Granola Bars Better Than Store Bought
These are nothing like the pre-packaged snack bars that you buy at the store. These Soft, Chewy Granola Bars are a little more like a bakery-style treat, yet they can be made ahead, frozen, and grabbed as you are running to the gym.
And they are just one of the many exclusive recipes that we have developed for you in our Test Kitchen – and they are Elimination phase safe! And, as we say around here, Certifiably Delicious!
They are oat based and you can read much more about oats in our Ingredient column.
We call them “granola” because all of the classic granola ingredients are in there like oats and dried fruit but the texture is as far from dry and crumbly as you can get.
This recipe was adapted from one that a friend makes at her wholesale bakery, but we put them through our low FODMAP Test Kitchen to tweak them for you.
For instance, she plays around with the various nuts, seeds and fruit, but not all of them would be appropriate for us FODMAPers. She, in turn, took inspiration from Smitten Kitchen. This bar will please everyone in the family.
We like to line our pan with either parchment or foil and if you happen to have one of these small rollers around, it is perfect for creating an even layer of batter prior to baking. Your bars will look bakery perfect!
If you want to be prepared to make dinner quickly and easily – be prepared! Check out our article on 12 Essential Pantry Items, 10 Essential Low FODMAP Baking Items and 8 Essential Fridge & Freezer Items.
Soft, Chewy Granola Bars
These granola bars are thick and chewy and so much better than store-bought. They can be frozen, too.
Low FODMAP Serving Size Info: Makes 16 bars; serving size 1 bar
Ingredients:
- 1 2/3 cups (164 g) old-fashioned oats (use gluten-free if on a gluten-free diet)
- 1/2 cup (80 g) dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup (83 g) raisins
- 1/2 cup (54 g) toasted pecan or walnut halves, chopped
- 1/3 cup (32 g) almond flour, made from blanched or natural almonds
- 1/4 cup (17 g) unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/4 cup (35 g) sunflower seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup (75 ml) creamy, smooth peanut butter (see Tips)
- 1/3 cup (66 g) sugar
- 1/3 cup (75 ml) vegetable oil, such as canola or safflower
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons rice malt syrup
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Preparation:
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Position rack in middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line an 8-inch (20 cm) square pan with aluminum foil or parchment and coat foil or paper with nonstick spray.
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Place oats, cranberries, raisins, nuts, almond flour, coconut, sunflower seeds, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a flat paddle and blend until combined on low speed. Alternately you can toss together by hand in a large bowl.
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Whisk together the peanut butter, sugar, oil, maple syrup, rice malt syrup, water and vanilla in a small bowl until combined and smooth. Add to dry mix and blend until everything is evenly mixed. A mixer makes this easy; if making by hand it will take a little elbow grease, but it can be done! Use a combination of a wooden spoon and silicone spatula if making by hand.
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Scrape mixture into prepared pan leveling and smoothing the top with a small offset spatula.
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Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center tests clean. Cool pan on rack. Lift foil or parchment out of pan, peel away, and cut into a 4 x 4 grid to yield 16 bars. The bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Or, do what we do and wrap bars individually with plastic wrap, place all of those in a zip top bag and store in freezer for up to a month. This makes it very easy to grab on one-the-go and they defrost very quickly.
Notes:
Tips
- Serving size is everything with these bars. There are FODMAP limits for nuts, seeds and dried fruit so we suggest that you start with 1 bar per serving and see how you feel.
- We like these best if made with no-stir style peanut butter made with palm oil. You can use all-natural peanut butter (ingredients will be peanuts and salts) but the bar’s texture will become drier. Try both and see which you like.
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more. For a more detailed explanation, please read our article Understanding The Nutrition Panel Within Our Recipes.
Made these bars today , they taste amazing. Thank you.
How do I find out the nutritional info ie calories, protein sugars etc
Hi Rachel, thank you for writing. At this point we do not provide that information as we are focusing on the FODMAP information and do not want to weigh people down with too much at once.
Sounds good, but raisins and coconut is high FODMAP. Would be great with some alternatives.
Hi Bjorn, dried, shredded coconut and raisins are low FODMAP in certain portions. This recipe is Certified Low FODMAP by Monash University. It has been certified through their Recipe Certification Program. If you follow the serving sizes, the bars are considered low FODMAP. We also have a great article on all sorts of coconut products that you might find interesting. It goes over fresh coconut, dried (several forms), coconut water, flour etc. We hope you try the bars! – And for more information on the recipe certification you can go here https://www.fodmapeveryday.com/fodmaps/recipe-certification/
thank you for your great effort ! but i don’t have rice malt syrup , maple syrup nor peanut butter 🙁 any alternatives ?
The recipe is Certified as Low FODMAP by Monash University as it is written. Any changes will null that designation. That said, you could try almond butter in lieu of peanut butter, but as for the liquid sweeteners, the recipe will change dramatically if you use sugar or brown sugar in their place. You could also try light corn syrup, which is not high fructose corn syrup. I cannot vouch for the outcome, though.
