When I made these Healthy Chewy Apple Cinnamon Granola Bars a few weeks ago, I really loved them but I have to admit, my boys wondered where the chocolate chips were. To them, a granola bar has chocolate chips, so why in the world would I leave those out? Little Boy #3 is notorious for asking for a granola bar, picking out all the chocolate chips and then walking away and leaving a mess of granola crumbs that got in his way. Boo to that says this mama!
So I kind of took it as a challenge to see if I could tweak that recipe a bit to make a granola bar that tasted like the store bought version they are used to. It’s kind of nice to be able to make them with a bit of honey instead of corn syrup, and add in some healthy fat from coconut oil, right? So these are what I came up with, and I must say they are pretty darn close. The texture is right on, and the flavor is very close. The only difference is the slight flavor of honey.
These are a snap to make, and it was great to be able to wrap them up individually in plastic wrap and throw them in the snack bin so the little guys could just help themselves for breakfast or snacks. Only one rule – No picking out the chocolate chips!
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Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars {Copycat Quaker}
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars taste just like the store-bought version kids love, but made with coconut oil and sweetened with honey!
Ingredients
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 4 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups Rice Krispies cereal
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8 by 8 inch baking dish by lining it with parchment paper and spraying with nonstick spray. This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan to cut them later.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt coconut oil, brown sugar, and honey together. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring it to a gentle simmer and let it bubble away for a 1-2 minutes. Add vanilla extract. Then remove it from the heat to cool slightly.
- Spread out the old fashioned oats onto a baking sheet, and toast them in the oven for 3-5 minutes. Watch closely for the oats to turn golden brown and then take them out right away. This step will just enhance the flavor.
- In a large bowl, combine the toasted oats with the puffed rice cereal and salt. Pour the slightly cooled honey mixture over the oat mixture, and stir to coat.
- If the granola mixture is not longer hot to the touch, stir in the chocolate chips. Press the mixture into the pan firmly using another piece of parchment paper so they won’t stick to your hands. Chill for an hour in the fridge to make crisp lines when you cut them, and then wrap up with plastic wrap and store at room temp.
Lisa says
Tried these and followed it exactly but they did not stick. Broke apart completely 😒
Erika says
I made these today and they are delicious!! My whole family loved them! I added about 2 tablespoons of ground flax. My daughter has many food allergies and was very excited to try them. Thanks so much for the recipe! Perfect!!
Julie says
So glad they worked out for you. Good idea with the flax!
Lydia Moore says
Made these today and they were so good had to make another batch. My husband and grandsons love them..this is a keeper. Turned out perfect.
Julie says
Thanks so much Lydia! Glad they worked well for you all!
NOOR FAKIH ISSA says
can i substitute the rice krispies with something else?
Julie says
You could probably use any small cereal that you prefer. The rice krispies help keep the bar from being too dense, so I would choose something similar if you can.
madmema says
I made these tonight for my daughter to take to eat on the way to school. You know a grab and go breakfast. They came out very delicious. I will make these again with one change. I will cut back a little on the salt to maybe 1/3 of a tsp. I did make one change tonight though and that was to split the 1/3 cup of honey in half with one half honey and the half with light corn syrup. They stayed together and had a nice chew to them. I am definitely making these very often and will come up with some new additions like dried apples and raisins with a sprinkling of cinnamon. Thanks for sharing.
Julie says
Thank you!
Donette says
My son is autistic and we needed something to encourage him to do homework and school work. So we keep a bunch at school for the incentive and they work! He loves them just as the recipe calls for.
The only thing is that the bars fall apart if kept out of the refrigerator even if I have them wrapped up. I would like to find something that keeps them together when out of the refrigerator (different ingredient?). Either way, he loves them and thank you for sharing.
seema says
Jaggery
seema says
Use jaggery instead of honey and you will be spot on…we have replace all sweeteners with jaggery you can readily find from your local Indian grocer on the cheap it will usually be wrapped in burlap over plastic and is pure organic although there will be no mention as such.
Natasha says
When I normally have old fashioned oats, I now don’t. Do you think these would work with the quick cook kind?
Thanks.
