Today I’m sharing my go-to recipe for the easiest granola bars, ever.
The ones we used to reach for when we needed a quick breakfast or snack on the go on work days, or a fun hiking or picnic snack for leisurely social gatherings (oh, how we miss those!), and now love as a simple, nutrient-dense, satisfying snack when we’re stuck inside and are sick of the same old snacks we’ve been eating for the past few months.
Perhaps I should call these the most flexible granola bars ever, because as long as you have oats, any type of nut or seed butter, something sticky and sweet like honey or maple syrup, and some add-ins like nuts, seeds, chocolate, and/or dried fruit laying around, you can throw these together in minutes.
Shall we?
First, we’ll chop the living daylights out of whatever chunky add-ins we have laying around: almonds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, pistachios, dark chocolate, raisins, dates, dried apricots- the granola bar is your oyster. You can do this by hand, or toss everything into your food processor and pulse 3-5 times just to break everything up. Totally your choice. For these, I went with a combination of almonds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, dark chocolate, a few raisins, and freeze-dried blueberries.
Next, we’ll stir together some nut or seed butter (I opted for almond butter here) with some maple syrup (or hone, agave, etc), dump in our oats and chopped up add-ins, sprinkle in a little salt and cinnamon, and mix it all together into a sticky dough.
The dough gets pressed into a parchment lined pan, chilled, cut, and voila! Granola bars.
No need to turn on the oven, and only a handful of dishes to wash when it’s all said and done.
And, while I love them for their simplicity and flexibility, I really, really love them for their taste + texture. They’re soft, a little sweet, a little salty, full of great chunky texture, and just genuinely get me excited to eat them.
Hopefully they elicit the same reaction for you, too.
If you make them, be sure to leave a comment below letting me know how they turn out, or take a picture of your granola bars and share it with me on Instagram so I can see!
Easiest No Bake Granola Bars
Time: 1 hour
Yields: 12
Ingredients:
- 1 cup almond butter (or any nut/seed butter you love)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup (or honey, agave, etc)
- 2 cups nuts, seeds, chocolate, and/or dried or freeze-dried fruit, measured after chopping
- 1 1/2 cups quick oats (or rolled oats, pulsed 3-4 times in a food processor to break up)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions:
- Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Stir together the almond butter and maple syrup in a large bowl.
- Roughly chop all of the larger nuts, seeds, chocolate, and dried fruit until everything is about the size of a chocolate chip. Seeds, smaller dried fruit like raisins and currants, and halved pistachios don’t need to be chopped at all! Measure out 2 cups total of whatever nuts/seeds/dried fruit you’re using and pour into the bowl of almond butter.
- Add oats, salt, and cinnamon to the bowl, and mix well with a sturdy wooden spoon until fully combined.
- Pour granola bar mixture into the prepared pan, and use your hands, and then a mason jar or sturdy-bottomed glass to press down as tightly as possible into the pan, ensuring you have a tightly compacted layer.
- Place pan into the fridge for at least 45 minutes before lifting out the parchment and cutting into 12 bars. Transfer bars to an airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.
NOTES: Use whatever combination of nuts/seeds/chocolate/dried or freeze-dried fruit you love! For the bars in these photos, I used roasted salted almonds, roasted pistachios, raw pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate, a few raisins (like literally 10 in the bottom of a bag), and freeze-dried blueberries. I typically use these bars as an opportunity to use up whatever odds and ends I have in the pantry, rather than making a trip to the store specifically to purchase one type of nut or dried fruit. If you’d prefer not to chop them all by hand, feel free to dump your nuts/chocolate/dried fruit into a food processor and pulse 6-8 times, until broken up into smallish pieces.