Peanut Butter Chocolate Trail Mix Granola Bar Recipe
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!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup almonds, whole
- 6 ounce cashews
- 1 1/2 cup oats, dry
- 1/3 cup flaxseed, ground
- 1/2 cup mini chips chocolate chips, semisweet
- 1/3 cup cranberries, dried
- 1/3 cup raisins, seedless
- 1 cup peanut butter, all-natural
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Line an 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving extra on the sides to pull the bars out of the pan. For thinner granola bars, use a 13×9-inch baking dish.
- Roughly chop the almonds and cashews, or pulse the nuts gently in a food processor or blender until medium-small pieces. Place the chopped nuts in a large bowl with the old fashioned oats, ground flax, mini chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and raisins. Mix together.
- In a separate microwave safe bowl, melt the peanut butter. Stir in the honey and sea salt. Allow the mixture to cool slightly (so the chocolate chips won’t melt). Pour the peanut butter mixture in the bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold ingredients together with a spatula until everything is coated.
- Press mixture into the parchment lined baking dish, packing it tightly. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Pull the granola slab out of the pan with the edges of the parchment paper. Cut into a minimum of 12 bars. These granola bars are best stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Optionally store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 10 days.
Nutrition
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
Learn More about Natalie
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.
Amazing excellent recipe love all
Thank you!
These granola bars look amazing! Love all the ingredients in here!
Thank you Kelly! They were SO tasty!
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. 🙂
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!
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!
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 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! 😉
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.
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.
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.
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/
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!
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 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!
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 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 can see always having these on hand. Delicious.
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 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.
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
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).
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 .
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.
The flavor was very good but they just completely crumbled even using a granola bar mold. The portion also seemed very large.
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.
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!
The measurements do not make sense to me. Can you explain them please?
33/55 cups
3/2 cups
33/100 cups
Hi Bridget, sorry for the confusion! We made some big updates to our site over the weekend and it caused some technical issues with our recipes. Everything should be patched up now. Thanks for your patience!
Thanks! I just made them. They look great and I can’t wait to try them.
“ A granola bar you can feel good about” Seriously? There is so much sugar and fat and calories in these bars. It’s ridiculous. Over 400 calories in one bar
Hi Bel, thanks for your feedback. Nuts, seeds, and whole grain oats are certainly not low-fat or low-calorie foods, and we’re OK with that. We believe kids need healthy fats and energy-dense foods to best grow and thrive, and we don’t recommend monitoring calories in most cases. These bars are a treat, for sure, but they’re still a treat we feel good about. 🙂
How many calories for one piece
Hi there, it looks like 449 calories per slice.
I’m going to bookmark your blog, I think you have a lot of great blog content.