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These bars are so good! I’ve told everyone about them. My extra picky toddler gobbles them up. Such a wonderful thing to have on hand when you want something sweet and filling. Excellent recipe!
Crystal
Aww, hey team! Peanut-butter-honey-loaded soft granola bar for you?
We meet again – this time across oceans where I’m writing this from our sweet lil hotel room in Cebu City, Philippines where the air conditioning is pumping and mini-fridge is serving me up some ice cold mango juice and the CNN channel on our little TV is keeping me all up to date with the SuperTuesday happenings as I write a quick post for the internet. TECHNOLOGY, MAN. It’s pretty awesome that we can make this whole food-blog-song-and-dance gig work from anywhere.
So let’s grab a BEST EVER soft granola bar and have a little snack and catch up.
HOW TO MAKE OUR BEST SOFT GRANOLA BARS:
First things first – these granola bars.
They are very very VERY easy. They are just the perfect amount of crunchy and salty-sweet. And maybe most importantly, they are soft and they actually stick together and they are delicious to eat.
It’s Larabar simplicity meets Sunbelt soft texture meets KIND bar crunchiness.
Also, because the ingredients are so very basic, you can add or change them as needed. I’m guessing that you have most everything in the house right now: peanut butter, honey, pretzels, oats, and peanuts.
Take it and run with it, friends. Take it and RUN.
Okay, so beyond granola bars.
We are in the Philippines! WE ARE IN THE PHILIPPINES.
Our ten days here are dual-purpose: to re-visit the city we lived in and orphanage that we worked at for a year, and to work on some media projects (read: pictures and video) for the orphanage. I have something big in the works in this orphanage-meets-blog-meets-impact department, and right now I’m just sort of simmering on it. It’s making me 95% excited and 95% nervous. Just… I hope you’ll check back. Will you check back?
Things have been going so well that sometimes I forget that I have a blog. Which is good. It’s a drink of normal water to not be so consumed with the blog and internet world, even if that means that most of my day is spent having a whopping zero amount of access to wifi and none of my attempted snaps ever go through. I can deal. It’s like a tech detox.
On the very positive side of things so far, the kids at the shelter are 100% CUTE OVERLOAD status, the projects we are working on are challenging and fun, annnnnd we ate this whole batch of granola bars throughout the two days before, two days during, and two days after our long trek to this side of the world.
Exhibit A.
On the very negative side, there’s just that one little thing about –> earthquakes. They scare me like nothing else ever and so, of course, obviously, there had to be a small earthquake here in Cebu yesterday. Had to. Couldn’t have happened in the other 350 days of the year. And also, of course, we are on the 8th floor of our hotel. Obviously. Had to be. And to say I am totally freaked out about all of this would be a major understatement. I am already a little jumpy about life in general, so having experienced some earthquakage yesterday does not help a mind like mine.
To add to the nervous energy brewing up there in my mind, I am literally sitting here in the hotel room seeing breaking news on CNN about the 8.1 earthquake in Indonesia and the resulting tsunami warnings and don’t worry – I’m not even panicking at all. (This is a lie. I am fully panicking. Indonesia is basically our next door neighbor right now. Full panic.)
FRIENDS! What is this?! How? How do people live in places with earthquakes? Like, how does one a) survive the stress of mentally having to always be prepared for an earthquake at any given moment, and b) figure out a way to stash away as many soft granola bars as possible in case of such emergency?
I’m kidding, in that ha-ha-serious way. Please advise on earthquakes immediately.
When its all said and done (meaning when I most likely die from an earthquake in the next hour or two), just know this -> these are the best soft granola bars I’ve ever made and they are bomb in flavor and texture. It is worth it for me to use my last ever blog post to tell you this important and life-changing information.
These soft granola bars take hardly any time to prep and they will fill your fridge / freezer / belly with wholesome soft granola bar happiness.
Is that not the best Wednesday news a hungry girl could ask for?
Food blogger life mission: complete.
