Healthy Fruit and Nut Granola Bars (Easy No-Bake Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

What do you use to bind granola bars together? ›

While there are several different sticky ingredients that you can use, we've found that the binding agent that works the best is honey! When added to your homemade granola bars, honey acts as glue that sticks all the pieces together.

Homemade granola bars are a great alternative to store-bought ones. Because they typically use minimally processed ingredients and very little added sugar or salt, they're often more nutritious than packaged versions.

When dampened, chia seeds gel and swell to several times their original size, plus they get very sticky. Since they're already used as egg alternatives in baking, it's not surprising that chia seeds act as the ideal granola binder, but it is strange that they do it better than eggs.

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. Plus, your kitchen will smell like a bakery while these granola bars bake. Ahhhh.

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.

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.

Consuming one or two bars per day as a snack is generally acceptable, but should be balanced with other nutritional needs and the overall diet. Individuals should be cautious of their total daily intake of calories, sugar, fat, fiber, and sodium to maintain a balanced diet.

Because granola contains carbohydrates, it can spike blood sugar levels in some people with diabetes. However, whether or not granola spikes your blood sugar levels, and how quickly it may cause a blood sugar spike, will vary depending on what type of granola you eat and what you pair it with.

Nut butter is a super flavorful fat that serves multiple purposes in granola. It acts as a binding agent—along with additional coconut oil and whatever natural sweetener I've chosen—helping to pull the dry ingredients together into a wet, sticky mass for baking.

Should you soak oats before making granola bars? ›

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.

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. “I personally love adding chopped dates or apricots,” Ansari says.

Often touted for their whole grain goodness, most granola bars are sticky-sweet junk food in disguise. Don't let a few oats fool you — especially when you also see marshmallows and chocolate chips. Instead: If granola bars are a must-have, choose one with 6 grams of sugar or less per bar, and hopefully some fibre.

If you're using it as a binder in something like a granola bar you need to substitute something with a similar very thick consistency. That would include corn syrup, glucose syrup, and golden syrup. If you're baking with it you'll also want to stay with one of those options to keep the moisture levels similar.

Eating one Nature Valley Granola Bar every day as a snack can be a healthy choice as part of a balanced diet, as long as it is consumed in moderation and not in addition to other high calorie snacks.

The binder is what helps the base ingredients clump together into clusters. Traditionally this is usually a sugar syrup, but it's possible to use any ingredient that has the power to bind. Egg - Egg whites are a great binder for granola if you are trying to avoid sugar.

Get as clumpy as you like.

First, press the granola into an even layer before you put it in the oven. Then, stir it only once halfway through cooking. For really good clumps, press down on the finished granola before it cools and avoid jostling it on the pan until cooled completely.

If you want to give the granola as a little side gift, then use smaller jars. But if you want it to be the main attraction, get a nice sized one. Create a label and attach it with tape or twine. You can really make it personal by adding their name to the label or add some sweet message for them.