How to Make Granola Bars

This article shows how to make granola bars using granola, nuts, seeds, fruits, berries, and even chocolate chips. They have no added sugar or corn syrup, and they are made without wheat.

I make these granola bars in a dehydrator with fruit as the ingredient that binds the ingredients together.

Enjoy these homemade granola bars as chewy and nutritious hiking snacks. They are stout enough to spread peanut butter, Nutella, or jam on them—perfect to enjoy at your campsite in the morning with a cup of coffee or tea.

Benefits of DIY Granola Bars

• Real fruit holds them together.
• Choice of nuts and seeds are up to you.
• It’s easy to make granola bars in a dehydrator.

Homemade Granola Bars Ingredients

Granola

If you use store-bought granola to make granola bars, be sure to reduce the size of any nuts or dried fruits that may be in the granola. Granola bars may fall apart if there are too many large pieces.

Photo: Homemade granola sweetened with honey.

Or better yet…

Make your own granola. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare the ingredients and 25 minutes to bake the granola in the oven.

See: How to Make Granola.

Nuts & Seeds

Nuts and seeds in granola bars provide protein and long-lasting energy, as well as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. If you use my homemade granola as a base, you will be off to a good nutritional start with the ground flax and sesame seeds included in the granola recipes.

The nuts and seeds in my granola bar recipes are totally interchangeable. Pecans are nice, but you may prefer walnuts, almonds, or peanuts. Can’t decide? Use some of each. You can even substitute more seeds in place of nuts if you want to make nut-free granola bars.

Photo: Toasting sunflower seeds for granola bars enhances the nutty flavor.

Sunflower seeds are nutritional powerhouses for high-protein and healthy fat calories, so I highly recommend using them in your granola bars. According to WebMD, eating sunflower seeds reduces inflammation, improves heart health, supports the immune system, and boosts energy levels. Read the full article: Health Benefits of Sunflower Seeds.

Fruit

Blended fruit is the glue that holds these homemade granola bars together. Applesauce and/or grated apples are excellent at binding the oats, seeds, and nuts. Blended peaches work well, as do puréed bananas. In the process of reducing fruits to sauces, either in a blender or using a potato masher, I add fruit juice—lemon, apple, pineapple, or cranberry.

Photo: Granola bar ingredients: grated apples on left, blended berries on right.

Chocolate

No page about how to make granola bars would be complete without a chocolate fix, and the recipes include chocolate chip granola bars or chocolate-covered granola bars. All of the recipes can be enhanced with chocolate. All you need are chocolate chips that you normally use for baking.

Photo: Chocolate chips for making granola bars.

How to Make Granola Bars in a Dehydrator

Prepare the Granola Bar Ingredients

Assemble the dry ingredients: granola, nuts, seeds, dried coconut, chocolate chips, etc.

If using store-bought granola, reduce the size of any nuts or dried fruits to smaller pieces. Otherwise, use one of my homemade granola recipes.

Lightly toast raw seeds, such as sunflower seeds, in a pan to enhance the nutty flavor.

Process the fruit by grating, blending, or hand-mashing, as described in the granola bar recipes.

Photo: Grated apples in lemon juice on left, blended apples in cranberry juice on right. Ingredients in the Apple-Lemon Granola Bar recipe.

Combine the dry ingredients with the processed fruit. Mix well and let the mixture sit a few minutes while it absorbs most of the fruit juices.

Dehydrate the Granola Bars

Spread granola bar mixture evenly on dehydrator tray covered with a nonstick sheet. Shoot for a depth of approximately one centimeter. If using a square-shaped dehydrator, shape the edges uniformly with a spatula. For round dehydrators, fill the fruit-roll inserts to a depth of one centimeter.

Photo: Apple-Lemon Granola Bar mixture spread to a depth of one centimeter on Excalibur dehydrator tray with nonstick sheet.

Dehydrate granola bars at 135°F (57°C). Estimated dying time is 11–15 hours.

After 6–7 hours, when the granola bar mixture is mostly solid, flip the dehydrator tray over onto another tray and peel off the nonstick sheet. I like to flip it again, back onto the first tray.

Gently cut the granola into desired shapes and slightly separate the bars to improve airflow around the bars. A spatula is useful to move the individual bars around on the tray.

Photo: Granola bars drying directly on mesh dehydrator sheet after cutting into bar shapes halfway through the drying process.

Important: If you wait until the granola bar mixture is completely dry before cutting it into bars, it will be difficult to cut through and may break into uneven pieces.

Dehydrate to Desired Texture

The granola bars should be dry in 11–15 hours. The fruit will be uniformly solid. To make chewy granola bars, dehydrating for 11–12 hours should be sufficient. For crunchier granola bars, dehydrating for 13–15 hours will give you a good crunch. My preference is drying the bars to a chewy texture.

Granola Bar Recipes

The suggested nuts and seeds used in the following granola bar recipes are interchangeable. Use whatever types you like. Reduce the size of nuts with a kitchen mallet or nut chopper.

Where cranberry juice is called for, apple juice may be substituted.

