One of my favorite snacks for whenever we go on a trip, especially a road trip, is granola bars. Both the Quaker Chewy and Nature Valley chewy granola bars are top picks, but I never thought to make them myself.
Then the other day I was thinking about making another batch of protein balls, but I just didn’t want to. My cookie scoop is worn out and I didn’t want the hassle of getting my hands all messy to make them, so I kept putting it off.
At the same time, we have a box of the Nature Valley granola bars on hand, left over from our trip to Chicago a few weeks ago. Lightbulb!
Turns out, making soft, chewy granola bars is super easy. It’s slightly more complicated than the protein balls because you need to apply heat tot he ingredients, but it’s still super simple.
Basically, these granola bars have three main components, which you can change to suit your tastes. I plan to make a lot more of them with different variations in the future.
First is the oats mixture. The oats mixture I used for this recipe is just oats, but if you want something closer to the Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, you need to mix in a bit of rice krispies to match the texture.
Second is the mix-ins. The mix-ins can be pretty much anything you want. I like one each of a nut, a fruit, and a chocolate.
- Nuts: I prefer pecans, but chopped almonds, peanuts, or anything else you like works fine, as long as it’s fairly small.
- Fruit: For today’s recipe I used dried cherries, but any dried fruit (raisins, craisins, blueberries, etc.) can work. You can even make a mixture if you want.
- Chocolate: I find that miniature chocolate chips work best, but if you want a different kind of chocolate, chop the larger bits up a bit.
Third is the sweetener mix. For my recipe I used honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and butter. You can also swap out honey for maple syrup, or use whatever mixture you like.
Once you have your ingredient sets, it’s super easy to make these homemade chewy granola bars! Here’s how:
Homemade Chewy Granola Bars
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Baking Dish
- Parchment Paper
- Sauce Pan
- Rubber Spatula
- Glass Or other object with a flat bottom.
Ingredients
- 2½ Cups Old Fashioned Oats
- ⅓ Cup Chopped Pecans Or other nuts
- ⅓ Cup Honey Or maple syrup
- 4 Tbsp Butter
- ¼ Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ Cup Dried Cherries Or other fruit
- ⅓ Cup Mini Chocolate Chips Keep in the freezer until you use them.
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350℉. Line an 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
- Spread the oats and nuts out on the baking sheet (not the parchment-lined dish) and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, stirring halfway through. This helps toast and bring out the flavors. When done, move this to a bowl and set it aside.
- In a sauce pan, combine the honey, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla. Cook the mix over medium heat until the butter is melted and the sugar fully dissolves.
- Add the sweetener mix to the nut and oat mix and stir until well combined. Let this cool for a few minutes, then mix in the rest of your ingredients fruits, chocolate) to form your final mixture.
- Spread this mixture out evenly over your parchment-lined baking dish. Use a flat-bottomed glass or other object to press it down flat and compress it.
- Put this in the fridge for about two hours. Once chilled, remove it from the fridge, cut into bars, and enjoy! If you want to wrap them up to keep them from sticking together, a bit of plastic wrap works fine.