A Healthy Way to Make Granola Bars

I love doing these little “ice cream” granola bars. It’s like a healthy mini Magnum Ice Cream 🙂 If you like granola bars, like me, it’s time to try to make your own. By doing this, you can control all the ingredients to make something really healthy and to your tastes. The recipe below can quite be modified according to your desires and the season.

What goes into a granola bar ? We put rolled oats and all kind of nuts. Dried fruit can be added, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, etc… And then something that binds them all together.

As binder, I use honey. What is good with honey, is that it’s already sweet, so you don’t necessarily need to add sugar to this recipe. There are sugar free honey products out there but, they tend to lack the benefits as these product are not made from bees. Otherwise agave syrup is another viable alternative to replace honey.

PS: I try to write in english but it isn’t my first language. Sorry if you find some mistakes.

I use brown sugar here. But you can replace it with coconut sugar. The coconut sugar is made from the sap of coconut flowers. It is used as an alternative to white and brown sugars. Its main asset: it has a surprisingly low glycemic index.

And I also use coconut oil that can be replaced with butter but it becomes less healthy. You can find coconut oil quite easily in supermarkets.

Print out the recipe

INGREDIENTS

Granola Bars (rectangle): about 20-30 (it depends on what size you make them)

1. 1 cup (35g) crispy puffed quinoa
2. 1½ cup (200g) mixed roasted salted nuts without fat
3. 1½ cup (200g) mixed nuts and seeds
4. 2 cups (200g) old fashion rolled oats
5. ¼ cup (45g) brown sugar (or coconut sugar for healthier way,… or no sugar if you think that the sugar present in the honey is enough)
6. ¼ tsp salt
7. 3 tbsp (40g) coconut oil (or butter for a less healthy version)
8. 2 tsp vanilla paste (in Switzerland, available in Migros)
9. ⅓ cup (100g) honey (or agave syrup (for less sugar))
10. Dark chocolate (optional)

DIRECTION

Preparation: 15 min     Baking time: 30-37 min

Follow the steps below:

1. Preheat oven to 300° F (150° C). On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spread the mixture of nuts and seeds (No. 3 above) and the old fashion rolled oats (No. 4 above). Roast in oven for 10 to 12 minutes (after cooking these seeds, don’t turn off your oven, you’ll need it again in step 5).

2. In a saucepan, put coconut oil (1), honey (2), salt (3), brown sugar (4) and vanilla paste (5). Melt all ingredients until the sugar is dissolved and everything is well blended.

3. In a large bowl, mix the melted honey preparation (1) the roasted mixture of nuts and seeds and the old fashion rolled oats (2), the mixture of roasted salted nuts without fat (3) and crispy puffed quinoa (4).

4. Now comes the fun part of this recipe! Put this mixture in silicone moulds of all kinds, as below. If you don’t have a silicone mould, you can spread the mixture over the entire surface of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (you can, after baking, cut rectangles or other shapes).
5. Bake the your granola bars at 300° F (150° C) for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.

6. Once cooked and cooled, you can still – if you’re a greedy like me – melt dark chocolate and dip your bars. I always make half the recipe with dark chocolate and half without. So I can choose every day what kind of bar I would like to eat (with or without chocolate). I love doing these little “ice cream” granola bars. It’s like a healthy mini Magnum 🙂 Keep in the fridge until you eat them all.

I cover the granola bars only half. This gives a good irresistible look with all these pretty seeds and shiny chocolate.

This mini version is also great. It’s a small satiating bite to carry everywhere. Yummy Yummy !!!

If you try to make this recipe, don’t hesitate to leave me a short comment with your suggestions. Tell me what you put inside your delicious granola bars. Or just to tell me if you like this recipe (or not 🙁 sniff… but that’s not possible, hahaha).