Recipe Source: Love & Lemons
Homemade granola bars are always better than anything you’d buy at the store. They’re chewier, nuttier, healthier, more delicious, and best of all, they are easy to make!
Customize Your Homemade Granola Bars
When you make your granola bars, you can put any ingredients you want. You can make it healthy by filling it with oats, sunflower seeds, nuts, cranberries, coconut, currants, and honey, or you can make it sinfully sweet by adding some peanut butter, marshmallows, and any kind of chocolate chips!
Feel free to use whatever ingredients you like, just make sure that you chop any dried fruits or nuts into small pieces before mixing them.
How to Make Homemade Granola Bars?
Ingredients:
1 cup very smooth creamy natural peanut butter/cashew butter
2/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Heaping 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
2½ cups of whole rolled oats
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips*
3 tablespoons pepitas or crushed peanuts or cashews
Directions:
- Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, stir together the peanut butter, honey, vanilla, and salt, until smooth.
- Add the oats, chocolate chips, and pepitas (or nuts). The mixture might seem dry at first, but keep stirring and it’ll come together.
- Stir to combine and press firmly into the pan.
- Use a second piece of parchment paper and the back of a measuring cup to help flatten the mixture.
- Then chill for at least 1 hour, then slice into bars and transfer them into an airtight container.
- Put a sheet of parchment paper between the layers so that the bars will not stick together.
- Store them in the fridge or freezer for at least 1 hour before eating them. If they’re frozen, let them thaw at room temperature for 20 minutes before you eat them.
*Extra Tips:
- To make these vegan, use brown rice syrup instead of honey. The maple syrup is not sticky enough to make these bars cohesive, but it will work if you roll the mixture into energy balls instead of making bars.
- To make these gluten-free, just make sure your oats are certified gluten-free.
- You can freeze the granola bars for up to 2 months.