I have a thing for granola. No, I’m not a trippy hippie. But I do love the healthy simplicity of a delicious granola bar while outside on a hike or as an afternoon snack at work.
The problem with most granola bar brands though is they’re laden with fat and unpronounceable ingredients – especially those fatty Nature Valley Granola Bars. Sure there are “healthy alternatives” like the Chewy Granola Bars from Kashi, but at $5 for a box of 6 tiny bars I think I’ll pass on even the organic manufactured versions. I’ll keep my cashi in my pocket, thank you very much. Smirk.
To show you that healthy and organic granola snacks can be had for less, I’ve put together a yummy homemade granola recipe for your snacking pleasure. If you’re not into bar shapes, go ahead and use a cookie cutter for no bake cookies! This is a no bake recipe that’s fun to make with your kids too!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups cooked buckwheat, al dente
- 1 cup raw rolled oats
- 3 apples
- 1 cup dried cranberries, or raisins
- 1 cup dried apple slices, or other dried fruit
- 30 dates, pitted and soaked in water for 15 minutes (add more for sweeter snacks)
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 1 1/4 cups raw sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Yields 20 granola bars or around 30 cookies. I used all organic ingredients bought in bulk (no name generics) costing under $6 for the batch.
Instructions:
1. In a food processor, place 1 cup cooked buckwheat, cored apples (keep the peel), dates, honey, cinnamon, salt, and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds.
2. Grind until completely smooth. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.
3. Add 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup almonds, 1/2 cup cranberries, dried apple (or other fruit) slices to the food processor (you don’t need to rinse the bowl in between steps). Very coarsely chop the nuts, seeds, and fruit in a few quick pulses. Add them to the bowl with the apple mixture and combine well.
4. Add the oats, and remaining buckwheat, almonds, sunflower seeds, and cranberries to the mixture and combine.
If the dough is too moist, add a pinch more oats to the mixture. The dough should be sticky but not runny. The varying degrees of chopped nuts, seeds, and fruits give this granola an amazing texture.
5. Spread the granola dough on plastic wrap to shape into bars 1/2 inch thick and then chop into sections 4 inches long.
Alternatively, use a cookie cutter to shape the granola dough into no bake oatmeal cookies – perfect for kids’ lunches and snacks.
6. Place the granola bars or cookies onto dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 135 degrees for 4 hours. Flip the bars over and continue dehydrating for another hour, depending on how chewy and moist you prefer your granola bars. If you prefer very crunchy granola bars, then dehydrate for another 8 hours after flipping.
Granola bars get flipped!
7. Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container. To maintain freshness longer, store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
I would have taken photos of the finished homemade cookies, but they didn’t last long enough. 😉
These are seriously yummy, healthy, and affordable snacks to make. Enjoy!
These look good! But is there a way to dehydrate them without actually having a dehydrator machine thingummin? Would the oven work?
Looks great! I have a health food store where I can buy things in bulk also. I’ve found that it really saves AND you get better quality. Win-Win.
@Nicki These are YUMMY and very frugal when the ingredients are bought in bulk. Win-win is right! 😀
@Christine You could try a few things. 1) Add more raw oatmeal to absorb the moisture and let sit out on your counter for a while. 2) Just eat the mixture as cereal. 😀 3) Heat the oven to a low temperature and then turn it off, placing the bars in the warmed oven to dehydrate as the oven cools.
Mmmm…I need to find a place that sells dates.
Wondering if you’ve tried Alton Brown’s granola. It’s not raw, but it’s supposedly great.
LOL @ keeping your cashi in your pocket! 😀 i love kashi products too, but seldom buy them because they’re so expensive. I’ll have to try these & feed them to my vegan bottomless pit husband. I might add chocolate bits, because the lucky creature doesn’t gain weight no matter what he eats!
@neimanmarxist I think chocolate chips are a wonderful addition to this vegan bar. I might just add a few chunks of chips to my next batch. Your husband is a lucky guy to not have weight worries AND to have you make him these granola bars. 😉
looks like Kashi bars, only fresh and wholesome (being homemade and all!) great recipe worth trying out!
Love the recipe, but I can’t eat dates… Is there something else that can be used as a substitute?
@Aman These bars are tastier than Kashi plus they cost less than half. 😉
@Beth There are a few yummy fruits you can substitute dates with – like raisins, figs, cranberries, and perhaps even prunes. Try fruit which is sweet and sticky to bind the ingredients together. Could also add additional honey to add sweetness and stickiness.
Fox- this sounds delicious! And the previous commenters asked my questions which were about lack of dehydrators and dates (can’t stand ’em). I think I would try this with dried apricots and in the oven (or maybe even in our scorching summer sun) or with almond milk as a cereal. thanks again!
