If you’ve done much reading on this blog, you know that I love to cook and eat delicious foods. Unfortunately, they’re not all the healthiest choices, so my husband and I have decided to make more of an effort to plan healthy, lower-fat, lower starch, higher fiber, more veggie-filled meals. I also made a list of healthful snacks we should try to have on hand.
On the list was granola bars.
But do you know what??? They’re not all healthy! Some of the granola bars you can buy in stores may as well be candy bars, with the amount of sugar and “fluff” they include in their ingredients. And most of them (except Kashi) also have high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient. Disgusting. While I love Kashi granola bars, the guy and I tend to go through a bunch of those, so it gets pretty expensive.
So I decided to take matters into my own hands. After reading tons of granola bar recipes (and throwing out the ones that sounded like disguised candy), I came up with my own mixture that works deliciously well to create healthful, filling granola bars. If I eat half of one of these and a small piece of fruit, I’m good to go for several hours. And it makes me happy knowing that I didn’t eat anything disgusting to feel full.
So here’s my recipe. Let me know if you try it out!
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gather your ingredients:
- 2 cups oats
- 3/4 cup wheat germ
- 3/4 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 cup peanuts, crushed
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
- approximately 8 oz. dried fruit
To crush your peanuts, put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a heavy mallet, measuring cup, or sauce pan.
Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so that they don’t get burned.
Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) for your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with a nonstick spray.
Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. (I forgot to take a picture of this step, but it looks so pretty!)
By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried fruit. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now.
Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.
Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.
Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.
Then, open the waxed paper …
And carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper.
Now, firmly pressing down with a big knife (not sawing), cut your granola into whatever size bars you’d like.
I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of waxed paper (so they don’t stick together).
Enjoy!
Of course, you can mix up the recipe. I used peanuts because they’re what we had, but next time I’m going to make the granola nutless at first, but during the pressing-down part, I plan to press almonds into the top of the bars.
Another combo that would be fun to try is macadamia nuts, dried pineapple, and coconut flakes.
Or try dried cranberries, walnuts, and white chocolate chips (just a few).
I also plan to add flax seed to my granola mix.
Different flavors of honey would also probably change the final outcome too. Mmm…
So many options! Good thing we have time!
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
tried your recipe today- toasted oats and nuts add a lot of good flavor to the bars. will continue to work w new combos and reducing the sugar a little. liked the chewy texture. only negative is that i didn't buy enough ingred. to keep testing! thanks for sharing!
I used this recipe tonight with a few tweaks , I added 1/3 cup flax seed,less oil ,pecans and chocolate chips..It would have turned out amazing accept the cook time mentioned was too long or the tin foil fried it.. I had one burnt side! 20 minutes was too long or they would have been perfect. try 10-15 minutes depending on how hot your stove gets.
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[...] Granola Bars July 25, 2010 by thecrunchysoup Granola bars are a main stay here . We (could) eat about a box or more a week. At about $3.00 for a box of Kashi granola bars it was time for an intervention. This equals approximately $12.00 a month or $144.00 a year just on granola bars! (yikes!!!) . As Guy exclaimed, “That is a car payment!!!”. So I decided it was time to take our addiction to granola bars into my own hands and learn how to make some comparable to the Kashi brand we love. I had some standards; no high fructose corn syrup, only whole grains, and organic if possible. (low-fat and sugar too!) I found a delicious, frugal and easy recipe I would love to share with all my “Crunchy Soup” friends. Here is a link to the recipe I used. It has a great tutorial step by step on how to make them. Link to Granola bar recipe from Joyful Abode [...]
AMAZING! I am wheat and gluten free and I was able to make this with the certified oats! THANK YOU!
[...] http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/04/11/homemade-granola-bar-recipe-no-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-the… [...]
I added some cocoa powder and cinnamon to the saucepan with a pinch of cayenne, omitting peanuts and adding coconut to the toasting portion. The bars have a great spicy “mexican chocolate” flavor to them!
This is so delicious! Thanks for posting it. It is my all time favourite granola bar!
