This homemade granola or muesli bar recipe makes a healthier muesli bar alternative to the store bought version, and it’s great for cooking with kids.
Depending upon where you are in the world, these might be called granola bars or muesli bars. Whichever label you use, we are sharing the recipe for a delicious snack bar made predominately of oats with other ingredients, such as dried fruit or nuts.
My kids love to eat muesli bars so I was determined to develop a homemade version that they will eat as enthusiastically as the store bought bars and this recipe is definitely a winner. As well as being cheaper and healthier than its store bought counterpart, I can easily change up the flavors based on what I have available in the cupboard.
For the version shared here I used dried apples as I recently made an oven-dried batch from late summer produce. But other fruit choices that I’ve found work well include: dried apricots, peaches and pears, dates and coconut.
These muesli bars are quick and easy to make. My four year old son loves to drag a kitchen chair to the bench and help me cook. He has recently learned to crack eggs and this is one of his favorite recipes as he gets to practice cracking three of them!
These bars are enjoyed in our house as a morning tea or a lunch box snack.
Homemade Granola or Muesli Bars Recipe
Whilst the full recipe is listed below, here are a few handy hints before you begin – this recipe makes approximately 10 bars (depending on the size they are cut to). Ingredients are all listed as metric measurements. Here is a handy printable conversion chart if you use imperial measurements.
The recipe takes about 10 minutes to prepare and then 20 minutes to cook. You will also need to allow time for the baked result to fully cool in the tray before removing and cutting, otherwise your bars will crumble.
This homemade muesli bars recipe makes a healthier muesli bar alternative to the store bought options.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Ingredients
150 grams butter
¼ cup of honey
2 cups of quick cook oats
3 tablespoons of seeds – I use pumpkin and flax seeds
1 cup of dried apples chopped
½ cup sultanas
¼ cup dried cranberries
1 teaspoon of baking powder
3 eggs lightly whisked
Instructions
Line slice tray with baking paper.
Turn the oven on to heat to 160ºC.
Melt the butter and honey over low heat in a pan.
Add fruit and dry ingredients to a bowl.
Add the melted butter and honey and then the eggs and stir to combine.
Pour the combined muesli bar mixture into the slice tray.
Smooth the top of the mixture and give it a shake backward and forward on the bench to settle it evenly in the pan.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden on top.
Remove from the oven and allow the muesli bar to cool completely in the tray.
When it is cool, gently turn it onto a board.
Use a sharp knife and cut into the desired length.
Notes
Use small fine grade oats or the bars won’t hold together as well.
The depth of the tray you use will affect the cooking time. The deeper the pan the longer the bars will take to cook.
Ensure that the cooked mixture is completely cool before attempting to remove it from the pan or it will crumble easily.
Use a sharp knife to cut.
I slice into 5 strips and then cut each strip in half.
Store for 1 week in an airtight tin or container.
For more lunchbox treats to cook with your children, be sure to check out these related recipes;
Kyrstie Barcak is a mum to two boys aged 6 and 3 years. She writes about the fresh produce grown in their family garden and the seasonal menusthat result at A Fresh Legacy-Grow Fresh Cook Fresh. Kyrstie is passionate about cooking fresh meals for her family and friends. She supports local farmers and producers when there is not enough to collect from her garden and likes to make her family’s food from scratch.
Honey – Along with the nut butter, it helps all these ingredients stick together! I love its warm amber flavor in this recipe. Vanilla extract – It amps up the bars' warm flavor. Sea salt – To make all the rich, sweet, and nutty flavors in this recipe pop!
Binding agents provide structure and stability and help you produce a more stable outcome. Using the right binding agent in your granola bar recipe is a crucial part of keeping your bars from falling apart.
How do you get nut-free muesli bars to stick together? These bars are bound with butter, honey and brown sugar, as well as the plain flour and oats, which all bind together while baking. Once cooled, the bars will hold together nicely but still need to be handled with care.
Honey: Since it's a granola bar, refined sugar is not used in the recipe as it's meant to be healthy. So to provide appropriate sweetness, honey is used. Also, honey acts as the primary binding agent.
The main difference is how they're made. Granola is baked and usually contains added sweeteners — such as honey or syrup — along with dried fruits, while muesli is enjoyed raw and sweetened with dried fruits only. Although they're both considered healthy breakfast options, they each have some downsides of their own.
Make sure that whichever granola recipe you use, it calls for some liquid, typically oil of some kind (I recommend olive oil for a subtle earthy, floral flavor, or melted unrefined coconut oil for subtly coconutty flavor). The liquid will help the chia seeds to gel, ensuring the granola sticks together.
The whites act as a kind of glue that binds the ingredients together. To ensure that the egg whites coat all the ingredients, I beat them with a whisk until foamy and increased in volume, which makes it much easier to fold into the granola.
There are other ways to achieve clumpier granola. You can add more fat (in the form of butter or oil). If you're shooting for a somewhat healthy result, you can add some other binder, like an egg white or applesauce.
Fill the bowl up with water to completely cover the mixture – enough that you can stir to combine. This soaking process will help the oats and seeds digest better. After the oat/seed mixture has soaked 8-12 hours, add the rest of the ingredients and combine.
I aim to let it hit room temperature, whatever that may be; the real point is to give it ample time to shed excess heat and steam. This should take about 45 minutes; if left out indefinitely, the granola can turn sticky or soft, so do try to put it away as soon after cooling as you can.
They're a source of whole grains, with almost every UNCLE TOBYS Muesli Bar made up of at least 33% whole grains. They're made with no artificial colours or flavours – all our muesli bars are 100% free of artificial colours or flavours, guaranteed.
A few different options; eggs and breadcrumbs, wet bread, left over mash potato, sticky rice, etc.Salt by itself binds mince together too. Most of the answers here mention egg, which is probably the most common binder. Another binder is what the French call a panade.
The trick to getting homemade granola bars to stick together is to use lots of sticky dates, nut butter AND coconut oil. If you don't the coconut oil in this recipe, these granola bars would be dry and crumbly. The oil makes them moist and hold together.
The idea is that the egg's protein will help the oats bind to each other and create delicate clusters. Results: Not only does the egg white work as a glue to hold the oats together, but it also gives the granola an incredibly crispy bite.
A few other common ingredients are whole nuts and seeds, grains like oats and crispy cereal (which offer fiber and a granola bar–like texture), cocoa powder or chocolate chips, and liquid sweeteners like maple syrup or honey, which help your bars stick together and taste delicious.
Introduction: My name is Frankie Dare, I am a funny, beautiful, proud, fair, pleasant, cheerful, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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Kyrstie Barcak is a mum to two boys aged 6 and 3 years. She writes about the fresh produce grown in their family garden and the seasonal menusthat result at A Fresh Legacy-Grow Fresh Cook Fresh. Kyrstie is passionate about cooking fresh meals for her family and friends. She supports local farmers and producers when there is not enough to collect from her garden and likes to make her family’s food from scratch.