Soft and chewy homemade granola bars with tons of banana and peanut butter flavor and generously drizzled with melted chocolate. Ready in minutes and so much better than store-bought!
With chocolate. Yes, there’s chocolate. Breakfast and snack time is always better with chocolate right? Yes. Just keep telling yourself that.
A lot of you know about my 3-year old sister Rachel and her love of “helping” me cook. (she also supervises my photo-shoots) Let me tell you—that kid is crazy about chocolate. Whenever I ask her what kind of cookies she wants me to make it’s always “chockwit”. Whenever she sees me melting chocolate chips she always asks: “Can I lick the chockwit pan, Sawa?) She then proceeds to spend at least 20 minutes meticulously scraping all the chockwit. So if you’re wondering why there are always so many chocolate recipes on WAHO now you know. My little sister is an obsessed chocoholic at the age of 3.
Moving on to the granola bars…..Just thinking about these granola bars makes me want to run into the kitchen right now and make a batch for midnight snacking. (my previous batch is long gone)
Confession: I don’t make homemade granola bars too often. I really have no idea why—they are sooo much tastier AND more nutritious than store-bought. That is definitely going to be changing though. I have so many different kinds of granola bar ideas up my sleeve now. Stay tuned.
Now, for all you crunchy-granola bar lovers, you are definitely in the wrong place. Today’s granola bars are ultimatum of softness and chewiness. I don’t know about you guys but I’d rather not break my teeth on rock-hard granola bars….I’ll sink my teeth into soft and chewy granola bars, thank you very much.
Tip: If you can wait that long, these granola bars are actually softer and chewier on day #2.
You won’t believe how amazing the banana and PB flavors meld together in these granola bars (the chocolate glaze isn’t half-bad either). It’s mind-blowing. Let’s take a look at the ingredient list, shall we?
- Old-fashioned rolled oats
- Chopped pecans
- Oat bran (for a healthy kick!)
- Ground cinnamon (goes amazing-ly with the banana and PB)
- Salt
- Mashed banana
- Coconut sugar
- Maple syrup
- Creamy peanut butter
- Vanilla extract
- Melted semisweet chocolate chips for drizzling
Pretty basic ingredients that I’ll bet you have on hand right now. Hint, hint. 😉
Fairly simple from there—combine the dry ingredients, whisk the liquid ingredients and combine them both. (the dough will be quite sticky) Then gently pat the dough into a parchment-paper lined 8×12 baking pan.
Then bake your granola bars at 350F for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned and firm to the touch. It is imperative that you let your granola bars cool completely on a wire cooling rack before cutting into bars—if you try to cut them while they’re still warm, they will fall apart—even though they will still taste amazing, they won’t look the greatest. 😉 If you want even cleaner cuts, I would recommend chilling the cooled granola bars for 20 minutes before cutting.
Once your granola bars are cut, melt up some semisweet chocolate and drizzle away…..♥
Fair warning: Do not expect these granola bars to last long—My first batch was gone by the end of the day with numerous requests for more.
These granola bars are awesome for a grab-and-go breakfast. They give you an instant energy boost and keep you satisfied for a long time. They’re also pretty handy to have around when sweet-cravings hit and you don’t want something super calorie-loaded.
I can say from experience that they also make pretty awesome midnight-snacks. 😀
Banana Peanut Butter Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 3-1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup oat bran
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 medium ripe bananas mashed
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup melted semisweet chocolate chips for drizzling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8x12 baking pan with parchment paper, letting excess hang over the side. Lightly grease parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine oats, pecans, oat bran, cinnamon, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk mashed bananas, coconut sugar, maple syrup, peanut butter, and vanilla until smooth. Pour liquid mixture over dry mixture, stirring until moistened (mixture will be very sticky)
- Press mixture into prepare pan, smoothing top with a spoon. Bake at 350F 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool granola bars completely in the pan on a wire cooling rack. (about 30 minutes)
- Once granola bars are cooled, drizzle with melted chocolate and cut into 2x6 bars.
Notes
Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day…Can you tell?
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Jennifer S. says
Looks good, Sarah. Have to love a little girl who loves chocolate. I know what you mean about the meticulous scraping because that’s what happens here too. 🙂
Just curious why the prep time is 40 minutes. Looks like a simple recipe. Am I missing something?
Sarah says
Hi Jennifer—30 minutes of the 40 minutes prep time is inactive—just waiting for the granola bars to cool before you can drizzle them with melted chocolate.;)
Regina Partain says
Sarah, as usual, this look absolutely delicious! I might have to try these.
Sarah says
LMK if you make these granola bars, Regina!
Natalie @ Tastes Lovely.com says
That is so cute that you sister tries to help you cook and watches your photo shoots. That sounds like my dogs who are always surrounding me and eyeing up what I’m photographing. These granola bars sound delicious! Truth: peanut butter, banana and chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations. So good!
Sarah says
That’s so funny about your dogs, Natalie. I’ve seen pics of your dogs on your blog and they are unbelievably cute! And I totally get what you mean about pb, choc, and banana—One of my favorite combos as well! 🙂
Tina @ Tina's Chic Corner says
Hehe…your sis is so cute. 🙂 I love making homemade granola bars and these look delicious! I’m totally digging chocolate for breakfast!!
Sarah says
Thanks, Tina! And yes, chocolate for breakfast is a pretty normal occurrence around here—I haven’t heard any complainants about it yet! haha. 😉
maria at inredningsvis says
AHHHH this recipy is TO Delish to handle 🙂 love your blog and im following now.
Check out my blog today…my all time fav. lasagna recipy 🙂
Have a fab week dear
LOVE Maria at inredningsvis – inredning it’s, Swedish for decor 🙂
Summer says
Hi Sarah, do you have a suggestion for a substitute for the oat bran?
Thanks!
Sarah says
Hi there, Summer! In place of the oat bran, you could substitute wheat bran or you could always just add an extra 1/4 cup oats. Hope this helps! 🙂
Allie | Baking a Moment says
I don’t know why I don’t make more stuff like this! I keep meaning to…! These are so perfect for my kiddos. Ps- your 3 year old sister and my 4 year old son! He’s a chockwit-holic! So cute… Pinned!
Sarah says
These granola bars were so easy and so good, I was kicking myself for putting off making them for so long—even my pickiest siblings loved them! (or maybe it was just the chocolate??) And chockwit-holic—oh my gosh I love it! Hahaha. 😀 Thanks for pinning, Allie and have a great rest of the weekend!
Allison says
Sarah – what is coconut sugar, where do you get yours, can you substitute something else for this ingredient, and could you maybe list some other uses for it?? Long list of requests but I see you’re good about responding to people! Most bloggers I follow aren’t!
Thanks in advance!
Sarah says
Hi, Allison! I’m glad you’re so interested in coconut sugar! Coconut sugar is a healthier form of sugar, that comes from the nectar of a coconut palm tree flower. It is a healthier alternative to refined sugar, because of it’s minimal processing and refinement. I buy mine in the health food section of large grocery stores, like Woodmans for example, but I have also seen coconut sugar available for purchase online.
If you need to substitute for coconut sugar, brown sugar would be a fine substitute, because of their similarity in texture and color.
I use coconut sugar in many different ways! It’s ideal for any kind of baking and a perfect sweetener for homemade frostings as well.
I hope this helped! Please let me know if you have any additional questions! 🙂