7 Ingredient Granola Bar Recipe (No Bake) - Maryann Jacobsen (2024)

FAQs

7 Ingredient Granola Bar Recipe (No Bake) - Maryann Jacobsen? ›

Chia seeds are often praised for their binding powers. In fact, they secure ingredients so well that they can even be used as an egg replacer. Adding just a spoonful of chia seeds to your favorite granola bar recipe will make a huge difference in its texture.

Chia seeds are often praised for their binding powers. In fact, they secure ingredients so well that they can even be used as an egg replacer. Adding just a spoonful of chia seeds to your favorite granola bar recipe will make a huge difference in its texture.

If your granola bars are falling apart or seem too crumbly, here are a few tips. Make sure you use honey or another sticky sweetener such as maple syrup in the liquid part of the recipe; this recipe calls for honey. This will help bind together the ingredients and keep that signature bar shape.

Honey – Along with the nut butter, it helps all these ingredients stick together! I love its warm amber flavor in this recipe. Vanilla extract – It amps up the bars' warm flavor.

Add an egg white.

The whites act as a kind of glue that binds the ingredients together. To ensure that the egg whites coat all the ingredients, I beat them with a whisk until foamy and increased in volume, which makes it much easier to fold into the granola.

While the oats and nuts bake, you can make the sticky glue that holds our bars together. You'll melt butter, honey, and brown sugar in a saucepan and simmer until the sugar dissolves. Mix this sticky mixture with the toasted oats and nuts.

Fill the bowl up with water to completely cover the mixture – enough that you can stir to combine. This soaking process will help the oats and seeds digest better. After the oat/seed mixture has soaked 8-12 hours, add the rest of the ingredients and combine.

Higher temperatures can cause ingredients like nuts, seeds, and coconut to burn before the batch has a chance to properly dry out and crisp up, Perry says. Stick with a low temperature, keep an eye on your mixture, and stir it from time to time to help it brown evenly.

Homemade granola bars aren't hard to make once you have all the right ingredients and they'll certainly save you money in the long term.

If you've never made homemade granola bars, you are going to be pleasantly surprised by just how easy they are. They save well (wrap and freeze them for up to two months), are more affordable than store-bought bars, and don't contain the long list of unpronounceable ingredients.

Why is my granola bar not crunchy? ›

For really crispy bars, you can either bake them all the way to 32 or more minutes or you can take the bars out after 25 minutes, let them cool for a bit, slice them up into the bars, and then put them back in on a baking sheet to bake for 10 -15 minutes so that they get more crispy.

Keep in mind that the granola won't be dry right out of the oven — it will dry as it cools. So take it out of the oven when it looks lightly toasted and smells like cooked honey. We're going for a toasty smell here. Add dried fruit after baking.

For added softness, Nature Valley's hack is a quick pop in the microwave for a warm and chewier snack. Alternatively, yogurt lovers can break up the bars while they're still wrapped and pour it into their yogurt for extra crunch.

“It's not just to keep it from sticking to the bottom; it also gives it a little bit of a barrier so your granola doesn't burn." Valerie notes that parchment paper is key in helping the granola cook evenly (and not brown too much around the edges).

NOTE: The granola will clump and harden while cooling - not during baking. Allow to cool before stirring in the raisins, cranberries, or craisins. If stored in an airtight container, your granola could last for 2 weeks.

Peanut, almond, cashew, sunflower seed, and pumpkin seed are all great options. Another great addition is dried fruit, which sweetens up your bar with naturally occurring sugars while providing fiber and vitamins—plus chewiness and binding.

Overall, raisins are an excellent binder that perform well when used in protein bar applications and could be used as a binder in many other applications. BENCHTOP PROCESSING METHOD: In a food processor or buffalo chopper, blend whole raisins, half the nuts, all the egg white, salt, vanilla, and yogurt powder.

The three most common binders are xanthan gum, guar gum and psyllium husk powder. Each one works in a slightly different way to help create the structure we need to hold baked goods together.