Healthy Brownie Granola Bars

Haven’t made it yet but I definitely will. Love a recipe that doesn’t have coconut oil in it
Thank you

Woah! Just discovered your page and looks great! I love the feature where you can adjust the servings. I definetly see myself using your website to help me in the kitchen. Thank you!

We can’t do “cocoa or cacao powder” in our family. Will this change the recipe drastically if omitted, or is there a substitution you can suggest? Thanks.

These are decadent enough to be dessert. I wrapped them individually in tinfoil and they will be perfect for a grab and go in the morning. I absolutely love this recipe. I used dark chocolate cocoa powder.

These don’t just look appealing to the eyes, I think they are tasty and to top it- it s a truck load of nutrition!

I don’t eat dates what could I add in instead

Everyone saying these are ‘healthy’ – they are 353 calories each according to the recipe? That is more than:
2 slices of white bread toast with butter and jam
A blueberry muffin st Starbucks or Costa
A sandwich for lunch
A bowl of soup
A subway 6″ chicken teryaki.

They are indeed lovely don’t get me wrong – but if you snack on these as part of a calorie controlled diet you would have to leave out a meal at this amount.

These were absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for clear instructions… I get nervous when making things, but your descriptions and pictures really helped me out!

Recipe was brillant. I didn’t have any peanut or almond butter so I used a banana to get everything to stick. Worked a treat, thanks ! :)

I just made these and they are amazing!! I love the toasted taste they have. Total chocolatey goodness!

I make these for my 6 year old for school lunches and she loves them, a great alternative to store bought and I replace pecans with Brazil nuts too as pecans are very expensive in NZ. Thanks again

Hi Dana! Can I use carob powder?

I would love a nut free granola bar as my kids school is totally nut free and only really bad granola bars with a ton of sugar and other crap seem to be fully nut free and my kids love granola bars! Do you have a nut free version or any ideas for what I can substitute the nuts for? Thanks so much!

I loved the texture of these and, of course, the chocolate, but I felt like they could use a bit of salt.

I’ve made these twice now and am so impressed! I added a bit of chopped up dark chocolate as well and serve them up for a healthy pudding! Thank you!

These bad boys are dangerously good. I’m in love!

BEAUTIFUL!!! I’m cutting down on sugar and have fallen in love with these. I added some macadamia and roasted hazelnuts which give them a gorgeous nutella-y flavour ans added just 1/8 cup of fruit syrup. Sooooo delicious. Love all your recipes. Thank you.

I have made these many times for group potlucks and everyone loves them! I have been told by a number of people that they taste like an Eatmore chocolate bar….and I would agree!

Just made a batch of these and OMG amazing! Thank you for a great recipe that’s healthy and the kids love it!

Do you think it will mess up the texture/consistency if I made these without the agave/maple or reduced it by half? I really like this recipe and want to make it for breakfast, but my doc’s having me lower my carbs in the morning.

I just made these and they are FANTASTIC!! Totally satisfies the chocolate/sweet fix and yes only need a small square..rich and filling!

Hello! I was wondering what you would recommend as a substitute but instead of walnuts ? I really want to try these but am allergic to any nuts shaped like little brains lol.. So pecans as well. I’m not deathly allergic but I do get quite itchy! I want to give these a try just not sure what other nut you would recommend that would still get me the ground up walnut consistency! Originally I was thinking maybe almonds and peanuts until I saw that you grind up the walnuts ! And I don’t think ground peanuts would be quite the same lol… Any suggestions there ? Thanks ! These look amazing !

I just made these for the second time and I really enjoy them! Such a great, simple recipe that allows room for customization to your own taste. Thank You! :)

I want to make these but I don’t have cocoa powder. Can I use melted chocolate chips? How would you recommend going about that?

I made these today and they are DELICIOUS. They have a really rich chocolate taste just like actual brownies, and the toasted flavour of the nuts is so delicious. Both my parents agreed.. I don’t think they’re going to last long :)

Would I be able to use dried dates instead?

I made these this weekend…we may never make another bar, other than these. They’re so good…my boys gobble them up, not knowing they’re good for them. Thank you for this!!

I am so making these!!!!!!!!!!

Yes!!!!!!!! Delicious……made some today……perfect for after HITT class…..do I need to keep in the freezer or will the fridge do?

