Homemade Monster Trail Mix No Bake Granola Bar Recipe | Mom On Timeout (2024)

FAQs

What is the best binder for granola bars? ›

Honey. Sweetens the granola bars and helps bind the dry ingredients together.

Honey – Along with the nut butter, it helps all these ingredients stick together! I love its warm amber flavor in this recipe. Vanilla extract – It amps up the bars' warm flavor.

While the oats and nuts bake, you can make the sticky glue that holds our bars together. You'll melt butter, honey, and brown sugar in a saucepan and simmer until the sugar dissolves. Mix this sticky mixture with the toasted oats and nuts. Allow everything to cool, and then toss in dried fruit and chocolate chips.

Using the right binding agent in your granola bar recipe is a crucial part of keeping your bars from falling apart. While there are several different sticky ingredients that you can use, we've found that the binding agent that works the best is honey!

Clumpy Granola Method: Add Egg White

The idea is that the egg's protein will help the oats bind to each other and create delicate clusters. Results: Not only does the egg white work as a glue to hold the oats together, but it also gives the granola an incredibly crispy bite.

Nut butter is a super flavorful fat that serves multiple purposes in granola. It acts as a binding agent—along with additional coconut oil and whatever natural sweetener I've chosen—helping to pull the dry ingredients together into a wet, sticky mass for baking.

Fill the bowl up with water to completely cover the mixture – enough that you can stir to combine. This soaking process will help the oats and seeds digest better. After the oat/seed mixture has soaked 8-12 hours, add the rest of the ingredients and combine.

TO STORE: Store granola bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or refrigerate for 2 weeks. TO FREEZE: Wrap bars airtight and store them in a ziptop bag in the freezer. Let thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.

I aim to let it hit room temperature, whatever that may be; the real point is to give it ample time to shed excess heat and steam. This should take about 45 minutes; if left out indefinitely, the granola can turn sticky or soft, so do try to put it away as soon after cooling as you can.

These bars will soften at room temperature so keep them in the fridge, or wrap in parchment paper or saran wrap and freeze individually. However you eat them them, I hope you love these homemade chewy granola bars!

Why is my homemade granola dry? ›

Keep in mind that the granola won't be dry right out of the oven — it will dry as it cools. So take it out of the oven when it looks lightly toasted and smells like cooked honey. We're going for a toasty smell here. Add dried fruit after baking.

“We carried Quaker's Chewy Bars and Oat Squares cereals until they were recalled back in December 2023. None of these items have returned to our store's shelves yet. We suggest reaching out to Quaker for additional information on when these products might be available again.”

If your granola bars are falling apart or seem too crumbly, here are a few tips. Make sure you use honey or another sticky sweetener such as maple syrup in the liquid part of the recipe; this recipe calls for honey. This will help bind together the ingredients and keep that signature bar shape.

There are other binding agents which are low in calories. You can try some hydrocolloids or modified starches. You can experiment with some nut butter (peanut butter), starches (tapioca, corn or potato starch), honey, gums (xanthan, guar), gluten free flours (sorghum flour), and gelatin.

The three most common binders are xanthan gum, guar gum and psyllium husk powder. Each one works in a slightly different way to help create the structure we need to hold baked goods together.