Homemade granola bars are a wonderful option when you want a quick and easy snack to grab on the go. This recipe we use often in my home is easy to customize based on personal taste preferences, and uses properly prepared nuts for better digestion.
Now, these bars do contain sugar, it’s what holds them together.
I’m not against all sugar, and have a sweeter treat in moderation a couple times per week, but do what works best for your body!
Granola Bars
Homemade Granola Bars {recipe}
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups soaked and dehydrated rolled oats
- 1 cup soaked and dehydrated sunflower seeds
- 1 1/4 cups soaked and dehydrated peanuts crushed
- 1/2 cup whole cane sugar
- 2/3 cup raw honey
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
- 6-8 ounces of dried fruit
Instructions
- Toast the oats, sunflower seeds, and peanuts in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until slightly browned. Make sure you check them every few minutes and stir them around or they will burn. (keeping all of the ingredients hot helps when you combine the dry and sticky ingredients later.)
- Melt brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt over medium heat. The length of time you let it simmer will depend on how crunchy you’d like your bars. Personally I like them stiff but somewhat pliable, like the candy hardball stage, so I let it simmer until it hits about 250 degrees.
- Mix all toasted ingredients and the hot mixture together in a medium to large bowl. Add in dried fruit. Stir well to make sure it is well coated.
- Press into a well greased, glass 9×13 pan. If you don’t have a glass pan, place waxed paper inside the pan and grease that. Place a piece of greased waxed paper over the mixture and press mixture into the pan. (the mixture will be hot so keep your oven mitts on!)
- Cut after the bars are cooled, but still slightly warm. You could cut them right in the glass pan, but I flip it over onto a cutting board and cut with a large knife. If you had to use waxed paper in the pan, just pull the whole thing out and cut.
- Variations we like: Substitute 1 3/4 cups almonds for the 2 1/4 cup oats. This keeps the bars grain free. Using dried cranberries instead of raisins is fun as well. Adding in a Tbsp or 2 of carob powder give them a slight chocolate flavor. Peanut butter is also a great addition – I normally use about 1/3 cup and place it in the pan with the other wet ingredients. You can also use dried apples in place of the raisins and add in a couple teaspoons of cinnamon. The possibilities are endless!
Notes
Nourishing Notes: Use only unrefined sugars like honey and whole cane sugar (sucanat or rapadura) Make sure the nuts and seeds are properly soaked and dehydrated for better digestion and more nutrient absorption. When using dried fruit, make sure it’s ‘no sugar added’. Consume sparingly as these are rich in sugars.
Variations we also like:
- Add 2 Tbsp of ground flax or cha seed.
- Substitute 1 3/4 cups almonds for the 2 1/4 cup oats. This keeps the bars grain free.
- Using dried cranberries instead of raisins is great for a change of flavor.
- Adding in a Tbsp or 2 of carob powder give them a slight chocolate flavor.
- Peanut butter is also a great addition – I normally use about 1/3 cup and place it in the pan with the other wet ingredients.
- You can also use dried apples in place of the raisins and add in a couple teaspoons of cinnamon. The possibilities are endless!
*Nourishing Notes
- Use only unrefined sugars like honey and whole cane sugar (sucanat or rapadura)
- Make sure the nuts and seeds are properly soaked and dehydrated for better digestion and more nutrient absorption.
- When using dried fruit, make sure it’s ‘no sugar added’.
- Consume sparingly as these are rich in sugars.
Donielle Baker
owner and editor of Natural Fertility and Wellness at Natural Fertility and Wellness
I believe women can learn how to heal their bodies & balance their hormones through natural methods. An advocate for natural health, I have a passion for nourishing/real food nutrition and natural living. My personal background includes both infertility and miscarriage and I started Natural Fertility and Wellness in 2008 in order to share all of the information I found helpful in my journey to heal from PCOS and overcome infertility.
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How to make dairy kefir
ks! I hope to try these soon!
Thanks for sharing the recipe! They look great!
Cool – I think I can manage this recipe! I especially appreciate the tips and info about soaking/dehydrating.
ICLW
Yum! Yum! I don’t think we have Granola over here, but that looks like something i might have to give a go!!
I’m still not sure I get the whole concept of soaking grains, but then I’m not supposed to eat many of them anyway. When I made these, I subbed sucnat for the brown sugar and it worked well, while eliminated all of the refined sugar.
zebe- good to know sucnat works! I’ve been planning on picking some up next time I hit the health food store, but just haven’t been over that way recently.
Donielle,
Thanks for your recipes. I have a question: After you soak the oats, do you have to use a dehydrator in order to dry out the oats or can you just toast them in the oven? I’d like to soak my oats for both granola bars and to make plain granola as a cereal substitute but don’t own a dehydrator and was curious if you knew of another way to get around not having one. Thanks!
Lauren
Lauren – you should be able to dehydrate them in your oven. If you have a gas range with a pilot light, that may be warm enough to dry them out in a few hours. Otherwise, put them in at the lowest temp you can and maybe just turn it on and off occasionally so that they don’t “toast”. Many have done it, so it will work, I was just lucky enough my hubby wanted a dehydrator for jerky!
Great. Thank you!
What is the nutritional breakdown for this recipe?!
@Mel, Like with most homemade items, I don’t quite know exactly what the nutritional breakdown is. My main concern is that I use good, wholesome, and properly prepared food items!
Per Sparkpeople.com, this is what comes up with my recipe:
Calories 201.8
Total Fat 9.2 g
Saturated Fat 1.7 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.3 g
Cholesterol 3.1 mg
Sodium 60.8 mg
Potassium 202.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 28.9 g
Dietary Fiber 2.3 g
Sugars 14.8 g
Protein 4.3 g
Though I’m sure the ones I make will probably differ from this. I’m not quite able to figure out the exact nutritional guidelines as a lot of my products are found from local farmers, plus I soak and dehydrate the nuts which causes the vitamins and minerals to be better absorbed into the body.
Donielle, your suggestion to replace the oats with almonds puzzles me. For some reason I thought rolled grains were a must to help keep everthing together. If that’s not the case, could we replace them with sprouted oats, do you think?
@Heather, Nope – the thing that holds it together is the sugar “glue”. Everything else in basically interchangeable! You can sub with sprouted oats as long at they can be chewed – meaning I have a hard time thinking that I could crunch whole oats. Then again, I’ve never tried. 🙂
@donielle,
I haven’t tried sprouting oats yet, either, but the first thing I ever sprouted were wheat berries and they were plenty soft. I hope I can make it work. Thanks for your response. 🙂
@Heather T., let me know if you end up experimenting with them and how it works out!
@donielle,
how do I go about soaking the nuts, oats and seeds?? Do you just put them in a bowl and cover them with water?? Am I missing something else that needs to be added? Thanks.
@Lee, You can find more info here: http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/soaked-oatmeal/ and here: http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/soaking-your-nuts/
I was thinking of adding chia seeds! What do you think?
@kim Gaudette, I think chia seeds would work just fine! 🙂
Great recipe! I want to invest in a dehydrator, but I have no idea which one to get. Which one do you have?
@April, I can’t remember off hand – but mine has the fan inside which really helps drying time! The first one I bought I actually returned because it took DAYS to dry anything.
What are the steps to soaking/dehydrating when using oats in granola bars/baked goods. I do not have dehydrator.
@mary, After soaking them (http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/soaked-oatmeal/) just dehydrate them in the oven. Put it on it’s lowest temp and stir often, every 15 minutes or so if you can.