This Peanut Butter Chocolate Trail Mix Granola Bar Recipe is made with wholesome ingredients to create homemade granola bars you feel good about eating.
Hi friends! It’s Amber, back visiting from Dessert Now, Dinner Later! Today’s recipe is so delicious that it’s almost like eating dessert, but it’s packed full of wholesome ingredients like nuts, oats, flax, dried fruit, and even a little bit of semi-sweet chocolate.
The ingredients in these granola bars reflect several of the goodies you would find in a trail mix, but they’re packed into the convenience of a bar. Perfect for those busy on-the-go days, after school snacks, or to pack along for hiking fuel. Extra bonus, they’re NO BAKE!
Kids and adults alike will love munching on these chewy peanut butter granola bars, with the salty-sweet combo of crunchy nuts and tender dried cranberries and raisins. They just hit the spot! Salty-sweet combos are kind of my favorite! Especially these granola bars with the little specks of mini chocolate chips – perfection!
Sizing–
If you make these in an 8×8-inch dish they are nice and thick, but you can totally use a 13×9-inch dish for thinner granola bars, and more of them! If you have munchy kids like mine, then you will probably fly through these granola bars!
If you’re reading this post because you like granola bars, you might also be a granola fan. You must check out my Honey Almond Coconut Granola to top on some yogurt mixed with fresh fruit! It’s the perfect healthy topping!
Anyway, get to making these granola bars! They’d be perfect to pack along on those random day-trip adventures during the summer. Summer is almost here, after all! (Wahoo!) Enjoy!
~Amber Brady is a wife, mother, mormon, and culinary graduate! She shares her favorite recipes, tips, tricks, and tutorials on her blog Dessert Now, Dinner Later. Here she’ll help you be an outstanding home cook with culinary know-how!
Hi.my query is don’t we need to bake this granola bar as it contain oats.
Oats can be eaten uncooked. We do it all the time with overnight oats!
Hi Amber can you make trail mix cookies if the trail mix
Is in the package
I would try 3 1/2 to 4 cups of trail mix, then add the oats, flax seed, peanut butter, honey and salt. If it’s too wet, add more oats. If it’s too dry add more peanut butter or honey.
The flavor was very good but they just completely crumbled even using a granola bar mold. The portion also seemed very large.
Bars just crumbled after cutting; most did not stay together at all. Taste was good though. We’ll just have to eat it like granola.
Im wondering what I can use instead of peanut butter? Im afraid if I leave it out they wont stick. We’re not as fond of peanut butter her in Australia 😉
I saw above that someone used sunflower butter .
Thought these were really good. It’s on the sweeter side so my boys and I can only have small portions (about half of what a store bought granola would be).
Hi Ambar
Do you have Any granola bars without nuts – my kids don’t like peanut butter and school is nut free for lunch boxes due to allergies.
Thanks Amanda
I have just made these for my family but with walnuts instead of cashews as my 13 year old is allergic to cashews. They are absolutely delicious, these will be a great breakfast for the early mornings.
These are a huge hit in my house. My husband is obsessed with them. We leave out raisins because no one likes them, but the rest is delicious
I can see always having these on hand. Delicious.
I love having these on hand for snacking, but don’t get to make them as often as I’d like. I was wondering if you (or anyone else) has ever tried freezing them? It would be awesome to be able to pull one out of the freezer when needed. Thanks!
You should be able to freeze them wrapped tightly with plastic wrap or in a resealable freezer bag. I would say up to 2 months before they start getting freezer burnt.
I’ve made these and they are delicious. However, I definitely would like the nutritional data. Do you have that?
Hi Dee- we have only analyzed nutrition data for the recipes we include in our member database.. For the rest, you can use http://nutritiondata.self.com/ to analyze any recipe!
I too have had a problem with them staying together- so now I just roll them up into granola balls and that helps them stay together!
Has anyone ever freezed these before?