I made these today and they came out amazing. I toasted the pecans and oats, which I highly recommend because you can really taste it, toasted pecans remind me of pecan pie. I used maple syrup to keep the recipe vegan and dark cacao powder. I forgot to roughly chop the pecans and almonds but they still were great. I calculated calories for myself and came to about 230 per bar when cut into 14 equal pieces. Great recipe, my first time making granola anything and I’m excited to try out more recipes!

It says they have 352 calories! Is that correct? Sounds like a lot!

I made these granola bars recently and substituted pistachios for the other nuts. They were so delicious! I shared them on my blog today. Thanks for another great recipe!

LOVE the way these granola bars tasted- however mine turned into more of a crumble than a bar formation. Is there any reason why this happened and why it didn’t stick together as well?

myndaughter is TN allergic. Would these still work leaving out all nuts?

Just made these for a camping trip… soooo good! They really do taste like brownies!

Im really loving this recipe, but i would like to omit dates or dried fruits altogether. Would increasing the honey-butter fraction make up for it to the the binder?

love these granola bars!! so chocolatey with out all the guilt :) i sprinkle flakey course sea salt on top … takes these to a whole new level of yumminess :)

I already have almond meal. Would i still need a cup or less?

I made these last weekend. They are just divine. I have guests staying in the appartment this week and they really enjoy them each morning. I love the idea, the simplicity of the taste and the little surprise every time I bite into a toasted pecan or almond! Love it!

Hi, my daughter gave me a Bobos Oat Bar and it was very good. This caused me to search for a healthy bar to make. All of your comments are very good and I will try these. I really need something healthy and being Diabetic, do not want anything too sweet.

Thanks for sharing. Hope mine come out as good as yours.

I want totry this recipe but I don’t like walnuts, canI replace or omit them?

i made these one day when I was craving brownies. These are the best!!! My entire family loved these! My husband liked them so much he took a bunch to share at work. I made a double batch and it disappeared within a couple of days. Just enough sweetness to cure that sweet craving, and the rest of the raw, healthy food is a must in my diet. Making another double batch today. Thank you for sharing!

Believe it or not this recipe took hours! I made them while multitasking…such a no-no for me. We took the batch minus the oats to a friend’s house. The wife said I think you left out the oats… I was baffled by my pudding aka granola bars and took them home. I get home and in the oven is the dish of roasted oats! I mixed them into the pudding and whalah! Healthy brownie granola balls! :-) the husband of the above mentioned wife came later in the week and took all but five balls! Thanks so much

Thank you for these. I didn’t make them though into bars, but put them in a mini muffin pan for granola bites. Eating 1-2 is perfect for my sweet craving. My daughter loves them too.

Thank you so much for this recipe! I can’t stop making them! Amazingly delicious snack and pre-post workout sustenance. A sweet treat for life!

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly– having a baby is distracting work lol, and by the time I realized my mistake, all I could do was press on and hope it was still good.

I just put everything in my food processor and blended it into a semi-smooth dough(y substance). So even though it doesn’t look like the above pictures, it’s still DELICIOUS!! This is definitely something I’m going to make again and again.

Made a mixed up version of these and the Super Seedy bars (with 1/2 cup protein powder subbed out for 1/2 cup of oats). For those with nut allergies, you can definitely replace the nuts with equal parts seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, chia, hemp – any combination) with really good results!

Best ever snack, workout fuel, and dessert. The best part? All the girly-hip-lovin’ fats we need.

I made these last week and they are all long gone. I used honey and didn’t bother toasting anything, just used them as is. It was super quick and easy. I stored them in the freezer and we all just ate them that way without defrosting. Surprisingly very filling for a quick breakfast on the run as well.

I’m allergic to nuts and soya (but not peanuts) and I always find granola bars tricky because they always require nuts of some kind. So I substituted the nuts with roasted chickpeas and the walnuts with roasted sunflowers seeds. Worked very well although I assume the flavour is slightly different. Anyway, wanted to share because I think it’s a good tip for all nut allergy people out there. :)

I just made these, followed a link here from Buzzfeed, and OMG they are so delicious! Since I’m swedish I had to convert the recipe but the ingredients were easy to find here as well. Best part is, my fiance didn’t like them because I used a rich, dark, high-quality cacao powder. I have them all to myself, moahaha ;)

I’m not a big fan of dates so do you have any idea of what I could use as a substitute? Thanks :)

I made these as both bars and as bite-size balls. Delicious!

