocolate chips (chocolate will melt a tad turning the bars brown like mine): mix until well-coated.
- For fruit options think out of the box. Raisins are yummy, but so are unsweetened apricots and cranberries.
- Press mixture evenly into greased baking pan, and place in the oven for 25 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely (about an hour) before cutting into 2 inch squares.
- Make sure to store in AIR TIGHT containers for them to last about 2 weeks.
I’m going to be honest here and tell you that I messed up when making my bars. I was so excited to eat them that I neglected to put them back in the oven after I mixed everything together. The end result was somewhat like “no bake cookies” as Kaytlin pointed out. The nuts were still crunchy but they were a tad sticky from the honey.
If you decide to go ahead and bake your bars and they are turning out crumbly make sure your oven is calibrated correctly, as overcooking can lead to them breaking. Also, be sure to have a good rubber spatula to press down the mix completely. Additionally, do not overcook the sauce. Any of these things can lead to crumbly bars.
Enjoy!
These sound Delicious!
I can’t wait to make these, going to try it next week!
My family loves granola bars, but I have never made any. It seems pretty easy and I like how you can customize them to your taste. I love the addition of the dark chocolate chips. I will definitely give these a try. Thank you for sharing!
This sounds so good and a lot more healthy than some of the other recipes I have seen. Thanks for sharing.
Oats, peanuts and peanut butter are my family’s favorites! I must try this recipe!
This recipe has everything that I like and it sounds so easy to make. I have never made granola and I am definitely going to try this recipe.
These look so freaking good! My kids would love these!
It sure looks tasty, I’ll have to give it a try.
these look very yummy. i love dark chocolate. i think this would be good if you left it crumbly and ate it with milk poured over it like cereal. nom, nom, nom…
My husband made some of this, we thought it sounded so good. IT DID!!! Thanks for sharing, we will be making this for a long time now.. Kids love it, Parents love it when we take for outings with school, church, family.
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These sound so good — I love dark chocolate!
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that looks yummy!
wow never tried to make my own granola bars, but i want to try!
I love granola bars buts sometimes I left unsure if the product contains gluten or not but this recipe will assure me of that!
These look delicious Heather. My husband loves granola bars and it’s one thing I haven’t tried making, so I’m going to have to try these. And thank you for the “TIPS” ! That is always so helpful, especially when making a recipe for the first time.
i am going to try this..i just won’t use sunflower seeds because i’m allergic ti it…but this looks very good..thank you for sharing.
it amazing what all the put in foods that are suppposed to be healthy!! these sound yummy and good for you!
that looks really good.
These bars look so healthy and delicious! I need to make these and have them for a nice snack after exercising. Thanks for the recipe!
I love the thought of making our own granola bars. Then I could use all of my favorite natural and organic ingredients.
I like the addition of pumpkin seeds. They have great crunch and flavor!