8 Easy Granola Bar Recipes
on May 05, 2017, Updated Oct 23, 2024
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These 8 easy granola bar recipes come together in a snap for a no-fuss, no-bake healthy snack. Made with oats, honey, nut butter, and EIGHT different flavor mix-ins, you’ll find the perfect granola bar mixture for your dream granola bar!
Homemade granola bars are awesome! They taste delicious, travel well, are just plain easy to make, and are inexpensive. Need a snack for preschool, after t-ball, or to take in the car to a game? Granola bars will be there, no matter what needs to be done! This recipe makes perfectly chewy granola bars.
One of the best things about granola bars is that they are highly customizable. You can make your own at home, changing the ingredients to suit your preferences. This allows you to control the amount of sugar used and avoid any additives or preservatives found in some store-bought bars.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Prep Ahead: These store super well in the fridge or freezer.
- Easy Snack: These are a super healthy snack and packed with nutrients.
- Make At Home: They are quick and easy to make at home with simple ingredients you have on hand in the pantry. No more granola bars from the grocery store.
- Great Consistency: These bars have a chewy texture, just the way my family likes their granola bars!
Recipe Ingredients
- Old-fashioned rolled oats
- Nuts
- Honey
- Butter – unsalted
- Brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Homemade Granola Bars
Step 1: Toast the nuts and oats and boil the sugar, butter, and honey.
Step 2: Add the wet ingredients and dry ingredients to a bowl and stir.
Step 3: Press the mixture into a pan and refrigerate to set.
Step 4: Remove from the pan, cut, and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Press the bars into the pan very firmly. I normally grease the bottom of a glass cup or measure up and use it to stamp down the mixture in the pan.
They last a good long while just at room temperature in an airtight container and even longer in the fridge! I’d say 5-7 days on the counter and 10+ cold in the fridge.
Yes, it will work fine, but you will need to cook it a few minutes longer since the syrup has more moisture than the honey.
Expert Tips
- Honey Fans: If you like a stronger honey flavor, use 1/3 cup honey and 1/4 cup brown sugar in this recipe.
- Chocolate Tip: If you are going to add chocolate, you’ll want to wait until the hot honey and oat mixture cools a little bit and is closer to room temperature (about 15 minutes), or all the chocolate chips will melt (it still tastes great but doesn’t look as nice).
- Toasting is Good: Toasting the nuts and oats is optional, making the granola bars taste like cookies. I highly recommend it.
- Great for Trips: Granola bars make an excellent on-the-go food. Pack up a tote bag with these bars, some maple banana muffins, and drinks, and you’re ready for anytime hunger hits!
Tips & Tricks for Making Homemade Granola Bars
Here are My 8 Granola Bar Variations
Blueberry Granola Bars
- Master mix
- Almonds
- ½ cup dried blueberries
- ¼ cup shredded coconut
Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars
- Master mix
- Pecans
- ½ cup dried cherries
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips
Tropical Granola Bars
- Master mix
- Cashews
- ½ cup chopped dried fruit (pineapple, mango, and mandarin oranges)
- ¼ cup coconut
White Chocolate Cranberry Granola Bars
- Master mix
- Almonds
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup white chocolate chips
Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola Bars
- Master mix
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter (add this when you add the vanilla and salt and stir well to combine)
- ½ cup M&M’s
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Granola Bars
- Master mix
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter (add this when you add the vanilla and salt and stir well to combine)
- ⅓ cup broken pretzel pieces
- ¼ cup peanut butter chips
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Spiced Nut Granola Bars
- Master mix
- ½ cup almonds
- ½ cup pecans
- ½ cup cashews
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (add this when you add the vanilla and salt)
Sunflower Pecan Granola Bars
- Master mix
- Almonds
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup candy-coated sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup shredded coconut
More Healthy Snack Recipes to Consider
Breakfast Recipes
Protein Shakes
Snacks
Breakfast Bars
From Scratch Recipes
Celery Juice
Snacks
Sweet Potato Chips
Did you make this recipe? Leave a ⭐️ review and share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest!
Easy Granola Bar Recipes
Ingredients
Master Granola Bar Recipe
- 2 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup nuts, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cups total extra mix-ins, (About 1/4 cup of 3 different ingredients such as dried fruits, coconut, chocolate chips, etc. Please see the following recipe mix-ins for options.)
Blueberry Granola Bars
- Almonds
- ½ cup dried blueberries
- ¼ cup shredded coconut
Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars
- Pecans
- ½ cup dried cherries
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips
Tropical Granola Bars
- Cashews
- ½ cup chopped dried fruit, pineapple, mango, and mandarin oranges
- ¼ cup coconut
White Chocolate Cranberry Granola Bars
- Almonds
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup white chocolate chips
Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola Bars
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter, add this when you add the vanilla and salt and stir well to combine
- ½ cup M&M’s
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Granola Bars
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter, add this when you add the vanilla and salt and stir well to combine
- ⅓ cup broken pretzel pieces
- ¼ cup peanut butter chips
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Spiced Nut Granola Bars
- ½ cup almonds
- ½ cup pecans
- ½ cup cashews
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon, add this when you add the vanilla and salt
Sunflower Pecan Granola Bars
- Almonds
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup candy-coated sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper or aluminum foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.
- Place the oats and nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly toasted.
