No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter
Packed with crunch and sweet cranberries, these No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter make the perfect busy week snack prep. Totally nut-free and perfect for grab-and-go days, these granola bars are great for a nut-free school snack.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- ⏲️Ready In: 15 Minutes Prep, 2 Hours Chilling
- 👪Serves: 12
- 🍽 Calories: 270 kcals
- 📋Main Ingredients: Oats, seeds, honey, cinnamon, and vanilla.
- 📖 Dietary Notes: Dairy-free and can be made vegan and gluten-free if needed.
- ⭐ Why You’ll Love It: They’re sweet, chewy, and packed with fiber and flavor.
SUMMARIZE & SAVE THIS CONTENT ON
I love having easy granola bars without peanut butter tucked in the fridge because there’s always someone looking for a snack five minutes before we need to leave. And these bars are the perfect save. They’re sweet, chewy, loaded with crunchy seeds, and substantial enough for those after-school-to-practice afternoons when dinner is still hours away.
I’ll usually wrap a few individually so we can grab them on the way to the rink or field (keep them cool though, or they get sticky when warm!). Lately I’ve been rotating them with my blender muffins with Greek yogurt and cinnamon roll energy bites so I can prep a few homemade snacks at once and call it a win for the week.
Jump to:
- A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Why This Recipe Is Different💭
- Ingredients and Substitutions
- Flavors To Try
- How To Make No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter
- Helpful Hints
- How To Store It
- No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter FAQs
- More Easy Snack Recipes
- Blender Muffins With Greek Yogurt [No Banana]
- Overnight Oats With Yogurt And Frozen Berries
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread No Oil [2 Bananas]
- No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter
Why This Recipe Is Different💭
No nuts at all: Most granola bars use a nut butter of some sort to bind them, nut free granola bars for kids use honey instead to keep them together.
Tasty texture: These no-bake bars are a fun blend of crunchy seeds and chewy oats and cranberries, which makes for a delicious contrast.
They hold together: Since the honey is boiled down until ultra-sticky, these peanut butter-free bars hold together really well once chilled.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Seeds: The no-bake granola bars with oats and honey use seeds for their crunch. For the best taste, use unsalted seeds; otherwise, the bars can become too salty. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds are also ingredients I like to keep stocked from my list of foods to buy in bulk to save money.
- Honey: This cannot be substituted for maple syrup, as the honey is what binds the bars together. Changing it to maple syrup may cause the bars to crystallize.
- Flax: These little seeds give a dose of healthy fats and thicken the mixture. You could always use chia seeds if you don’t have them.
- Brown sugar: Used because it makes a stickier texture when melted. Other sugars can be used, but brown sugar granola bars hold together best.
- Butter: This can be replaced with coconut oil if needed; just make sure to only boil the wet mixture for 75 seconds if you do this,
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Flavors To Try
Below are a few add-ins we’ve used when making homemade granola bars for sports. Adapt the bars based on your kids’ favorite flavors.
- Extra crunchy: Toast the pumpkin and sunflower seeds first to bring out more crunch and a delicious flavor. Just make sure to let them fully cool before making the bars.
- Chocolate chip: Every kid loves bites of gooey chocolate. Add some chocolate chips (white or regular) to the mix for a sweeter taste. If chocolate is always the winning snack in your house, this chocolate chip banana bread with no oil is another easy one to make ahead.
- Tropical: Mix some shredded coconut into the bars and sub half the cranberries with dried blueberries for a fruitier flavor.
How To Make No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter
Step 1: Combine the brown sugar, butter, and honey in a small pot and heat it over medium heat until the sugar is melted.
Step 2: Boil the mixture briefly (about 90 seconds) without stirring it so that it becomes a bit tacky. Remove from the burner.
Step 3: Mix in the remaining ingredients until combined and coated.
Step 4: Dump the mixture into a lined baking pan and press it down evenly with another sheet of parchment paper on top.
Step 5: Place the bars in the fridge for 2 hours before slicing and storing.
Note
Press them down! The better you press the mixture down into the pan, the less air in the bars and the better they’ll hold together.
Helpful Hints
Pro tip: Chocolate Chips
If you’re using chocolate chips, don’t stir them into the hot mixture; instead, sprinkle them over the bars once they’re pressed into the pan. Otherwise, the chocolate chips just melt.
- Boiling: You need to bring the wet mixture to a low boil but only let it sit there for 90 seconds. This helps the honey thicken so that they hold together.
- Chilling: Make sure to let the granola bars without peanut butter or nut butter chill in the fridge uncovered so that any and all air can escape.
- Heat: Keep an eye on your heat and mixture when you’re first melting the sugar. Too hot and it’ll burn.
How To Store It
The granola bars with pumpkin and sunflower seeds can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 1 month.
Fridge: Make sure they’re in an airtight container and layers are separated with parchment paper.
Freezer: Store the bars in a freezer-safe bag in a single layer. Place them in the fridge the night before you need them.
To make busy sports days easier, try wrapping the no-bake granola bars individually in parchment or wax paper. They’re one of my favorite snacks to pack alongside these other dinners on the go ideas when we’re going to be at the field or rink through dinner. If possible, keep them chilled until you need them.
No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter FAQs
More Easy Snack Recipes
If you tried this Nut Butter-Free Granola Bars or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes!
No Bake Granola Bars Without Peanut Butter
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar 150g
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter 84g, or coconut oil
- 1/3 cup clear honey 78ml
- 1 1/2 cup rolled oats 170g
- 1 cup pumpkin seeds/pepitas 145g, unsalted
- 3/4 cup sunflower seeds 90g, unsalted
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries 70g
- 2 tablespoons ground flax 15g
- 1/2 teaspoons salt 3g
Instructions
- Line an 8” x 8”/20cm x 20cm baking pan with parchment.
- In a medium pot, combine brown sugar, butter, and honey. Heat over medium, stirring occasionally (very gently), until the brown sugar is dissolved.
- Bring the mixture to a low boil. Once boiling, cook for 90 seconds without stirring.
- Remove from the stove and mix in the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cranberries, ground flax, and salt. Keep mixing until everything completely coated.
- Scrape into prepared pan and use another layer of parchment to press firmly into an even layer, minimizing as much air space as possible so that all the oats and seeds cling together.
- Place the pan in the fridge (uncovered to let moisture escape) to set for at least 2 hours.
- Once set, cut into 12 bars with a serrated knife.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Equipment
I love how well these hold together!