No Bake Granola Bars

Name: No Bake Granola Bars
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 120 min
Total time: 130 min
Ingredients: 200 g oats; 130 g mixed nuts (roughly chopped); 100 g dried fruit; 100 g chocolate chips; 125 ml honey; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 200 g almond butter ((or any nut butter)); 1 tbsp vanilla extract

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These No Bake Granola bars taste so much better than store bought ones, and not to mention cheaper. Easy to adapt with your favourite granola ingredients, they require no baking and just 5 minutes of prep time. Sweet and crunchy, they make a great snack.

Rows of granola bars next to a plate with more bars on it,

I used to always grab granola bars when I went shopping, but then realised just how easy they were to make myself. Not only could I make them a different way every time, using my favourite nuts and fruit, but making them myself saved me a fortune. Oats, fruit and nuts are such budget friendly ingredients, these make a great cheap snack.

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Why should you try it?
What you will need
Step by step
Are granola bars healthy?
What can you put in them?
FAQs
Extra tips
More snack recipes
Recipe

Why should you try it?

Cheaper and healthier than store bought granola bars
Easy to adapt with your favourite ingredients
A kid friendly snack
No need to bake them
Just 8 ingredients for our basic recipe

What you will need

Oats - This is the main ingredient in granola bars and helps to make them nice and chewy. We used rolled oats. If you are wanting these to be gluten free, make sure that your oats are gluten free.
Nuts - These add lots of crunch, protein and health fat. We used almonds and pecans, but you can use any nuts.
Dried fruit - This is where you can easily adapt the recipe by using different dried fruit. We used apricots, raisins and cranberries, however we have suggestions below on what else you can add.
Honey - This adds lots of sweetness to the granola bars, and also helps them stick together. If you want to make this recipe vegan, you can swap it to maple syrup (but follow our tips in the FAQs).
Chocolate chips - I don't think this really needs any explanation. Chocolate chips make everything better and chocolate and nut butter is such a great combination.
Almond butter - This helps to bind the granola bars together, as well as adding protein and healthy fats. We used natural almond butter, however you could use peanut or cashew butter. You could also use sun butter if you prefer.
Cinnamon - We love cinnamon in anything sweet. If you don't like it, you could either leave it out or add ginger or nutmeg instead.
Vanilla - This compliments the sweetness perfectly. You could leave it out though.

Step by step

One: In a saucepan, melt the nut butter until it is runny.

A saucepan with nut butter melting in it.

Two: In a bowl, add the oats, nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips and melted nut butter. Mix well.

An oat, nut butter and dried fruit mixture in a bowl.

Three: Press the mixture into a lined tray and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Granola mixture pressed down into a baking tray.

Four: Remove from the fridge, and slice into bars.

Are granola bars healthy?

Healthy is definitely a relative term, and looking at the calories and fat of these they are quite high. However, the calories come from the nuts and dried fruit, and they are full of nutrients.

However, when you compare these no bake granola bars to store bought ones, they are much healthier. We have sweetened them with a little bit of honey (and the chocolate chips), rather than loads of added sugar and there are no hidden nasties in them. We also haven't added any salt.

thirteen granola bars arranged in rows and columns.

What can you put in them?

The great thing about granola bars is that they are so easy to adapt. We used almonds and pecans for the nuts and apricots, raisins and cranberries for the fruit, but there are lots of other things you can add (just make sure you use the same ratios as in the recipe, so everything sticks together):

Desiccated coconut
Peanuts
Dried cherries
Dates
White chocolate chips
Sunflower seeds
Chia seeds
Walnuts

Granola bars on a plate with more bars in the background.

FAQs

How to store no bake granola bars.

Once the bars have chilled and cut, you can store them in an air tight container in the fridge for up to a week. They can also be frozen, making them a great batch cook snack. If you are freezing them, wrap them individually and then store them in a freezer bag. Let them thaw for about 30 minutes before eating.

Can you make these vegan?

Yes, you can make these no bake granola bars vegan. You will need to swap the honey for maple syrup, and then roll the mixture in to small balls as the maple syrup won't bind it together enough for bars.

Extra tips

If your nut butter is already really runny, then there is no need to heat it with the honey. Just mix the wet ingredients together and stir them in to the dry.
It might be tempting to cut and eat these straight away, or to cut the chilling time. But they do need the full two hours in the fridge to set.
You need to use mini chocolate chips for this recipe. If you can't find any, then you can finely chop up dark chocolate to add.
Make sure your nuts and dried fruit are chopped up really small, otherwise the bars will not stay together.
Press the mixture down in to your pan really well. This will make sure that the bars will stay together when cut.
You could skip the chocolate chips and add a drizzle of dark chocolate over the top before putting them in the fridge.

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