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 brand new stay at home mom. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate on a budget, and keep a happy home. I breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
I am a health-conscious teenager who has been on a long-time health kick. After joining our high school’s Nutrition Club, I set out to rid our house of HFCS. One of my favorite snack is granola bars, but it appalled me how much junk was in store-bought ones. I found this recipe, and I LOVE IT! I don’t like dried fruit, but I’ve found I can substitute a mix of almonds, pecans and walnuts. I have given the recipe to tons of people(my grandma likes using dried cranberries) and just today I tried putting chocolate chips in it-which turned out great. The only suggestions I have is lowering the oven temp to 345 degrees because the wheat germ burns too easily; I use a nut-chopper to chop my peanuts-it makes it a finer consistency; and if you buy salted peanuts/sunflower seeds to reduce or completely remove the salt for the ‘glue’(it can make the bars kinda dry) Thank you for sharing this WONDERFUL recipe with the health-nuts of the world
These make great granola bars. We are using them in our kindergarten in Squamish, BC
Wow. I mean really…wow! I made these and one other recipe I found and have selfishly decided that my kids get to eat up the other recipe and that these are ALL for me. Love the was paper to-go tip! Thank you for sharing this little treasure with the world. Because seriously…yum.
These are so good! We will never buy junk granola bars again! We have looked and looked for a recipe like this. Thanks for sharing.
I just made these again and realized that I’ve never commented and thanked you for this recipe. My husband and I love these. We skip the sunflower seeds (not a fan of them in granola), and instead added 1/2 cup of ground flaxseed. We use a mix of craisins and raisins. For this latest batch I used pecans, but in the past I’ve used slivered almonds, too. There’s really no way to screw these bars up.
Thanks again!
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I made the bars and used walnuts, almonds, coconut, cranberries and milk chocolate chips…yummmmy
I have made these so many times now and I cannot tell you how much my husband and I love them! We do a lot of running and bike riding so these are great to take with us for energy! Thanks for sharing!
[...] Granola Bars - these are awesome. I have shared this recipe (not mine) with many people. [...]
Looks delicious! Thanks for the share. I may try and make these next weekend.
Are the peanuts unsalted? So, you don’t bake the bars…you just let them sit? What about using parchment paper instead of wax paper? Anxious to try them. Thanks
I have been making these since august VERY frequently with a few changes. One, 1 1/2 c of almonds and I have been using mixed dried fruit of cranberries and apricots with a two to one ratio of appricots to cranberries. I use foil instead of wax paper, less peeling off to do. Also I heat the carmel to right in between a soft and hard stage 230 degrees.
my other variation is a chocolate batch, with almonds, I use instead of fruit 8 oz of dark chocolate chips. In both versions I have also added protein powder, two scoops in each batch. These last about 2 weeks or freeze really well if you wrap them individually and bag in zip loc!
[...] Source: adapted from Joyful Abode [...]
Fantastic!!! These are better than any store bought bar I’ve ever had. I did cut them into smaller bars to cut the calories a bit. They’re great for having right before a workout; you get your protein and carbs to sustain. I did have a problem with the paper sticking on the top while cooling – just stray that too and problem solved. I also cut the brown sugar in half to make them a bit less sweet. I’ll be adding flaxseed the next batch and trying different nuts just for variety. This will be a permanent recipe in my kitchen! Thanks.
[...] Granola bars – Granola bars can be a great snack if you watch the ingredient list – look for lower sugar, higher fiber options. Or make your own! My family enjoys this recipe from Joyful Abode. [...]
Great recipe! Tried it as described and it worked–however, here are two things I discovered:
The waxed paper stuck miserably to the bottom portion of the granola: Solve this by running the bottom of the granola and it’s stuck waxed paper over the burner on my stove top (if electric burner, you can place papered granola back in its pan and run pan over hot burner until the heat reaches the granola-paper. Then try peeling the wax paper off again; it comes clean off very easily.
Also, check your honey; much honey nowadays is “force-farmed” with High Fructose Corn Syrup. See: http://www.thefitshack.com/2007/08/31/high-fructose-corn-syrup-and-honey-a-sneaky-relationship/.
THANKS for the recipe, though! Love it! Now I can make granola and compete with the storebought versions.
these are absolutely the best!!!! DELICIOUS!!!!
I’m 22 weeks pregnant and not gaining any weight. My doctor told me this morning that I need to start packing it on and suggested I try making granola bars. I found this recipe and made it with cranberries, walnuts, a few white chocolate chips and a small spoonful of coconut flakes
. OMG! I’m in heaven. I’ll probably eat them before they go bad, but was wondering if anyone knows how long these will keep and if I should refrigerate them?