That’s a fun idea! Thanks Angela!
What if you blended dates instead of honey for “glue” and sweetness. Also was thinking of sprinkling almond flour to make them a little non stick lol excited to try these!
I don’t think it would hurt to try that! Granola bars can be pretty forgiving as long as they aren’t super moist. Good luck Denise!
I made these last night and had one for breakfast. I mixed ground flaxseed with pistachios to get 1/3 cup. I didn’t have enough cashews so I added a few crunched up peanuts. I am trying to eat healthier and bars like like this make it easier. They turned out great. Thanks for sharing.
I’m so glad you could adjust them with what you had! Enjoy!
I made these the other day, and everyone loves them! Thanks for sharing! I was wondering if there are any calories and nutritional facts available for them?
Hi Gretchen! Glad you like them. You can calculate nutrition data on this site: http://nutritiondata.self.com/
Made these yesterday. Delicious! I did have a problem with them not gluing together very well, but the flavor is so good it didn’t matter.
They taste great but mine are just crumbling apart.
I just took them out of the fridge. They were in there for about 4 hours. How can I save them? Can I freeze and then cut them? A little disappointed. I followed the recipe completely.
Hi Colleen,
Depending on the kind of peanut butter and honey you use, that can be a problem. Try doing 3/4 cup peanut butter and 1/3 cup honey instead of the amounts shown in the recipe and see if that helps.
Just made these and they are awesome!! Left the cashews out (didn’t have any on hand), and left the flaxseed whole which didn’t seem to make any difference. I will definitely be doubling the recipe next time to make more than 12 bars. Can’t wait to add this healthy snack to my boys lunches! Thank you!
That is so great! Thanks for sharing your adjustments!
I believe to get the health benefits of flax seed, they need to be ground.
I would do like an extra cup of oats OR you can do plain cheerios in place of the nuts (2/3 cup of each nut so 1 1/3 cups of cheerios) to help build the granola bar. You can always lessen the amounts of honey and peanut butter (or sun butter) too, but they won’t be as thick. I hope you can get it to work out! 😉
Amber, these look great! My daughter is allegic to nuts though – will it change the whole consistency if i leave out the nuts? I can easily change the peanut butter for sun butter. Thanks!
I would do like an extra cup of oats OR you can do plain cheerios in place of the nuts (2/3 cup of each nut so 1 1/3 cups of cheerios) to help build the granola bar. You can always lessen the amounts of honey and peanut butter (or sun butter) too, but they won’t be as thick. I hope you can get it to work out! ?
I think I will try the greater PB ratio as you suggested above since my seemed to be a bit crumbly for the lunchbox. I also noted that I should have used the best honey for a better flavor. The flavor of the honey really came through and I just used my “cooking” honey! I personally liked them and they were quick to make but I will have to try harder for the kids, I think since they aren’t used to bars yet. Thanks for a good recipe!
Thanks for your feedback Lisa! I hope you can tweak it to your likings!
I made these the other day, very good! Kids loved them. Although mine did not turn out as pretty as yours 🙂
I did save a few of the nuts, chocolate chips, and cranberries to press into the top for looks. 😉 So glad your kids loved them!
Do these stay hard and put together at room temperature? I’ve made homemade granola bars before and had to keep them in the refridgerator or they get a lil gooey and fall apart!
These do better stored in the refrigerator because they are chewy and moist. If you want them to be harder at room temperature, try doing 3/4 cup peanut butter and 1/3 cup honey instead of the amounts shown in the recipe. 🙂
These granola bars look amazing! Love all the ingredients in here!
Thank you Kelly! They were SO tasty!
Amazing excellent recipe love all
Thank you!
Would any sweetener work or does it have to be honey? I’m thinking maple syrup.
The honey kind of works like glue with the peanut butter to shape the granola bars and keep them no-bake. Maple syrup should work too though. I wouldn’t sub with stevia or a powdered sweetener though.