I My Teenager and Husband, and Grandchildren LOVES these! I have been experiencing other recipes and this one is the best. Toasting the granola make it extra tasty!!! Thanks, Robin
My husband and I love this!! Thanks for sharing your cooking method with us. It is clear from your writing style that you love to do this sort of thing! Keep up the great work.
Oh too add: I also used regular quick cooking oatmeal oats, they worked perfect!
Awesome! Thank you so much for this recipe. I have been looking for a no flour, no bake, no eggs, and no peanut butter,etc granola bars. I found a diamond in a unhealthy mist of chemical high fatting, store bought some tasting like cardboard granola oatmeal bars and half-baked recipes. I used just1 cup honey roasted sunflower nuts, 1/2 cup of brown sugar,1/2 cup of honey bunches of oats with cinnamon bunches and 1/2 cup honey, 4 tablespoons of butter and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and almond real extract, pinch of kosher salt(butter was already salted), plus the butter thats all I had on hand. And Guess what?,it was still tasty and wholesome! Much blessing to the creator of this recipe.
I have never tried making granola bars, but would like to. Why do we use Kosher salt? Is it just for a little salty taste or preservative?
Can we use regular salt instead?
I made these yesterday and the recipe worked great! I have been trying to replace the boxed food that we buy with healthier homemade alternatives. I added some flax seed and used almonds and walnuts instead of peanuts. Thanks for the recipe!
http://trailblazingmylife.blogspot.com/2010/07/…
Thanks so much for this delicious recipe! I've made it a handful of times over the last few months. Yum! I've switched it up a bit though. Instead of the honey and brown sugar, I used 1/2c 'natural' peanut butter (the kind with NO oil or sugar…just peanuts) and 1/2c brown rice syrup. It's a much more mild flavor, so for anyone wanting 'sweet', you probably won't like them, but I love them! Thanks!
I made these last year and my husband absolutely loved them (he is picky about granola bars). I'm so glad Google brought up this recipe right away when I went a-searching for this. These are so very good. Thank you!
These were easy and wonderful! I made them several months ago for the first time and I am making them again! These were chewy and very good flavor!
I can't get mine to stick together. what am I doing wrong. I left a iron skillet on them!
I absolutely agree with you about store-bought granola bars- not healthy at all if you read the ingredients. I have made this recipe twice. I reduced the butter by half and only used 1/3 c brown sugar and upped the honey to 3/4 c. I also replaced the peanuts with pecans or almonds. I stacked some books on top of mine (after placing a towel between the wax paper and the books) while they were cooling and let them sit overnight and that worked much better than the first time. Thanks again!
I love to cook and eat delicious foods. I love your homemade granola bar recipe. I mixed it up with different kinds of dried fruit, and I used 1 tsp of vanilla & 1 tsp of almond extract. Yummy! This is a great recipe.Thanks for the easy recipe!
http://www.ukcookeryforums.com
Cooking
I calculated it at 157 calories and 6 g of fat per bar when I divided the recipe by 24.
This sounds VERY tasty. Thank you for the recipe and other options (we have an allergy to peanuts in our house). Can't wait to try these!!
[...] I found this recipe at Joyful Abode, I decided to give it a try. They’re not low calorie or low fat. But, they are [...]
I am about to try the granola bar recipe using as little real sugar as possible. Please wish me luck!
Hi Joy,
My hubby is diabetic and I just bought the ingredients to make your recipe.
I bought flax seed.
Would you please, email me and tell me how much I would need to add to the recipe?
Please, note joys granola bars in the subject bar so I don't think it's junk and toss it.
Also, If you wanna try….I'm cutting the brown sugar in 1/2 (brown sugar is pretty bad for all of us…let alone a diabetic) and subsituting it with honey. Replacing 1/3 C of brown sugar = 7 Tablespoons of honey. 2/3 C honey = 1/2 C brown sugar.
Thanx
Looking forward to hearing from you
Michelle
tomandmisk38@msn.com
I've decided to eat healthier and by my blood type, and as you say, most granola bars are just like candy. . .Which is what prompted me to read their ingredients, pick what I can eat and make my own. However, I needed a recipe. . .Thanks Sooo Much for the Recipe. I am sure these will be GREAT!!!
