Crunchy Good-for-You Granola Bars
I’ve been on a bit of a granola kick lately. A little while back I made those chewy, 100% customizable granola bars that are totally fun for mixing and matching ingredients. Then, I shared with you my all-time favorite granola recipe. I am hopelessly addicted to that stuff. I made a batch of it for our road trip to Florida, where we had no trouble polishing it off. Then I made another batch before we left to come home so we had a stash for the trip back. (I think there are still granola remnants in the car.) Once back home, I started thinking about merging the two – the awesome crunchiness of the granola with the portability (and cohesiveness) of a bar. I began searching for a crunchy granola bar and after sifting through countless recipes these really jumped out at me. It was different, had a combination of grains, seeds and dried fruit, and sounded delicious. My intuition was right. These are phenomenal. I’ll definitely be keeping a steady supply of these on hand for healthy snacking.
Since you may not be familiar with all of the ingredients needed to make these bars (I wasn’t) I thought I would go through the uncommon ones and let you know where I found them so hopefully you don’t have to do too much wild goose-chasing.
Puffed Kamut – I found this in the organic/health foods section of the grocery store near where the Kashi cereals and other organic puffed rice and wheat were displayed.
Salted sunflower seeds – I picked these up in the produce section of the grocery store on the shelves where the bulk nuts are found. They had regular and unsalted, but the recipe specifically called for the salted version, so I got those.
Raw pumpkin seeds – I also found these in the organic/health foods section of the grocery store.
Brown rice syrup – This was also in the organic/health foods section. It has the sticky consistency of honey, and after doing some Googling I came up with a 50/50 on whether it needs refrigerated after opening, so I went the safe route and stored it in the fridge.
I hope you all enjoy these granola bars as much as I have. And hey, don’t say I never throw a healthy bone your way every now and then ;-)
One year ago: Rock n’ Roll Baby Onesie Cookies
Three years ago: Cheesecake Truffles
Crunchy, Good-for-You Granola Bars
Ingredients:
1½ cups puffed kamut (or puffed rice or puffed wheat)
1½ cups traditional rolled oats (not the quick-cook kind)
½ cup Grape-Nuts cereal
1/3 cup dried cranberries or chopped dried apricot (or mix of both)
1/3 cup salted sunflower seeds
¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds
Dash of cinnamon
3½ tablespoons almond butter (can substitute soy butter or peanut butter), creamy or chunky
3½ tablespoons brown rice syrup
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line and 8- or 9-inch square pan with a long sheet of parchment paper (so ends extend over edges of pan).
2. Mix the puffed kamut, oats, Grape-Nuts, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the almond butter, brown rice syrup, honey, brown sugar and vanilla until sugar has melted and the almond butter has thinned.
4. Pour the liquid mixture on top of the dry ingredients, mixing well. When everything is equally coated, spread the mixture into the pan. Press the mixture down with the bottom of a measuring cup or the back of a wooden spoon. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
5. When you remove the pan from the oven, again use the back of a wooden spoon to press the bars flat. Allow to cool completely before touching them again.
6. When totally cooled and hard, lift the ends of the parchment and put onto a cutting board and cut into bars or squares. I wrapped the individual bars in foil and stored them in a ziploc bag at room temperature.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
I visited every granola link you had in this post and then I visited the links posted in the new post I just linked and do you know what I found…a peanut free granola recipe. I’ve been looking ya know (4 kids with nut allergies) but like you (long ago) I didn’t want to do the modifications. Thanks
What a great combination of ingredients. These are a perfect snack!
These look wonderful. Homemade granola bars are the best – hands down :)
Oooh I love that these are crunchy granola bars! Definitely love making homemade granola bars. Thanks for sharing!
I love homemade granola bars! These look delicious :)
I love all the ingredients here–what a great mix! I think I need to get myself to the store for supplies!
Love the interesting ingredients tucked in there… especially the Grape Nuts!
yum! I love granola bars.
Cheering for your Pens tonight! Game 7’s make me so nervous, glad my Canucks won last night, but it was a nail biter.
Love that these are healthy! They look wonderful!
Mary xo
Delightful Bitefuls
I’m always trying to find the perfect granola bar recipe. It is a perpetual quest. I will have to try these this week. I love crunchy.
Love those ingredients! These would be great for our hikes. Terrific recipe!
Yay! I love your other granola bar recipe – I was wondering how to make them crunchy! Thanks!!
Thanks for sharing this recipe, I’ve been looking for a new granola bar. I’ve been eating my version for too long and I’m bored!
Those look great! I am adding them to my menu plan right now!
Perfect! These look great!
I actually just bought a bunch of pumpkin and sunflower seeds just the other day. They would be perfect for these granola bars… now I just have to be on the search for a couple other of those ingredients and I’m set!
I love this! I always try to find healthy bars for my husband to grab and go in the morning. However, it has been difficult to find some that aren’t chock full of artificial preservatives. Thanks for the recipe! I will be trying these soon!
These look fab! I’m always on the look-out for portable goodies to take out and about. Thanks for posting.
These sound incredible Michelle! As someone with a peanut/nut allergy, I love that they contain a lot of seeds instead of nuts. Can’t wait to try them!
These look great and i love all the healthy ingredients too!
Ooooh! Super yummy. And portable. Gotta love the portable snackage. Well done!
Oh yum, they look good!
Delicious! I love me a healthy yummy granola bar!
I love a good granola bar. Thanks for sharing. I always make my own granola so this shouldn’t be hard to put together.
Finally a crunchy recipe that is not only healthy but yummy. Thanks!!
Baking them right now! My question is what is the Fat? Calories? for this recipe?
thanks
Hi Meryl, Unfortunately I don’t have the nutrition facts for this recipe, but am working on getting them for all of the recipes on the site. Hopefully by the end of the year!
Can you help me make this wheat free? that’s the only thing I cant do and I’d love to try these out. thanks.
Hi Nora, I am admittedly not well-versed in the wheat-free world, but it seems as though the only ingredient with wheat would be the Grape Nuts cereal. Perhaps you could use a wheat-free alternative?
I made crunchy granola bars recently that look very much like this but with very different ingredients.The proportion of cereal to fat looks broadly the same but you have used lesser sugar and replaced the oil with nut butter. I did consider both but was worried if replacing the oil with nut butter or reducing sugar would affect the binding and hence consequently the crunchy texture. Clearly it didnt!! So glad to see it worked. Will be making these changes myself the next time.
Definitely would love to give this crunchy Granola Bars a try. All are healthy ingredients,. Oatmeal is a great option for a hearty snack, I’m gonna impress my pals with your crunchy bars :D Keep it up!
I do like this recipe, and ingredients. Looks like we like the baking the same kind of things for breakfast snacks. I have two recipes for seeded oatmeal breakfast cookies on my website, one is crisp, the other chewy. They are a cross between a granola bar and Biscotti.
I’ve made these granola bars twice and haven’t had luck with keeping them together. I used maple syrup in place of the barley syrup which I know is risky but they tend to fall apart when I cut them. I made sure to let them cool long enough the second time. Can I substitute maple syrup or something else? I just don’t see a need for a bottle of barley syrup. :( Otherwise I love all of the ingredients together!
Hi Rachel, I think that substitution is the issue because mine are pretty firm and cohesive. Real maple syrup is quite a bit thinner than barley syrup.
Have you tried these with just honey, no brown rice syrup? I’ve learned that brown rice syrup is just a glucose syrup, with a glycemic index of 98 (white table sugar is 80) with no other nutritive benefit.
Hi Melissa, I haven’t tried using honey, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t work!