Homemade Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Why, oh why, have I waited so long to make my own granola bars?

For some reason, I thought granola bars might be expensive to make or take a long time. Nope and nope.

When I buy granola bars at the grocery store, I try to ignore the fact that the good, organic granola bars are about one dollar each bar. Insanity. With four kids needing an after school snack, that adds up pretty quickly. Never mind the fact that one box of those bad boys is enough for exactly one round of after school snacking… These homemade chocolate chip granola bars are a game changer. Move this to the top of your make-this-at-home list.

I searched all over the internet to see how people were making their homemade granola bars – there are a million different recipes out there, my friends. I knew I wanted to use as little flour as possible, honey as a sweetener, and coconut oil instead of other oils like canola.

In the end, we went with a lot of oats, a little flour (gluten-free), a little brown sugar … a few mix-ins like unsweetened coconut, dried fruit, nuts, and dark chocolate chips … and then we bound it all together with honey and coconut oil. I didn’t need to buy a thing. Better yet, it took me less than ten minutes to mix the ingredients together, spread it in a pan, and pop it in the oven. My kids immediately started requesting variations… peanut butter? no nuts? more nuts? no chocolate? (Are you sure we’re related? No chocolate?!)

These granola bars were ready in just about half an hour. They needed to cool for a bit but I had to leave anyway to pick up the twins from school so by the time I got back about an hour later, the bars were ready to be cut and absolutely perfect. PERFECT!

Advice … don’t cut them before 45 minutes or they will be too soft. Don’t wait longer than one hour or they will crumble. Store in an air-tight container – I like to layer a small piece of parchment paper between the layers. They should last about a week – or less depending on the number of little people who will be snagging these. I will try to post our awesome peanut butter granola bar next week … still tweaking that recipe! Who else makes their own granola bars? Am I really the last person to get on this bandwagon?

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Homemade Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Making your own granola bars might be one of the easiest after school snacks you could possibly make...

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 24 bars

Author Erin Brighton

Ingredients

• 4 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/4 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened flake coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup dried fruit (pineapple or raisins - optional)
• Salt , pinch
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup honey

Instructions

1. Line a cookie pan with parchment paper. Spray with cooking spray.
2. Combine oats, flour, coconut, pineapple, brown sugar, salt, and the chocolate chips.
3. In a small saucepan or in the microwave, combine coconut oil and honey. Heat. Stir to melt the coconut oil. Add the vanilla.
4. Remove from heat. Cool! If you pour warm coconut oil and honey over chocolate chips, your chips will melt and you will make chocolatey granola bars...
5. Pour over dry ingredients. Stir to mix very well so all the dry ingredients are evenly coated with the honey and coconut oil.
6. Spread in parchment lined cookie tray.
7. Cook at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.
8. Cool for about 45 minutes to an hour. Turn onto a cutting board and cut into bar shapes.
9. Store in an airtight container.