Granola Bars With Chocolate
- Total Time
- About 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 3tablespoons unsalted butter or canola oil, plus additional for the pan and for your hands
- 2cups mixed flaked grain cereal or rolled oats
- ½cup flaxseed meal
- ½teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼teaspoon salt (optional)
- ⅓cup honey or agave syrup
- 2tablespoons brown sugar
- 1teaspoon vanilla
- ½cup chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Generously butter or oil a 9-by-9-inch metal or glass baking pan.
- Step 2
Melt the butter over medium heat in a wide saucepan. Add the flaked grains or oats. Stir over medium heat until the grains are lightly toasted, taking care not to let them burn. Stir until they are beginning to smell toasty and have slightly darkened, six to seven minutes. Remove from the heat, and transfer to a bowl. Add the flaxseed meal, the cinnamon and the salt. Wipe the pan clean.
- Step 3
Combine the honey, vanilla and brown sugar in the pan in which you toasted the oats. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil five minutes. Pour over the oat mixture, and stir until it is evenly distributed over the mixture. Allow to cool for five minutes, then stir in the chocolate pieces.
- Step 4
Scrape into the pan, and spread evenly. Place in the oven for 20 minutes. Do not allow to brown or the bars will be hard instead of chewy. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool. Cut into 16 to 20 pieces, and store in an airtight container.
- Advance preparation: The bars will keep for a few weeks in an airtight container.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Great vehicle for some powerhouse additions - along with the flaxseed I added milk thistle, burdock root and dandelion root for a 4-part fresh-ground meal, then folded in goji berries as a final step. The possibilities are endless and these are going to be fun for continued add-in experimentation. The addition of a nut butter helped make my 2nd batch turn out less hardened. These will be great for travel and on hikes!
Also, found it easier to cut these into pieces prior to placing them in the oven.
I keep coming back to this recipe! I love the combination of flavors and find this a great, healthy snack for anyone. I once substituted maple syrup for the honey, but the resulting bars did not hold together and I ended up using it as granola topping for yogurt.
I don't have a 9 by 9 pan. The first time I made these I used a 9 by 13 inch pan and made a recipe and half. The result was thin and not very bar-like. This time I used an 8 by 8 pan and they were thicker and held together much better. I used a chopped up fancy dark chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips, which worked well.
Added 1/4 c chunky peanut butter to syrup mix in one batch - they didn't fall apart, and were very, very good. Not sticky, either. Also used a light maple syrup instead of honey, and increased the syrup by two tbsp instead of using brown sugar.
less sugar
coconut flakes
cut before baking
We generally do not eat sweets, but we will make an exception for these. Relatively low calorie count as long as I can discipline myself to 1 or 2. I have used many of her recipes and every one is excellent- and healthy.
Yummy. Works well to double the recipe and use a 9x13 pan. Also, timing is important when cutting the bars: too warm and they fall apart, too cool and they're tough to cut.
I added 1/4c unsweetened coconut and that was delightful. Next time I'll cut back the chocolate by a half or so as it's fairly chocolate-y. I'm also interested to try adding some dried fruit and/or nuts. Very versatile recipe.
The second time I made these, I forgot to boil the sugars together prior to baking. They came out much chewier (I like) but fell apart a bit too easily. Is there a way to guarantee chewy bars that don't fall apart? Is it necessary to boil the sugar mixture together?
I made these per the recipe using agave and oats. I boiled the agave and brown sugar, but it started to smell a bit burned so I didn't boil it for the 5 minutes. As I took strategic bites while the bars cooled they increased in their crunch factor and they held together better the longer they cooled. I'm not sure if the near burning of the agave attributes to the crunch, but the family liked these and I would make again!
What happened? These were not bars. Crumbly granola with chocolate!
Great recipe! It came out too sweet. I would reduce the brown sugar by a tablespoon possibly half a tablespoon. I would also add dark chocolate chips rather then semi sweet chocolate chips.
Perhaps I didn't use enough honey, but I was unable to make granola bars and instead ended up with about 3 cups of very delicious granola. I personally preferred it as granola as it did taste amazing with my yogurt!
1st making - used coconut oil in bars, used ground peanuts instead of flaxseed, pre-cut squares. Cooked at 160~ for 17 minutes Came out of pan in perfect squares with pre-cut!
These were excellent! Perfect as is.
I was concerned about this turning into crumble so I took advice from some of the comments by adding no sugar peanut butter and crushed peanuts with the linseed flour, I also made sure to well mash the mixture with the back of a spoon into the pan. I didn’t have a 9*9 pan so I used two loaf pans lined with parchment . This works well because once cooled it was easy to pull the granola loaf out of the pan and slice into individual bars. They’re delicious and even my fussy teenager gobbled them up. Will definitely make again and again!
I added a bunch of blended nuts, hemp seeds, chia seeks, extra salt, and VERY dark chocolate. I think my additions prevented the granola from solidifying into bars, but regardless, it turned out dangerously delicious granola.
Came out as granola…again. However, the taste is good.
I didn't have flaxseed meal so subbed with chia seeds. Stuck to the recipie, other than that, and they are delicious.
Loved this recipe! I subbed brown sugar for maple syrup. Added garam masala and up’d the cinnamon. Added a couple spoons of sunflower butter, too. Cut before baking and cooled in fridge.
10-15 minutes. Used leftover granola. Try with nuts. Dried strawberries. Candied oranges. Nuts.
These are delicious. Missing flax so replaced with coconut. Flattened and pressed the bars with measuring cup after baking. Makes sense looking at the picture of the bars. They’re thin and pressed together. Used a hard cheese square knife to cut once cooled. Didn’t crumble. Next time, Will try the peanut butter idea and bake in light colored metal pan for better heat distribution. I used glass dish and sides cooked quicker than middle.
Used maple syrup instead of honey, added puffed rice cereal. Somewhere between a chewy and crunchy bar. Good flavor but a touch too sweet. Will add peanut butter next time.
Mine came out crumbly … it might help to make more syrup than advised. Otherwise, tasty!
I made these again. My first couple of times they did turn crumbly and were great as granola. However (!), I did take the advance of another baker/cook, and added 1/4 cup of peanut butter to the syrup mixture, cooked for 20, and they did harden up! Well-ah, bars.
Ditto on how this mix just fell apart and became granola. Most recipes like these have a nut butter that act as a binder. Skip it and just buy granola bars. I never have much luck with this author’s recipes.
A++ with added crunchy peanut butter as stated by other reviewers, I added roughly 1/3 cup. Bars kept well under a cake dome (3 days) without drying out.
This might be a stupid question, but is vanilla and vanilla extract the same?
Delicious! Definitely increase the quantity of sugars just a bit and boil for the full 5 minutes. As others have said, cut when they’re halfway cool. Yum!
There wasn’t enough agave to make bars. So I made more agave and brown sugar and it was a bit too sweet. I’ll find another recipe using coconut oil so I might not need sugar at all.
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