I thought dried fruit was high FODMAP. Is this a matter of quantity?
Exactly! This recipe is low FODMAP and even suitable for during Elimination – IF you adhere to serving sizes and are mindful of stacking. If you are new to the diet, stacking is often what throws people (in addition to paying attention to quantity). You might want to read our article on Stacking to brush up. Simply stated, stacking is when you have an amount of a particular FODMAP – let’s say fructans, which are in raisins – and then eat another fructan-rich food at the same meal. This can push you over a fructan limit and you might trigger symptoms. While the Monash app is very helpful to understand lab-tested low FODMAP amounts, YOUR individual experience might be different. Start slow and assess your reactions.
I made these and while they taste good, they are WAY too sweet and oily. They’re incredibly unhealthy and I think they could be greatly improved by reducing or eliminating a lot of the sugar/oil.
I typed the recipe and it’s yield into Cronometer, so here’s the nutritional info for just one bar: 210 kcal, 12.9g fat, 15.7g sugar. That’s pretty extreme for a “snack”.
Hi Michelle, these are based on a very popular bar sold in a bakery that we admire. We consider these a great treat that are enjoyed by those following the low FODMAP diet, as well as the rest of the family, which was another goal of the recipe. We focus on making sure that recipes are low FODMAP, which these are and we think these are way better than store-bought. If you like, you can reduce the oil and or sugar and that will not affect the FODMAP status. We are just very recently adding nutritional data to our recipes, so for you I added it to this recipe ASAP. Our values are different than yours. As always, third-party nutritional database information should be considered approximations. Perhaps you would like our Reduced Sugar Reduced Fat Banana Bread. We try to have something for everyone who is following the diet.
I made these, they are very yummy, but so crumbly, hardly could call them bars. Have you got any idea why, I followed the recipe without alterations
Hi there, if you used the ingredients as stated then the things I would look at are measuring technique, measuring equipment and oven calibration. Also, I have found some oats, often organic for some reason, to be thicker and drier. As you can see in the image, ours hold together and have a chewy texture.
This looks like a great recipe. Can you suggest any modifications (psyllium or ?that could make them higher fiber? Or any other other comparable recipes? I love the Enjoy Life Breakfast Ovals but they aren’t high fiber either and get to be expensive to keep in stock in my pantry for daily use.)
These are soft and chewy. Some folks find them rich and sweet. I would suggest reviewing this article on Fiber and then discussing additions with your medical team. The do think the recipe would stand some tweaking in terms of adding something like that.
Me again. Sorry to be a nuisance. After reviewing the recipe ingredients carefully and the article on Fiber, I have a few additional questions about ingredients. There are really a lot of ingredients many of which I don’t have, don’t like and would likely never use for anything else.
Could the raisins be replaced with something else–e.g. a low Fodmap quantity of dates? Could the almond flour be replaced with gluten free flour? Could the sunflower seeds be replaced with another type of seeds?
I will definitely use your suggestion of possibly replacing the rice malt syrup with light corn syrup.
As far as adding fiber, I think I would try the recipe without doing that at first and see how it goes. My medical team has preciously suggested using Metamucil or FiberCon but both caused gas problems so in any case I would only add a very small amount to these bars which already have 5g fiber.
Thanks.
Hi Lee, you are not a nuisance! But, here is the deal, the recipes on the site are formulated to not only work, but to be low FODMAP. When changes are made, not only do we have to take the end result into consideration (for texture and flavor)n but we have to keep the FODMAP load and FODMAP stacking into consideration as well. For me to answer all your questions would mean spending quite a bit of time going over each change and assessing it for all of the aspects that would need reviewing. At this point I would recommend that you use your Monash and FODMAP Friendly apps to understand FODMAP amounts of the ingredients you want to use, which FODMAPs they contain, and then also have a firm understanding of stacking, so that you can assess whether the FODMAP load would remain low enough for the bars to be considered low FODMAP in the serving size recommended.
Hi, is it really only 1 tablespoon of water? or is it an error?
No error. It is correct.
I have not yet tried this recipe, because I have a question about one of the ingredients. The only syrup labeled “rice malt syrup” that I’ve found so far is Clearspring, which contains sprouted barley. Is that syrup safe to use in a low-FODMAP diet?
Sprouting alters FODMAP content and it has been shown to increase as well as decrease FODMAPs, so we cannot extrapolate. This is the product I use.
I can’t eat rice at all. Rice malt syrup will have to go. What purpose does it serve, and is corn syrup a good substitute? I would love to make these! I am always running out the door without having eaten anything. All the gluten free granola bars, except the ones that are just candy, contain rice somehow. Thank you very much.
The rice malt is a gentle sweetener. You could sub corn syrup.
Hi thank you so much for sharing fodmap recipes. Much appreciated ,going to try these granola bars today
Maureen
Let us know how it goes! Haven’t made these in a while, but they are always a hit.