Chewy Granola Bar Recipe

If your family is just as busy as ours, you know that having delicious snacks that your kids can grab as they run out the door to soccer practice is important. I love having the ability to make those snacks from scratch so I know exactly what is in them.

These easy to make homemade granola bars totally fit the bill. They come together with simple ingredients that are easy to keep in your pantry anytime the craving for chewy granola bars strikes.

How to Make Homemade Granola Bars

This is a quick overview of how to make this delicious healthy snack. For the full recipe with all of the measurements, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

1. Prepare the pan. Line a small baking dish with aluminum foil and spray it with cooking spray.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a big bowl.
3. Make the sauce. In a small sauce pan combine the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer.
4. Allow the sauce to cool. Give your sauce mixture about five minutes to cool down a bit so it doesn’t immediately melt the chocolate chips.
5. Combine the ingredients. Press the mixture into the prepared pan.
6. Let the granola bars set. After about four hours, you can remove them from the pan, cut it into fourths and then cut each fourth into three pieces to make 12 bars.

Substitutions and Variations

• Don’t use peanut butter. If you are making these for someone with a peanut allergy, or you just don’t like peanut butter this is an easy solution. Swap the peanut butter for a different nut butter like almond butter or sun butter. You could also try Wow Butter, which is a great alternative and is nut free.
• Change out the fruit. Leave out the dried cranberries and put in raisins instead. Lots of different dried fruits would be delicious in this; dried cherries or cut up pieces of dried mango would be great too.
• Use less chocolate. I know, that sounds like blasphemy. But if you want to cut the sugar and up the protein a little, take out half of the chocolate chips and put in finely chopped peanuts.
• Use more oats. If you are looking for an even chewier texture, swap out the cereal and replace it with more oats.
• Exchange the honey for maple syrup. If you don’t like the taste of honey, maple syrup could be used instead.

Quick Cooking Oats for Granola Bars

Quick cooking oats are just old fashioned oats that have been finely chopped. Their smaller size is what makes them cook quickly.

We love using them in this recipe because their small size is part of what makes the bars so chewy. If you only have Old Fashioned Oats you could run them through your blender. You could also just use them as is and know that the granola bars will be slightly less chewy.

Please see my photos below to see how you can take Old Fashioned Oats and break them down for this recipe.

Storing Granola Bars

These bars should be stored in an air tight container and will keep for up to one week.

You can also freeze these homemade granola bars. Place them on a parchment paper lined plate and freeze for 2 hours. Transfer to an airtight container, stacking if necessary, and return to the freezer for up to three months.

You can put the frozen bars in backpacks in the morning and they will be thawed by snack time.

Other Great Healthy Snacks

• Homemade Hummus
• Roasted Chickpeas
• Crockpot Applesauce

If you make this homemade granola bar recipe or any of my other recipes, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I always love hearing from you.