This looks great, and just in time to bolster my experiments!!! I agree with everything you said about the 'candy bar' character of most granola, and have been looking for a cheaper/healthier/customizable recipe. This could be the ticket! Thanks.
Would you please post your recipe? That sounds wonderful!
I have been making these for about 6 months now and our family absolutely loves them. Thank you so much for opening my eyes to making these at home! I haven't boughten granola bars since the first time I made these. I love to cut the brown sugar and butter in half, just don't cut any of the honey out or you don't have enough goo:)
Would you please post your recipe? That sounds wonderful!
Thanks for the wonderful recipe! My friend and I are planning on trying them out. We too move around quite often and are in the middle of going south! I'm in the process of trying to eat healthier and hope this will help!
Thanks, Kelsie
Amazing photos. These look so delicious. Thanks for a great recipe.
Cann't wait to try! Read many of the comments, and I'm sending this on to facebook friends!
Thanks for a great recipe.
Seriously, one of the best granola bars I've ever tasted! We are now on our 3rd batch since Saturday, between friends and family there's always just a few left. HUGE hit at our house!
I calculated this – it's about 300 calories and 10 g of fat per bar (I divided the recipe by 16).
I am making these as we speak – they are cooling on my coffee table (it's a big cooking day today and I'm running out of room in the kitchen!) I'm making these for my boyfriend as good bike ride snacks – once day he requested chocolate chip banana bars from the grocery store and they don't carry that combination in any bar, so I found your recipe and added chocolate chips and dried bananas. Hopefully they get the job done. I'm excited! Thanks!
I calculated this – it's about 300 calories and 10 g of fat per bar (I divided the recipe by 16).
Hi Andrea, I make my own granola all the time and never use butter. I use canola oil, flax oil, or coconut oil and they all work great. I also never use peanuts, but use a lot of flax seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and even walnuts because they are all great sources of omega-3.
Good luck!
I was about to go with Alton Brown's recipe, as I know and trust him, but yours was the same except you did not require baking time. I am glad I went with you! Yay for one less step! I had tried making the playground granola bars with my kids, but they had flour and eggs and ended up being gummy on the inside. Not what I think of when I hear “granola bar”. Yours are what I think of! I made these for soccer game snacks and they were a big hit. Everyone was asking for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing!
I made these last night and they turned out great! I eat a Luna bar/Lara bar-type thing every weekday, but that gets expensive. I might try less honey next time (a little sweet for my tastes), but maybe a bit of peanut butter?
[...] I also made her some DELICIOUS homemade granola bars that I found on this blog. I tweaked some things because Carla does not like to have pure brown sugar. I used honey and Agave [...]
tried them and they are super good! How many calories do you think are in them, plus the fat content, if any.
I made some the other night and they where a huge it. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just made my first homemade granola bars from your recipe & they are great! Do you know how long they should last when wrapped individually in plastic wrap?
I have one daughter with a dairy allergy. What do you think subbing out Earth Balance (vegan buttery spread) for the butter and omitting the nuts would do to your recipe? I am anxious to try it out. Thoughts?
Coconut almond chocolate bar? You mean Almond Joy??
When I searched for homemade granola bar, your page came up at the first list so here I am! Your granola recipe looks interesting and I definitely want to try it out! I am quite new into this blogging world, so I might visit your blog more often to get more inspiration. btw congratulations on your pregnancy
[...] off, this is recipe is from Joyful Abode. In my first two batches, I followed the recipe exactly. I might start to deviate in my next batch, [...]
Great recipe. I use Blue Agave syrup in place of the honey for a lower glycemic index, and reduce brown sugar. I altered recipe and came up with a coconut almond chocolate bar that everybody raves about. Thanks for the research on this wonderful granola bar. Jan
Great recipe. I use Blue Agave syrup in place of the honey for a lower glycemic index, and reduce brown sugar. I altered recipe and came up with a coconut almond chocolate bar that everybody raves about. Thanks for the research on this wonderful granola bar. Jan