- While the oats are toasting, add the honey, butter, and brown sugar to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, stirring constantly. Let the mixture bubble, while stirring, for 1 minute and then remove from the heat.
- Place the nuts and oats in a large bowl.
- Stir in the vanilla and salt to the butter mixture. Pour this mixture over the oat and nut mixture and stir to combine. Add any extra ingredients (except for chocolate) and stir to combine. Make sure none of the oats are dry.
- If you are adding chocolate, wait about 15 minutes for the mixture to cool a bit before adding the chocolate and then stirring to combine.
- Place all of the oat mixture in the prepared pan. Use a rubber spatula or the bottom of a greased measuring cup to press the mixture into the pan. Press it in very firmly, this is what makes the bars stick together.
- Chill the granola bars for at least 2 hours. Lift the bars from the pan using the edges of the foil or parchment and place them on a cutting board. Cut into desired shape/sizes and serve.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days. If you are stacking the granola bars place a piece of parchment between the layers to help prevent sticking.
Video
Notes
- The nutritional information was calculated by using almonds for the 3/4 of a cup of “mix-ins”.
- If you don’t want to use nuts, skip them or replace them with something like shredded coconut.
- You can skip the step where you toast the oats and the nuts, but it really takes them to the next level of deliciousness. I highly recommend it. If you’re in a hurry, though, you can skip it!
- Don’t cook it higher than medium heat; the honey will scorch if you cook it at a higher temperature.
These were absolutely delicious! Like, amazing! I have tried a couple of other granola bar recipes and these were defintely the best. They tasted great and the texture was perfect. Thanks for all your work to get these just right!
I’ve made these a couple of times just using a fridge to set them, but I am going for a trip, and I won’t have access to a fridge to store them. I’ve tried keeping them at room temperature before, but they always fall apart. Do you think I can perhaps bake them for a short time to bind the ingredients together, so they’ll hold together at room temperature? Love the recipe by the way – SUPER DELICIOUS!
I do think you could bake them, maybe at 350 for 10 minutes? I think your other option would be to let the sugar mixture come to a light boil for maybe 1 minute. If you cook the sugar a bit on the stove I think they would firm up once cooled too. I’m so glad you like them and I can’t wait to hear about any adjustments you might make.
Just made a batch using pretzels, coconut, almond butter, almonds, pistachios and chocolate drizzled on top after they cooled. SO GOOD! Thanks for the great recipe–I’ve had lots of trouble with bars falling apart on past attempts but these were great.
I only have a microwave, do you know how I might be able to bake the oats and nuts using a microwave? Mine’s a basic microwave (hi, mid, low settings), there is no convection option.
Hmmmm, that’s a great questions. I really don’t have much input for you but I think it would be worth trying a batch on maybe low? Let me know if it works for you!
Slow roast nuts and oats in a fry pan. No microwave or oven needed.
Great idea! Thank you!
Yummy! We are trying these.
Would you be able to use applesauce in place of the butter?
I don’t think so. You’d be better off trying it with coconut oil!
My 14-year-old daughter made a batch by herself, and they’re super yummy! She did a 1.5 recipe to go in a 9X13 pan, and those dimensions worked out well. She added roasted almonds and dried cranberries. They hold up really well – thanks!
I’m excited to make this for my child’s preschool, since parents take turns making snack for the kids. I love all the ideas!
Has anyone tried making this with just the honey and no brown sugar?
Yep, I put it in the notes/bullet points in the post, did you see it? All honey needed to simmer (super low and slow though because honey burns quickly) to cook the sugar just a bit so that it would be a little stickier and stick together. Also, it was very strong in the honey flavor and we didn’t like them very well. If you adore all things honey you might, but if was super strong. If you are looking for a more natural sugar route I’d try coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar!
Do they stick well with just honey?
Do they come out hard or soft and chewy?
They stick fine but it was too strong of a honey taste for me kids to like them… that’s the only issue with using all honey.
I made the original recipe using almonds and cranberries but I used syrup in place of honey only because that’s what I had at home , they turned out so well. If making with peanut butter. Would that replace the honey?
These sounds great! I will definitely give some of them a try. Have you ever made the master mix without any nuts in them? Would I just add more oats in their place? My kids school is nut free…
I’d just skip them all together and not worry about adding more oats, the nuts wouldn’t have soaked up any of the moisture really so I don’t think it’d me an issue! Let me know if you try it, I’d love to hear how it works.
To lower the carbs I took out the oats and used sliced almonds in their place. super yummy
Sounds delicious, thank you for the suggestion.
For a nut Free version, you can replace nuits bye seeds (pumpkin, chia, sesame, sunflower, hemp, etc).I always transform the recipes to adapt them for school.
Hi there! I LOVE the sound of these recipes. My children all 3 suffer from various food allergies so homemade is how they get a LOT of their snacks. Once my middle daughter had a bad skin reaction to a major name brand granola bar, and she loves them. The question I have about these recipes is how do they hold up in the pantry or just generally out of the refrigerator? We have a vacation trip coming up and I won’t have access to a fridge.
I think you could bake them, maybe at 350 for 10 minutes? I think your other option would be to let the sugar mixture come to a light boil for maybe 1 minute. If you cook the sugar a bit on the stove I think they would firm up once cooled too. Then refrigerate them until you leave. Hopefully that will help them hold up on your trip!