Granola bars are great to have on hand when you need a quick or portable snack, but they can get spendy at the store especially when you have multiple mouths interested in them! And they are so great for camping!
After a long trial and error process, we finally found the perfect granola bar recipe. Our biggest concern was having a healthy bar that was also soft, chewy, and stayed in a bar shape. I’m so happy to have found the correct portions and a granola bar that is loved by the whole family!
And to add to the wonderful recipe is that it is no-bake AND highly adaptable recipe, so feel free to substitute to meet your family’s needs! Below you will find some substitutions, but just be sure to keep the same ratio of wet to dry ingredients 🙂
These are pretty sweet so feel free to experiment using less sugar or no brown sugar at all, but you need the honey to help it all stick together. Pay attention to if your dried fruit already contains added sugar, most of it does.
Supplies Needed:
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup flax seed or other seed (you can just use more oats or split the difference between oats and cereal)
3/4 cup cereal (Try Rice Krispies, Fiber One, Cheerios and more!)
1 1/2 cups dried fruit (chopped small)
1/2 cup peanut butter (natural with no added sugar. If you only have some with added sugar leave out the brown sugar.)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey (try flavored honey!)
4 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and grease just for good measure.
- Mix together your dry ingredients (except for brown sugar and salt) in a large bowl, set aside.
- Over medium high heat melt butter, salt, brown sugar, honey and peanut butter over medium heat until boiling (stirring constantly.) Boil and stir for 2 more minutes, take care not to let it burn.
- Pour liquid goodness over your dry ingredients and combine well.
- Dump mixture onto your prepared baking sheet and using a rolling pin covered in butter roll it flat. You want to press down hard so it all sticks together well. Lay weights (books work well) on parchment over the top of your bars as they cool. This will help them hold their shape.
- Cool in the fridge (faster so you can eat them sooner!) or on the counter, cut into rectangles and wrap individually.
Other ingredients to substitute or try:
nuts
seeds
protein powder
wheat germ
the dried fruit options are endless…..
almond butter or another nut butter
pureed pumpkin or Nutella instead of peanut butter….
chocolate chips
mini m&ms (freeze them first!)
These sound great. I’m looking for a less expensive version of what our local co-op makes and I think these might work. My only question has to do with the cereal. Have you tried to make these without it? I’d prefer not to put that in, but everything else sounds wonderful. I’m wondering if you have suggestions about what might work in place of that – more oats, perhaps?
Thanks!