Toasted oats, cashews, and pistachios are blended with honey, vanilla, citrus, dates, and salt to make a delicious granola base that’s topped with salted dark chocolate and chopped pistachios. If you like soft granola bars, this recipe will be right up your alley.
Making Homemade Healthy Granola Bars
This is the second recipe in a series of kinda healthy granola bars that use whole foods and no protein powder, artificial sweeteners, or any weird ingredients.
They’re a bit different from my typical high protein treat. Instead, these bars are an indulgence you can feel better about eating at any point in the day. Snack time, breakfast, pre-workout, or dessert are all on the table.
My first version combined walnuts with cocoa powder and really leaned into the chocolate granola bars vibe. So I wanted to follow those up with a lighter on the palate, bright flavored bar. The citrus zest and honey really enhance the flavors of the toasted nuts and oats. Seriously, the smell that comes from the blender pictured above is divine.
Then everything is topped with a silky smooth layer of dark chocolate and a healthy amount of chopped pistachios and flaky salt. One of my favorite chocolate chip cookies of all time surprisingly combines lemon zest with nuts and heartier bread flour. These granola bars remind me so much of those cookies with their flavors and chewiness. So tasty!
Tips for Serving and Storing
The recipe makes a big batch of 16 granola bars. They can be kept for up to a month in the refrigerator for grab-and-go healthy snacks, or you can scale the recipe down to make a smaller batch for just a week.
As a note about grabbing and going, the chocolate is plenty stable at room temperature. So you can pack these at the beginning of the day and they’ll be great later on. Maybe just don’t stack them on top of each other at room temp, if possible.
It’s also worth mentioning, the size of the bars is quite generous. You may want to cut them into even smaller bars and stretch the calories into more snacks.
I’ll leave you to it with the printable recipe card below. Drop a comment at the bottom of the post if you have a question about ingredients, modifications, or anything else.
Soft and Chewy Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (168g) Rolled Oats
- 1 cup (112g) Cashews unroasted and unsalted
- 1 cup (120g) Shelled Pistachios unroasted and unsalted
- 2 cups (340g) Pitted Dates
- ½ cup (128g) Cashew Butter or your choice of nut butter
- ¼ cup (84g) Honey
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 Lemon or Orange zested
For the Chocolate Topping
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 3 oz Dark Chocolate
- 2 Tablespoons (15g) Shelled Pistachios
Instructions
- Add the oats, cashews, and pistachios to a sheet pan and toast for 15 minutes at 350ºF. Keep the additional 2 tablespoons of pistachios for the topping separate, either toasting on a separate pan at the same time or toasting after.
- While the nuts and oats cool briefly, add the dates, cashew butter, honey, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest to a food processor or blender. Pulse a few times to just bring everything together. You're not looking to make a smooth puree.
- Add the cooled nuts and oats and pulse a few more times. Again, just mixing everything together and not completely blending.
- Once everything is sticking together, transfer to a dish or sheet pan to form the bars. Press the mixture into an even layer inside the dish and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (I used a 9"x11" baking dish. The bars will work in any dish but will vary in thickness.)
- After 30 minutes, melt the chocolate and olive oil together over low heat. Once melted, pour over the chilled granola and spread to an even layer. Roughly chop the extra 2 tablespoons of toasted pistachios and sprinkle over the bars along with a pinch of flaky salt. Refrigerate for an hour before slicing.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a month.
