These delicious, easy, and healthy chocolate chip granola bars are made dairy free, gluten free, and naturally sweetened with coconut palm sugar and maple syrup.
Healthy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Recently I shared a delicious roundup of healthy homemade granola bars and today I’m adding another delicious recipe to the mix. These healthy chocolate chip granola bars are super easy to make, loaded with fibre, naturally sweetened and wonderfully chewy. They are also nut-free (so long as you use a nut-free granola as part of the recipe) which makes them friendly for school lunches.
Granola bars often get a bad rep as they can contain questionable ingredients and are often full of sugar. It’s actually pretty eye-opening when you walk through the granola bar aisle in a grocery store and pick up the boxes to read the ingredients lists. So many granola bars that are labeled as “healthy” and marketed towards kids are far from healthy and much like a typical chocolate or candy bar! This is definitely one of the reasons I think making your own homemade granola bars or protein bars is the way to go.
These delicious chocolate chip granola bars boost digestion as they contain a great amount of dietary fibre and energy as they are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates. Each little bar truly makes you feel full and satisfied. The base of the granola bars consists of whole gluten free rolled oats, whole flaxseeds, gluten-free flour, and your favourite gluten free granola (this makes each batch of bars unique to you!). For my healthy granola bars I used my favorite honey almond granola but you can really use any kind of commercial gluten-free granola (you can also use a homemade granola, just make sure it’s not too chunky as it may affect the bars consistency and they may become crumbly).
To bring the “chewy” factor to these delicious homemade granola bars I used natural unsweetened applesauce, olive oil, pure maple syrup, coconut palm sugar, and whole organic eggs. These whole-food ingredients add moisture and create a delicious chewy consistency while still keeping the bars free of refined sugars. Regular commercial granola bars often contain glucose syrup and glycerin which gives them that chewy factor but these ingredients are refined and processed…not the best option!
The maple syrup, applesauce, and coconut palm sugar add a perfect dose of sweetness to these delicious homemade granola bars making them seem like a sweeter treat but these are truly healthy enough to enjoy for breakfast. When I made the latest batch of these my parents (we are living with them during our renovation!) loved having a healthy grab-and-go snack option and said they made the perfect “afternoon treat” with coffee, even though I kept telling them the bars were healthy!
We’ve been on-the-go a ton lately with the home renovation and I’ve been spending a lot more time in my car as I seem to be doing a lot of driving these days so having good homemade snacks like these healthy chocolate chip granola bars has been a big help! I also love that I can add them to Hemlsey’s lunch to take to daycare (if I use a nut-free granola of course), and she loves them just a much as I do.
I also think these granola bars would make a great gift for a new mama as they are energizing, easy to eat with just one hand, and good to take on-the-go. If any of you have friends or family who have just had a baby, whip up a batch of these bars and drop them off as part of a care package for the new mom.
While I’d love to go on about how wonderful these healthy chocolate chip granola bars are, I think I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking! I hope you have a chance to set aside a little time over the next week to whip up these tasty snacks that will energize you and give your digestion a lovely boost (with no sugar hangover!).
Do you make your own healthy homemade granola bars often? What are your go-to ingredients? I’d love to read about it in the comments. Also, be sure to pin the photo below the recipe to save it for later and of course, share the love!
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup coconut palm sugar
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 3 large organic eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3½ cups gluten free rolled oats
- ½ cup whole flaxseeds
- 1 cup all-purpose gluten free flour
- 1 cup your favourite gluten free granola
- ¼ cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips
- ¼ cup raisins or dried cranberries
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a large 9x13 pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl combine applesauce, olive oil, coconut sugar, maple syrup, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt.
- Whisk until smooth with an electric beater or by hand.
- In another large bowl combine the remaining dry ingredients and mix well.
- Add the wet into the dry and stir until all is well combined.
- Press the mixture evenly and firmly into the baking pan (or make cookies instead by dropping a tablespoon size mixture about 1 inch apart on the baking sheet).
- Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until golden.
- Allow to cool before cutting into bars.
- Enjoy!
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Have a great Sunday!
Fruits, veggies, and steel cut oats!
Ahhh, these look awesome! I am intrigued by the fiber buds, I suppose you could use crushed up bran flakes instead though? Not sure if they sell the buts here in the UK. I like how you use coconut oil AND apple sauce, usually they swap the prior to the latter, but I believe in compromise 😀 Gotte get around to making granola bars, got stuck just making granola lately, hehe 🙂 x
I think bran flakes would do just fine! 🙂
Great recipe….can’t wait to make those bars!!
Looking forward to making those bars!!!!
I get my fiber from lots of oatmeal, apples, bananas, and nuts!
I get my fiber in those good old fruits, veggies, and oatmeal!
I get my fiber through high-fiber cereal, 100% whole wheat bread, beans and nuts! Thank you for the giveaway!
Haha! The “poop” part made me LOL!
These bars look delicious, will have to try them!
I try to get lots of fiber from whole grains and lots of fruits and veggies — but I could always use more!
Mostly through nuts. My favorite are almonds 🙂