@Kelly Apricots would be delicious in this recipe Kelly! Using the sunshine to slightly dehydrate everything would work very very well. Great ideas!
is there a link to print off recipes without the pictures? If not is it possible to have just a point form word doc. available to print off in the future?
thanks for the recipes
Derek
@Derek You could try copying and pasting the text into a .doc or .txt file to get the recipes without the photos.
yum – I suspect I’d pretty much want to eat them before they became granola bars! This will be my weekend project – too much of my own cashi is going to kashi! Thanks for the inspiration, as always.
I love making my own granola bars too, although I use a different recipe. Maybe I should try yours and compare!
[…] has a Granola Bar Recipe that I’d like to try just as soon as I can find someone that will let me borrow a […]
This is great! I love granola bars, but I always feel guilty buying them b/c they are so expensive.
Another advantage to making your own granola bars – no packaging waste! These look great. Thanks for all the great tips.
@Dani2 Ohh yes, the packing waste – you are so right! Since I make all my own snacks I forgot about all the packaging that goes into individually wrapping each and every bar. Enjoy the package free bars!
These look incredible. Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe.
Looks like a great recipe! Where can I find buckwheat?? Trader’s Joe?
looks like a great recipe – with these granola bars why would you ever have to buy a bar again in the store
My family loves granola bars but they can be rather expensive and laden with sugars. Thanks for sharing…looks good 🙂
THANKS!! I have been on the internet for over an hour looking for something that didn’t qualify as dessert, or have half a pound of butter or oil. I, too, quit buying Kashi when they went to $5.00/box from $3.50 and I noticed “natural ingredients” popping up on their labels. I want to know where in their world quest for ingredients they found that rarest of rarities: the Natural Ingredient Tree. Maybe THAT’S what spiked the price!! I’m probably going to bake them, though.
hi there. this is exciting to know how to make one’s own granola bars!
if one does not own a dehydrator, how long in the oven before they get too dried out and crumbly do you figure?
also, is the honey absolutely necessary? i find with the fruits you include that it would already be plenty sweet enough for me. any suggestions? would it fall apart without it as a binder?
thanks]
marina
Hi, I would like to try this recipe, but I cannot eat buckwheat (you just do not want to know what it does to me). I have no problems with any other grains, so can you make an alternative suggestion to buckwheat?
thanks, Leslie
Hi Leslie: Try this Homemade Granola Recipe — it’s buckwheat free! 🙂
Hi Marina! You don’t need a dehydrator. Just set your oven to a low temperature for an hour or so until they are just moist to your liking. You can skip the honey without the bars falling apart.
These look great – but can I freeze these bars?
Great!
I’m a huge fan of granola bars. It’s better than eating candy bars when you get hungry at work. I have to try that recipe.
Keep posting!
These look delicious! My hubby and I just bought a food processor and dehydrator and have been having fun testing out new recipes with them. This would be prefect as we also stopped buying granola bars because of the added fat and sugar and skyrocketing prices.
But do note that this recipe is NOT VEGAN… as it contains honey as an ingredient. If you left out the honey or replaced with agave then there you go! Delicious vegan bars 🙂 YUM!
Very excited about this one
Any suggestions for a substitution for the raw apples? Raw apples and my mouth just don’t get along, but I’m not sure there is something that would have a similar texture
The recipe looks great, but you do not indicate anywhere how many calories per bar. Could you let us know?
I am allergic to apples (along with 24 other foods). I am going to try to make them with Asian pears which are available in my area.
Would be interested to know the calories per par or cookie.
What does the “al dente” mean after buckwheat?
Sorry, I’m new to this 🙂 🙂
Melanie
From Dictionary.com
al den·te
[al den-tey, -tee; It. ahl den-te]
adjective, adverb
(especially of pasta) cooked so as not to be too soft; firm to the bite: spaghetti al dente.
Thanks for posting the great photos of the step by step process. I purchased buckwheat groats at the natural foods store. It this the same ingredient called for in this recipe?
Calla
What could i add instead of the almonds? not a big fan of almonds.
Thanks for this great recipe. It looks good and delicious. All I need is buckwheat but I don’t know where to get that since I’m new in this place plus I’m Asian . I am going to make it rigth now with 3 cups of oats instead of 2 cups buckwheat and 1 cup oats.
Great recipe… sounds delicious!
Wondering though, how to store these, and how long will they last? It’s the apple that really throws me off!
Can these be frozen? I know you say they will last up to a week in the fridge, but I plan on making them for my toddler. I doubt she’ll go through the batch in a week. Let me know please, looks delish!