Hi there!

I make my own vegan granola but have never taken the time to make my own granola bars (why? I have no clue! it’s all the same amount of work!). I came across this recipe on Buzzfeed and it is GOLD! Thank you SO much for sharing it! Now, I make my own **vegan** granola bars all the time, thanks to this recipe!

I’m a university student, so eating healthy and making sure I’m not just grabbing the easiest (and unhealthiest) food during crunch-time (i.e. exam time!) is so important! This recipe is a godsent and I even make more batches for friends :)

FYI, I use coconut milk and almond butter as the binder, and add a little bit of hand-ground chai-tea mix to give these bars a Christmas-y taste :) YUMMY!

Thanks again for creating these!

About how many calories per bar?

Yum! Very tasty. Great idea for a healthy gluten free snack.

These sound delicious! Unfortunately I’m a broke college student with no access to a food processor or blender. Do you have any suggestions for how I could adapt this for a simpler kitchen?

Hello and thank you for this awesome recipe ! :D
I can’t wait to make these bars but as I’m French, my English is quite bad haha so I guess I’ll have to translate the whole recipe ! Anyway, these bars seems sooo tasty and really nutritious. Thank you once again !

This was perfect! I substituted the pecans with cashews because I don’t like pecans and I used dark chocolate cocoa powder. I’m having a tough time trying not to eat them all in one sitting! They taste amazing!

My podcast “Common Room” is going to feature your bars on our next episode. We are doing a feature on ‘space food’ so I needed something that was nutrient rich (high protein, fat) yet tastes good and could stay together in low/zero gravity. These sounded perfect! And they are! Thanks!

Hello! I made your chocolate chip almond butter granola bars last night and they are so good! My question about this recipe is whether you used sweetened or unsweetened cocoa powder. Thanks in advance!

So good! I tried chocolate chips and chopped apricots, and it worked out great!

I made these and they turned out great although mine was a slightly different version. I forgot to buy walnuts so I didn’t have them in my recipe. I used the oats to make the “meal” since I didn’t want the whole oats in there anyway.

These look amazing!! Would sunflower butter work instead of almond or peanut?

Dates are quite expensive in my country.

Any other options?

Can’t wait to try this out!

Just made these and they are sooooo yummmmmyyyyyy!!!!! :-)

I didn’t have quite enough dates left on hand (after making the 5-ingredient bars last time hah) and also didn’t have quite enough nuts on hand. I used only about 1 cup of oatmeal to try to match the amount of dates and nuts, and also less cocoa powder. I did add dried apples and dried cranberries in, though. I also added in 1 scoop of protein powder for a little extra punch. Then I used the regular amount of peanut butter and honey. I was trying to keep it from being too dry and crumbly which was my problem on the 5-ingredient bars. I think it came out just perfectly. I put it in a 9×9 dish and into the freezer for 20 minutes, and they all cut perfectly. I got maybe 10 or 12 bars out of it. Much better than the store where you only get 5 per box!

Do you think you could swap the dates for prunes?

oh.my.goodness! Thank you so very much! I made these heavenly bars yesterday, and actually have to talk myself out of the entire kitchen! The pull is strong!!

Everyone loves them – friends, neighbors, my husband, everyone! It was hard letting any go, but I knew I had to, or some serious damage would be done in the wee hours…

Thank you!

I want one…or all that remain…now!

; )

Awesome! Bars are in the freezer… ate some of the mixture before pressing it into bars and was very impressed. What a perfect consistency. I’m a pretty avid bar maker (eat them before the gym), and am super excited about these.
About the digestibility thing… I’m not too strict with the “no raw grains” etc., stuff, but in this case instead of using rolled oats I used buckwheat groats that I had sprouted and dehydrated previously. I do this often and keep them stored for recipes like this after dehydrating. I do this with nuts too (sometimes). You could always soak and rinse your rolled oats to promote digestibility, but it might make your bars mushy without dehydrating after. I haven’t tried! Or, just go along with eating raw stuff as long as your body feels ok :)

These bars are DECADENT! I have made them a few times, and most recently substituted 1/4 cup of the cocoa powder for chocolate protein powder. They were just as delicious! They always get rave reviews, and I love making them for/with my clients. Thanks for a keeper!

