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How are you doing? I find myself oscillating between hope and frustration. I look at the news, and promptly crave a distraction. I’ve always hoped that this website serves as a helpful resource. If it provides a ray of sunshine or a healthy escape, even better.

Today, I offer you my go-to recipe for granola bars. These bars are delicious and easy to make with basic pantry ingredients. They can pass as a quick breakfast, and they make a perfect snack.

These granola bars have spared me from some hangry moments lately. They’re satisfying, just sweet enough, and stick with me for a few hours. Granola bars to the rescue!

I’ve finally found some ingredients to work with, so I’ll be back with more recipes soon. Please let me know what you’re looking for, and I’ll try to come up with something good.

Granola Bar Ingredients

Oats

Old-fashioned oats or quick-cooking oats will work here (steel-cut oats will not). If using old-fashioned oats, blitz them in your food processor or blender for a few seconds to break them into smaller pieces.

Mix-ins of your choice

Here’s where we add more flavor! See below for options.

Nut butter

Nut butter helps hold these bars together, and offers protein, healthy fat and fiber.  You could use peanut butter, almond butter, or even pecan butter. For a nut-free option, sunflower butter will work.

Honey or maple syrup

These natural sweeteners also help bind the bars together, and make these bars deliciously sweet (though not too sweet). Or, make date paste from fresh Medjool dates. Dates offer additional fiber, while honey or maple syrup do not. See the recipe notes for details.

Cinnamon, salt and vanilla extract

These add extra flavor to your bars. Technically, you could omit any or all of these, but the bars are more enticing with them. Salt enhances the flavor of all the other ingredients—cut it in half if you’re sensitive to salt.

Mix-In Options

Two cups of mix-ins add flavor, texture and more nutrients. Choose from any combination of the following:

• Nuts: Pecans, walnuts, almonds, or peanuts would all work well.
• Seeds: Pepitas (green pumpkin seeds) or sunflower seeds are good options. You could use up to 1/4 cup flax seeds or chia seeds—these seeds absorb moisture, which is why I suggest limiting the quantity.
• Chocolate: Mini chocolate chips are cute. If using regular chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate, blitz them for a few seconds in the food processor to break them into smaller pieces. Since chocolate is sweet, limit it to 3/4 cup or less.
• Coconut: Shredded or flaked coconut will work here. Unsweetened is best, since these are bars are sweet enough as is.
• Dried fruit: Dried cranberries, cherries, raisins, apricots, etc. Since these are sweet, limit them to 3/4 cup or less. Any fruit larger than a raisin will need to be broken up a bit more—either in the food processor or chopped by hand.

Granola Bar Variations

Here are some variations on this granola bar recipe that I’ve come up with over the years. I love them all!

• All Pecans: You can use use 2 cups pecans as your mix-ins, and you could even make pecan nut butter to match (here’s my recipe for pecan butter). Nut lovers, this would work with walnuts (presumably) or almonds, too.
• Almond Chocolate Chip: Use sliced almonds and mini chocolate chips, or blitz whole almonds and chocolate chips in the food processor before using.
• Almond Coconut: Use equal parts almonds and coconut flakes or shredded coconut.
• Cranberry Orange: Use a combination of dried cranberries, pecans, pepitas and fresh orange zest. Since this variation contains a lot of dried fruit, it’s the sweetest of them all.

Granola Bar Tips

These granola bars are quite simple to make, especially if you have a food processor (affiliate link).

Chop up your ingredients, if large.

These bars hold together best when the ingredients are quite small. For instance, quick-cooking oats (or old-fashioned oats blitzed for a few seconds in the food processor) work best. If using almonds, you’ll want to either start with pre-sliced almonds, or chop them up in the food processor or by hand. It’s easy to throw all of your mix-ins into the food processor and blitz a few times.

Press the mixture down as firmly as evenly as possible.

Air pockets will cause problems. Use a sturdy, flat-bottomed jar to make sure the mixture is pressed down completely. You might then press down with your hands to ensure it’s not trying to sneak up the sides or corners.

Let the mixture rest for one hour or longer before using.

The oats need some time to soak up the moisture in the nut butter and sweetener. Chill the mixture for at least one hour (or as long as a day) before slicing.

Slice and store properly.

Use a sharp chef’s knife to slice these bars. I like to slice them into squares. Another option would be to slice them into bars like this. I think the squares are a little more sturdy. Be sure not to stack the bars on top of each other, or they can stick. You can store them flat, covered, or wrap them individually in plastic wrap or parchment paper.

Please let me know how your granola bars turn out in the comments! I love hearing from you.

Looking for more healthy snacks? Try my favorite granola recipe, sweet and spicy roasted nuts, stovetop popcorn, or view a wide variety of snacks here.

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