Refer to the dehydrating instructions above for all recipes.

Banana-Pineapple Granola Bar Recipe

Yield: 8 granola bars measuring approx. 14 cm x 7 cm (5” x 3”). Weight each: 50–70 grams (1.8–2.5 ounces)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups granola (300 g)
• 1 20-oz. can pineapple with juice (567 g) *
• ¼ cup pineapple juice, retained from the can (60 g)
• 2–3 bananas (300 g)
• ¼ sunflower seeds, toasted (30 g)
• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted (16 g)
• 1 Tbsp. almond slices (6 g)
• 1 Tbsp. dried coconut slices (6 g)

* Use pineapple packed in 100% pineapple juice with no added sugar. If using fresh pineapple, retain ¼ of the juice.

Prepare the Granola Bars

Lightly toast sesame seeds and sunflower seeds in a pan, about 10 minutes.

Pour off, but retain the juice from the canned pineapple. Break pineapple chunks or rings into small pieces. After lightly pressing out extra juice, you should end up with about 200 grams of crushed pineapple.

Cut banana into chunks and place in a flat-bottom pot with ¼ cup pineapple juice. Mash bananas with a potato masher into a slurry. This is less messy than using a blender.

Photo: Mashed bananas with crushed pineapple before mixing with dry granola bar ingredients.

Add the crushed pineapple and dry ingredients to the pot with the banana slurry and mix until well combined.

Spread mixture about 1 cm thick on dehydrator tray covered with nonstick sheet and dehydrate according to the granola bar dehydrating instructions above.

Chocolate-Covered Granola Bars

How to Make Granola Bars with Chocolate

Use any of the granola bar recipes above or below to make chocolate-covered granola bars.

Since chocolate melts in hot weather, avoid a mess by melting chocolate only on one side, and not quite to the edges.

Grate as much chocolate as you want for each granola bar. Dark baking chocolate will hold up best in hot weather. You can also use chocolate baking chips. Put chocolate on top of granola bars and place in dehydrator at 135°F (57°C) until chocolate melts, about 15 minutes. Chocolate will harden when it cools.

For the trail, pack two granola bars together in a Ziploc bag with the chocolate sides facing inward.

Berry-Chocolate Chip Granola Bar Recipe

Chocolate chips may be added to any of the granola bar recipes on this page.

Yield: 8 granola bars measuring approx. 14 cm x 7 cm (5” x 3”). Weight each: 50–70 grams (1.8–2.5 ounces)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups granola (300 g)
• 3–4 apples (400 g)
• 2 cups raspberries (200 g)
• ¼ cup cranberry juice (60 g)
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• ¾ cup chocolate chips (100 g)
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds (30 g)
• ¼ cup walnuts (25 g)
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

How to Make Granola Bars with Chocolate Chips

Lightly toast sunflower seeds in a pan, about 10 minutes.

Chop or reduce size of walnuts with a kitchen mallet. Substitute any other nut if desired.

Grate the apples coarsely into a mixing bowl until you have 400 grams.

Add 100 grams of the grated apples to a blender with the raspberries and cranberry juice, and blend into a sauce.

Add the blended raspberries, honey, dry ingredients, and chocolate chips to the bowl with the grated apples and mix until well combined.

Photos: Grated apples, blended raspberries, dry granola and chocolate chips—all combined in photo bottom right.

Spread mixture about 1 cm thick on dehydrator tray covered with nonstick sheet (shown below) and dehydrate according to the granola bar dehydrating instructions above.

Photo: Berry-Chocolate Chip Granola Bar mixture on dehydrator tray.

Apple-Lemon Granola Bar Recipe

Photo: Apple-Lemon Granola Bars. Cut them into bar shapes after 6–7 hours when the granola bar mixture is mostly solid. Start off drying on nonstick sheet and then transfer to mesh sheets to finish drying.

Yield: 8 granola bars measuring approx. 14 cm x 7 cm (5” x 3”). Weight each: 50–70 grams (1.8–2.5 ounces)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups granola (300 g)
• 4–5 apples (600 g)
• 1 large lemon, grated plus juice
• ¼ cup cranberry juice or apple juice
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds (30 g)
• ¼ cup pecans (25 g)
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup or honey
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Prepare the Granola Bars

Lightly toast sunflower seeds in a pan, about 10 minutes.

Chop or reduce size of pecans with a kitchen mallet.

Grate lemon peel into a mixing bowl with ¼ cup of the lemon juice.

Grate the apples coarsely into the mixing bowl with the lemon juice.

Divide the grated apple/lemon mixture into two equal portions, placing one portion into a blender. Add ¼ cup cranberry or apple juice to the blender and blend into sauce.

Stir in the maple syrup and cinnamon, then add to all the other ingredients and mix until well-combined.

Photo: Apple-Lemon Granola Bar ingredients mixed together before spreading on dehydrator tray.

Spread mixture about 1 cm thick on dehydrator tray covered with nonstick sheet and dehydrate according to the granola bar dehydrating instructions above.

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