Wow! Absolutely delicious. I’m sure they would have been even better if I didn’t rush through reading the recipe (I was trying to get the noisy stuff done before nap time). In my haste, I toasted all of the nuts and oats together, and then still rushing I poured the entire baking sheet into the processor and processed the oats, the walnuts, the pecans and the almonds. As I was pressing them into the pan, I finally noticed “hey that doesn’t look like a granola bar- it almost looks like a Larabar” I quickly reread the recipe, and of course I immediately saw my mistakes. Well, mistakes aside this is delicious! I’ll definitely be trying your recipe again, the CORRECT way, once this batch has been devoured, which should be in a couple of days. Thanks again!

I made these a couple of days ago, and I have almost single-handedly finished the whole batch! ;) This recipe is absolutely delicious, very customizable (I didn’t have pecans or almond butter, so I used chopped almonds and peanut butter, and it turned out great!), and so nutritious because of the raw cacao powder.
However, I am aware that medjool dates are particularly high in calories and (natural) sugar. I wonder if mashed bananas could be used in replacement of the dates?

Yumm, these look great and I’ll have to try making them! I bet you could grind up some raw oats and coat the outside of the bars in them so they don’t get as sticky!

These look seriously amazing Dana. How is it possible that something so super-deliciously indulgent can also be healthy? You’re a miracle worker, my friend! Definitely trying these xx

Whoaaaa!!!!! I could have 10 of these every single morning!!!!! So indulgent yet soo soo healthy!!!! <3

You had me at BROWNIE. Btw, do you get your dates wholesale?

I saw this recipe, got excited/started drooling, already had all needed ingredients, so went ahead and made these last night! I cut them this morning and ohhhh my goodness. Total yumfest. I’m glad I took your recommendation of toasting the oats & pecans – the flavor it adds is awesome! I used an 8×8 pan and ended up cutting my bars thin and got a ton out of this recipe. My almond butter was raw unsalted so I threw in some sea salt (& sprinkled some on top before I froze). Great recipe! Y’all def need to make. This will be seen again in my kitchen for sure. Perfect amount of crunch, chocolate and toasted oatiness. Glad this “mistake” happened!

I’ve never made granola bars! These look like a hearty, delicious snack. Re: yoga pants, Old Navy makes amazing yoga pants and you can get them for $15 a piece if you buy them at 30% off. I might own six pairs…

These look so good! And a few preceeding recipes I have not had a chance to say “Yum” to!

These are like larabars on steroids!! YUM!

I’ve made something like this before, but I have to say, yours look so much better! I love the texture you have going with the larger nut chunks. And pecans and oats, too? Yum! Thanks so much for sharing.

re: dates question above
I am in Oregon and have bought dates at Fred Meyers and Haggens Grocery stores no problem. Freddies even has them in the bulk section!

My question is…
I have always wondered about eating oatmeal RAW
is that ok?
hard to digest?
or good and fiberfull etc
idk :)

Where do you buy your dates? I found that in Washington state it’s not that easy to buy them, or maybe it’s just my amazing searching skills… I know they sell them at winco idk if you know winco but it’s kinda low quality store, not sure if I should buy them there.. Or it doesn’t matter?

These are so incredible, can;t imagine how good they taste. And healthy too! WOW

Argh, I feel for you there. One of the things I really can’t stand is wasting food, so its an absolute nightmare when I screw up a recipe and have to throw it away! (Not that it happens often, but still. xD) Especially since its only ever really with oven/batch-based things that it happens, so high quantities of good ingredients are wasted… Not to mention the money and time. But I guess chucking the result and washing your hands of it is better than forcing yourself to eat it just out of guilt/to get rid of it and trying to create the delusion that it tastes ok… that’s nasty and I’ve sworn never to do it again. XD

I love the idea of combining chocolate brownies and granola bars! These look so rich and delicious, and not dry in the slightest, which is the one thing I’m sometimes less keen on with granola bars:D

Raw brownies – Im in!!

Raw brownies are so amazing, aren’t they? I think everyone in my family can agree that the best brownies I’ve made are raw + vegan. (which is awesome!) These brownie bars look incredible. Like, seriously. Perfect.
Pinning!

These look super tasty, and no bake just means its an added bonus! :)

Oh goodness me, these look totally ace. I can see them becoming my new go-to snack. Love it.

Love your styling on these. These look GREAT!!

Oh these look soooo good! I can’t wait to try them!

This looks so yummy! I love a good homemade granola bar.

Happy accidents are the best! I love what these turned into. :)