Well, i have been making these since summer. I suggest two weeks, however, they freeze REALLY well, just individually wrap and then stick in freezer bag!
Just tried this recipe yesterday and LOVED it! I think I’ll make a batch of these every week for my family to enjoy! So delish!!! I also mentioned that I made these on my blog and linked back to you. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! It’s just what we were looking for.
I did the math and it looks like the recipe TOTAL calories are 4200, fat 165 grams, fiber 50. So if you cut them in 12 pieces, it turns out they’re about 350 calories, 13 grams of fat, and 4 grams of fiber each. the nuts and seeds add a lot of fat (and obviously also the butter)
[...] Images and recipe via joyfulabode.com. [...]
I didn’t have wheat germ so I put in 1/2 c of flax seeds. Also I used 2 tbsp peanut butter and 6 tbsp of brown sugar. Helped make it less sweet and more sticky. Used 1/2 c of cranberries and 1/2 c of raisins. Added 1 tsp of cinnamon to dry mixture after toasting.
Put it in the refrigerator to help harden.
Beware: EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE!!
I substituted the oats, wheatgerm and sunflowers for “Rogers 9 grain” cereal mix. It has flax, sunflowers, oats, germ etc. It turned out very well. I will have to try this recipe as specified
SOOO excited I found this! I’ve been looking for a granola bar recipe. I, too, like them for a quick snack, but hate that they all have HFCS except Kashi, and again, LOVE the Kashi, but can’t afford them to buy a box of 5 every other day.
Thanks!
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Tried these out as my first attempt at making granola bars… They were great! I used Agave nectar instead of honey and they glued together fine. I will likely use less vanilla next time, we’re just not vanilla fans. I am also thinking of trying them with dark chocolate and peppermint extract as the holidays get closer. Thanks so much for the recipe and the wonderful photos!
Just finished making this! Oh man! Simple is an understatement for one thing and the taste is incredible! I doubled the recipe(worked perfectly!) and used a half sheet pan–restaurant size. This is such a versatile recipe; so easy to change up to suit anyone’s favorite ingredient. Thanks so much for sharing!! Never eating another store bought granola bar EVER!
I made these with pumpkin seeds instead of peanuts since I have a nut-free workplace. They taste nice but I find them a bit sweet. I didn’t have a problem with it all sticking together; I had the issue of it being TOO sticky – I couldn’t get the waxed paper off without most of it sticking to the bars and then had to cut off a layer with a knife so that I wasn’t eating paper. Next time I’ll try to cut down on the honey or sugar, and I’m definitely going to grease the paper. But there will be a next time!
awesome recipe! i found it to be a little too sweet so i added more oats to the batch. Mine also did not stick. I’m guessing you need corn syrup or more sugar for it to stick, but then it would end up to be more sweet!!
These are great! This time I substituted peanut butter for half of the brown sugar. They were great, and I liked having less sugar in them. My family loves them! I use whatever nuts I have, and I crush them in a blender to make it quick and easy. Thanks for this amazing recipe! I am passing it on to friends.
These are great, but for me the mixture did not stick together. So I dont know what i did wrong but like i said they are delicious, I just have to eat this batch with a spoon….lol
I made these last night and added sliced almonds and ground flaxseed. They are WONDERFUL. I love them. It made quite a few too. I am going to regularly start making these. My husband loves them and he says they are filling too!
My husband and I tried your recipe tonight.I put in oats,sunflower seeds,pecans,ground flax seed,coconut, diced frozen blueberries and chocolate raisins.Instead of honey and brown sugar I used agave syrup.My husband can’t eat the sugar or honey.Along with the agave syrup I used butter vanilla and about 1/2 cup cocoa and salt.They are so good but I guess I didn’t have enough liquid they didn’t stay together. What can I do to get them to stick together?Thanks
I tried using 1 Cup of agave nectar instead of honey and sugar last night and mine too did not stick. After cutting them, I slightly separated them and baked them on baking paper for 10 minutes at 350F. They held together fine, were a bit less sticky and slightly crunchier.
this is a great recipe i just finished making it it is really easy to make anyone can do it i know cuz im only thirteen oh and you can change peanuts to almonds if your alergic
[...] inspiration is from here and here though I didn’t particularly measure those ingredients out or use some of them. The [...]
