Homemade Granola Bars

My children L-O-V-E granola bars as a snack!  And we can find premade ones pretty inexpensively at the local discount grocery store.

The only trouble is, the ingredients in the store version are often not that great.

Homemade granola bars use healthier ingredients and are so fun to make!  And this recipe is easy enough that older kids can make it themselves!

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Homemade Granola Bars Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup honey
• 4 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup whole wheat or spelt flour (I get bulk flour here or learn how to make your own flour)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla (learn now to make homemade vanilla extract)
• 2 cups of add-ins of your choice. You can use mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, coconut, etc.  (Be creative and add whatever you want!  For the batch pictured above, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, coconut, and sunflower seeds.)

How to Make Homemade Granola Bars

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a 9″x13″ glass baking dish with butter.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and honey and mix well (I just use a plastic or wooden spoon to mix.)
3. Add the oats, flour, baking soda, and vanilla and mix well.
4. Stir in the add-ins by hand.
5. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and press it firmly into the pan (and you can even use your hands for this part!).
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  They won’t look or feel “done,” but instead they will still be very moist.  Don’t worry, they’ll harden as they cool.
7. Allow the bars to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into bars.  Let them cool completely before removing and serving.  They can be stored at room temperature or you can even freeze them for later use.

Note: If you want your granola bars crispier, slice the fully baked bars and spread them apart slightly on a cookie sheet.  Bake them again at 200 degrees for 30-60 minutes until crispy but not browned.

This recipe comes from The Family Camping Handbook.  I altered the directions a bit, and the photo is mine.

This is just one of quite a few great recipes from The Family Camping Handbook that I plan to use when we go camping!

More Recipe Inspiration

• Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
• Easy Healthy Homemade Granola
• Pumpkin Pie Granola
• Peanut Butter Cookies