Chocolate Granola Bars (No Bake)

Easy, tasty and healthy homemade granola bar recipe with goodness of oats, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, peanut butter, dark chocolate and raisins. It is simple to make, no bake, gluten free and can be made vegan too.

These chocolate oats bars can be enjoyed as a quick grab-and-go breakfast with coffee or tea on busy mornings, mid day snack or as wholesome dessert to satisfy sweet cravings. You can’t stop your kids from having chocolates but can definitely sneak in healthy ingredients using this recipe.

If you are having second thoughts about making granola bars at at home then I would totally recommend you to read the labels of store bough bars, as most of them contain artificial ingredients like preservatives, corn syrup or glucose syrup etc which you wouldn’t want to consume everyday.

With this recipe you can make granola bars at home using premium natural organic ingredients and easily customise them by adding nuts, seeds or dry fruits of choice. The granola bar recipe shared here is:

• No Bake
• Gluten Free
• Has no added sugar
• Easy and quick to make
• Can be made dairy free

Ingredients you’ll need:

• Rolled oats: To make these oats granola bars, use ‘rolled oats’ and not quick, instant or steel cut oats as they will not render the same texture. Rolled oats are naturally gluten free but still always check the packaging as certain brands claim to have traces of wheat or soya.
• Nuts: Feel free to use any nuts of your choice like almonds, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts or peanuts etc.
• Seeds: I have used mixed seeds packet which had sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds etc. You can use any seeds as per your liking.
• Raisins & dried berries: Both these ingredients add natural sweetness to the bars. You can use golden raisins, black raisins or mix of dried berries. A handful of finely chopped dates also enhance the taste of bars.
• Nut butter: You can use crunchy or creamy peanut butter as per liking but look for the variety which is unsalted & unsweetened. Instead of peanut butter you can also use almond butter.
• Chocolate: You can use milk chocolate, white chocolate or if want to keep calories in check use dark chocolate which has less amount of sugar and packed with antioxidants. I have used chocolate bar here but you can use chocolate chips also (measure by weight).
• Honey: Honey acts as sweetener and binding agent in the recipe. For vegan granola bars, use maple syrup or dates syrup.

These chocolate oats granola bars are great to carry while travelling also as they make you feel full while giving instant energy. Just wrap them individually, pop them in your travel bag and you will have delicious munchies on the go.

How to make chocolate oats bars?

To make these bars, we will first dry roast oats and nuts to make them crunchier. To these roasted mixture, we will add honey (or maple syrup), dried blueberries / cranberries and raisins and in the end will mix this whole fruit and nut mixture with melted chocolate and peanut butter (or almond butter).

In this post I have shown two methods of making them. The ingredients will remain same with just slight difference in end steps.

• Method I: In this method, we mix half of the chocolate inside the bars and pour rest of on top. The final result will be bars with one side covered with chocolate (shown in image below).

• Method II: The second way is to mix melted chocolate with entire oats nuts mixture. The final bars appear more uniform like they have been dipped in chocolate (shown in video).

How to store granola bars?

These granola bars can easily be stored in airtight box for 10-15 days. You can leave it on kitchen counter but in summers it is better to store in fridge as the chocolate can melt quickly. They can be also packed individually in cling wrap or parchment paper and used for edible gifting. When chilled these bars have crunchy texture but at room temperature they will be slightly chewy.

Youtube Video :

Hope you would like this delicious chocolate granola bar no bake recipe. More recipes you might like:

• Eggless Oats Pancakes 
• Chocolate Peanut Stuffed Dates
• Oats Peanut Butter Energy Balls
• Air fryer Baked Oats (with apples)
• Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients: (For 12 bars)

• Rolled Oats- 2 cups
• Chopped Mixed Nuts (Almonds / Walnuts / Cashews)- 1/2 cup
• Mixed Seeds (Melon / Sunflower / Flax)- 1/3 cup
• Golden Raisins (or sultanas)- 1/4 cup
• Dried Cranberries (or any berries)- 1/4 cup
• Honey / Maple Syrup- 1/4 cup
• Peanut Butter / Almond Butter (unsweetened)- 1/3 cup
• Milk or Dark chocolate*- 150 grams (~5.5 oz)
• Chia seeds- 1 tbsp
• Oil- 1/2 tsp (For brushing)

(*Instead of chocolate bar you can use chocolate chips also. Use vegan or dairy free chocolate to make vegan granola bars. )

Directions:

Method I:

Step 1:
Transfer rolled oats to a pan and dry roast on low-medium flame till they become crunchy, slightly golden in colour and start releasing a nutty aroma. Transfer these roasted oats to a large bowl.

Step 2:
To the same pan, add chopped nuts and mixed seeds. Dry roast them for 3-4 minutes till they become crunchy. Transfer them to the same bowl with oats.

Step 3:
Add raisins, dried cranberries (or any berries), chia seeds and honey / maple syrup / date syrup to these roasted oats-nuts mixture. Mix well. Keep this mixture aside.

Step 4:
Line a 6″ inch square tin with a parchment paper. Brush some oil on it so that the bars don’t stick to the base or sides. Instead of tin, even any cookie tray can be used.

Step 5:
Roughly chop the chocolate or break it into pieces. Transfer it in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in bursts of 20 seconds till chocolate melts completely (By bursts, it means microwave for 20 seconds then check if it has melted and repeat). It took me around one minute here. Be careful as chocolate tends to burn really quickly on heating.

Step 6:
To this melted chocolate, add peanut butter and give a good stir. You can use creamy or crunchy variety as per your liking.

Step 7:
Add half of this melted chocolate-peanut butter in the oats mixture we had prepared in step 3.

Mix everything with the help of a spoon or spatula so that all ingredients are mixed evenly.

Step 8:
Transfer this mix in the lined baking tin. Be little quick in this step as we don’t want to cool down our mixture. Press it with a spoon or flat spatula inside the tin.

Step 9:
Pour the remaining melted chocolate over the flattened mixture in the tin. To spread the chocolate till the edges either use spoon or tilt the tin so that chocolate will flow by itself and reach till the corners. Let it cool in the fridge for 2 hours.

Step 10:
Once it is set completely, take the tin out of the fridge. Lift the chocolate-oats slab by holding the parchment paper from sides and keep it on a chopping board.

Step 11:
After 2-3 minutes, cut the slab into bars using a sharp knife. I have cut it into pieces of 1″x 3″ inches size. This gives you exactly 12 bars.

So now when you lift these bars, on one side there is a layer of chocolate and on other side you can see beautiful grainy texture of oats, nuts & dried fruits. Enjoy these delicious & healthy chocolate granola bar as breakfast or snack.

Method II:

The recipe will remain exactly same till step 6 but after that follow the steps below:

1. Add the entire melted chocolate & peanut butter mixture to roasted oats-nuts mixture and mix well.

2. Transfer it to lined baking tin and level with back of spoon or spatula while pressing the mixture downwards. Let it set in fridge for 1-2 hrs.

3. Once set, lift the block by holding the edges of parchment paper. Cut into squares or rectangles using a sharp knife.

Storage Instruction: Store these granola bars in an air tight container. If it is summer time, store the container in fridge as chocolate can melt at higher temperatures.

Variations: You can make endless variations by using combinations of different types of chocolate (white / milk / dark), nuts, coconut flakes, dried fruits or berries like candied orange peels, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries etc & almond or pistachio butter instead of peanut butter.

As sweetener, instead of honey, you can use dates paste or blended dates. For additional flavouring, you can add vanilla extract, cinnamon powder or instant coffee powder.

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