I found this recipe a while back and have been making it non-stop ever since! My boyfriend is a med student and loves having these to snack on while studying or right after he works out or finishes a game of Ultimate Frisbee.
I like to improvise and add 1/4 cup of flax seeds, usually 1/2 cup more oats, and assorted amounts of whatever nuts I have on hand, although pumpkin seeds are my favorite. I’ve used walnuts, pecans, slivered almonds, coconut, and pistachios at one time or another. I usually add more fruit than necessary, and I love the combo of cranberries and apricots.
I’ve found that the wax paper doesn’t stick as badly if I let the butter/sugar/honey mix boil for a minute or two before taking it off the heat. I also discovered that if I set the mix in a baking sheet I can fit another just on top and weigh it down, plus it’s easy to measure uniform bars.
Thank you for the recipe! Many happy returns.
Can’t wait to try this, I want a SOY FREE alternative!!
Soy is NOT the great ingredient they make it out to be.
Like fluoride, lol.
Do the research! It will mimic estrogen, but not give you the benefits of it! Think of a lock and key. Soy fits the lock but doesn’t open it. So when your body makes more estrogen or you take a bio-identical, it will not give you the benefits if you eat soy, as the soy estrogen is in the molecular ‘receptacle’ blocking the real estrogen!
AGREED about the soy! It is in EVERY “healthy” thing out there as a protein. That’s what’s great about making this at home so you can put in what you want and take out what you don’t
I use sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, ground flax seeds, hemp seeds, puffed wheat, puffed rice, goji berries, cranberries, blueberries, papaya, mango, GROUND COFFEE, chocolate chips, Smarties, pineapple. YUM!
My friends and I call them crack bars – because they’re delicious, amazing, and addictive!
Been using this recipe for over a year. I make it with varying ingredients. I used walnuts and Brazil nuts last recipe. I also cook the honey mixture for several minutes. This last batch had 6 ounces of raisens and 6 ounces of dried cranberries. The flax seed meal is also a favorite with my hunting buddies. They are great! Thank you for sharing this with everyone.
Love it! Just made them tonight and my husband really likes them. Delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
[...] on- school has started, and I found a great granola bar recipe. I tried it last night- in true Sam-fashion, my changes are: grape nuts and milled flax seed [...]
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I am absolutely trying these. I am a granola bar addict…this will be much better for my waistline and my wallet!
[...] }); }ShareOne of the all-time most popular posts on this blog is the Homemade Granola Bar Recipe. But for over a year now, I’ve been avoiding grains in favor of more nutrient-dense foods. An [...]
Just be sure if you use flax seed to grind it up first. Our bodies do not digest flax seed whole, then theres no point in even eating it let alone buying it, lol.
Tried this recipe last night…Just replaced the peanuts with walnuts…Otherwise,made it exactly like the recipe..turned out AWESOME..!Nice,chewy and so healthy..!This is my 1st attempt at granola bars and after going through zillion recipes decided to try this one..and this is the recipe i will use henceforth..!
I had gastric bypass a year ago and was looking for something I could make sugar-free…I used splenda blend brown sugar (less 1/3 of a cup) and sugarfree honey…wonderful granola bars…do you know the nutritional value for these?
This is my new base recipe for granola bars… I let the brown sugar and honey cook awhile so I got nice crispy bars– so blasted good! I am going to use dried apples, walnuts and cinnamon in it today!
I tried these and instead of peanuts I used almonds..and instead of sunflower seeds I used pistachios. Then for the dried fruit i used cherries and WOW are they amazing! Oh and I used a little less sugar and a little more honey instead with no salt.
This sure was a success at our place! Here is what I found: If they tend to crumble, use more honey and less brown sugar, that should give you a nice chewy texture .
I made this recipe with a mixture of crushed hazelnuts, peanuts and almonds for the nuts and raisins for the dried fruit. It's so yummy! The only problem I have is that it didn't set very well and it just crumbles away, though I think that may be down to when I converted the weights (I'm from the UK and don't use cups) I may've got some of it a little off. Next time I plan on upping the amounts for the glue so fingers crossed for then. Thanks for the tasty recipe though
Aah!!! They're falling apart! I think I may have been too eager to eat them and not let them sit long enough… Anyway, these are delicious! I pretty much stuck to the recipe this time, adding just a tiny bit of unsweetened coconut to the granola base, but next time I plan to use half pumpkin seeds and half sunflower and do chopped brazil nuts instead of peanuts. Thanks for the recipe!
Do you know the nutritional value for each bar???