Christine says
I always use Quick 1-minute oats. I don’t roast them either.
They were so good that I priority mailed half to my little sister because she was having a rough week.
Brittany says
These are awesome. Quick oats worked fine. I just used light corn syrup instead of honey. Thanks!
Julie says
So glad Brittany, thanks for letting me know.
wv says
Well I made my first batch today. My high school daughter used to eat Quaker Chewy granola bars every day for a quick breakfast as she was running out the door. Then we discovered she is sensitive to wheat, dairy, soy, sunflower seeds, bananas and radishes. Yes, I said radishes. And did you know that sunflower oil and soy lecithin are in many gluten-free products? It is a curse! But back to the recipe. My bars from your recipe turned out absolutely delicious, but they fell apart to crumbles when I went to cut them into bars. As delicious as those crumbles were, they were not going to work for her quick breakfast. So that they did not go to waste, I made a run to the grocery store and bought marshmallows. I returned the crumbles to the mixing bowl and added half of the bag of mini marshmallows (melted with 2T of Ghee) and then reset the mixture in the 8×8 pan. And that sure did the trick! Now I know that the marshmallows are not all that healthy, so I will continue to look for other options (maybe brown rice syrup). It might not be a Quaker copy cat, but it might still be delicious. I might also toss in some oat flour next time too.
Caitlin says
These came out delicious but they were so hard to cut. I got some good solid bars out of them but the crumbles I just wrapped for a snack!
Amy says
Great recipe. I would only lower salt.
some girl on the internet says
*Toasted the oats first for like 7-8 min, and then turned them and toasted another 5 min
*Replaced coconut oil with 4 tbsp butter and 1/4 tsp peanut butter
*added an over-filled tablespoon of caramel sauce to the honey mixture
*After mixing honey mixture to oat mixture, I added roughly a little more than a tablespoon or two of milk to sauce pan and mixed with quite a bit of powdered sugar and poured that to the oat mixture and mixed all together
*Used regular sized semi-sweet chocolate chips + a little bit of dark chocolate chunks when everything cooled
*No need to drizzle chocolate or anything, sweet enough! ha!
Greatly prefer this over mushy oatmeal. Will make several times before I die. Thank you!
Cynthia Huggins says
Loved these and they came out perfect. I subbed the honey for agave, brown sugar for coconut sugar…. And they still came out wayyyyyy good. Thank you!
Misty Warthen says
My favorite thus far, I did change it up a bit the second time.
I only did 1 cup of rice cereal and did another 1 cup total of a mixture of chopped nuts (I use raw cashew, pecans, and walnuts lightly processed in a good processor), unsalted raw sunflower seeds, and unsweetened coconut flakes.
I also, just pressed 1/8 cup of chocolate chips on to the top instead of mixing them in. My whole family devoured them and wants more. I will probably change it up here and there with chopped dried fruit, soaked chia seeds, etc. Thank you for this recipe!
Ann says
I plan on making this recipe for my kids to take to gymnastics. Because we can’t have coconut oil (hives) and we are casein intolerant, I will be using olive oil.Was wondering if I can add some cocoa to it,as my kids love everything cocoa, and maybe lower the sugar content.I will also try replacing the honey (son is allergic to it) with maple syrup.Will see how that goes.
Thank you for the recipe.
Laurie Hayes says
I can’t wait to try this recipe plus the different variations. We love these, but the cost of the store bought ones limits my purchasing them to when they are on sale and if I happen to have the extra money at the time of the sale.
I appreciate all the feedback comments. They are the reason I’ve decided on this particular recipe. I’ll post my comments and results.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Lynn says
Just found this recipe while looking for ideas to use up an abundance of oats we have on hand and ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM! I love the flavor that the coconut oil adds. I’m going to try some other add-ins to make flavor combos like the store bought options and this will surely be on regular rotation in our household.
Gaylie S Blake says
Can maple syrup be substituted for honey?
Emmy says
These taste amazing!! BUT….they are definitely a dessert!! You should rename them as a Reece’s square dessert. So much sugar and I even cut some of it out! If you want them to be healthier, add like half the sugar and use fiber one in place of the rice krispies for extra fiber!