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The Best Soft Granola Bars
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12–16 dense, thick, soft bars 1x
Description
The BEST Soft Granola Bars recipe – made with PB, honey, vanilla, oats, pretzels, peanuts (and any other add-ins you like). So easy and SUPER yummy!
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups twisted pretzels, crushed down to about 1 heaping cup
- 1/2 cup salted peanut halves
- 1 cup peanut butter (more as needed)
- 1/2 cup honey (more as needed)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Toss the oats, crushed pretzels, and salted peanut halves together in a large bowl.
- Stir the peanut butter, honey, and vanilla together in a separate bowl until smooth and creamy. Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients in the other bowl. Stir until combined.
- Press the bar mixture into a 9×9 inch pan lined with parchment paper (9×13 will work – it will just yield wider, flatter bars). Freeze for 30 minutes. Pull out of the pan and cut into bars. Store bars individually wrapped in the freezer for quick grab-and-go snacks.
Notes
After you mix everything together, it’s sort of up to you to make a judgement call about how you want your granola bars to be. A few options – 1) pulse half of the mixture through a food processor to change up the texture a bit. Stir it back in with the rest of the mix. This just helps it to have more interesting texture that holds together better. 2) Add more peanut butter or honey if things seem to dry or crumbly. 3) Add more oats or pretzels if the mix seems too heavy. 4) Mix in anything else you want! The is just the base – add dried fruit, chocolate chips, more nuts, seeds, whatever you like.
I used Jif Creamy Natural Peanut Butter, so you may need different amounts depending on the type of peanut butter you use. Sometimes natural peanut butter is less sweet, less salty, and/or more oily, so just keep that in mind.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Snack
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition Facts
- Daily value: 14% Total Fat 11.2g
- Daily value: 0% Cholesterol 0mg
- Daily value: 6% Sodium 127.2mg
- Daily value: 16% Total Carbohydrate 43g
- Daily value: 16% Dietary Fiber 4.4g
- Sugars 10.6g
- Daily value: 18% Protein 9.2g
- Daily value: 0% Vitamin A 0µg
- Daily value: 0% Vitamin C 0.3mg
Keywords: homemade granola bars, soft granola bars, granola bar recipe
Nutrition is for 16 bars.
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of sweet honey recipes. Check it out!
Found this old recipe and decided to make it for pregnancy snacks! I used natural peanut butter so they don’t really stick together, so I may need to use some oil or something else thick next time! Besides that I added walnuts, dried cranberries, and chocolate chips, and a bit of cinnamon and they’re delicious!
Hi Lindsay,
Your Soft Granola Bars sound AmaZing! I just have one question for you: In the recipe directions, it says to freeze the bars for 30 min., but in another spot it mentions a cook time of 30 min. I’m thinking that the cook time is just an error, but I wanted to check with you to be sure before making them. Thank you for your Wonderful recipes & please take care!! <3
No cooking here, just freezing! 😉
Sitting here looking up recipes for soft granola bars for my picky toddler and find this! Cant wait to try them.
Also, Im saying its fate because my fiancé is from the Philippines and our toddler is half Pinay so this post is perfect! Ha ha
Love this recipe! I just made it. I tweaked a bit to add maple & brown sugar & it’s so delicious! Thanks 🖤
Thank you for the recipe! I am so eager to try it! I had a bar like this about 7 years ago and have been trying to replicate the recipe. I have a good feeling about this one 🙂
I came on here to look at your categories because you have a great food blog and mine is just sort of ho hum. I started reading about the earthquake and, forgive me Lindsay, but I started to laugh and couldn’t stop. I knew you were scared but also you couldn’t help making fun and I couldn’t help giggling uncontrollably. Hope you are now home safe. BTW I AM making these yummy bars. Everything in them is IBS safe except for the honey which is high in fodmaps, but I am substituting maple syrup Done!
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try! We hope you love it!
I substituted mini chocolate chips for the peanuts and they are delicious and easy!
YUM!
Can you use old fashioned oats instead of rolled oats or would quinoa flakes be better?
Quick-cooking oats would probably be the best sub here instead of old fashioned oats. We haven’t tried quinoa flakes yet, but it’s worth a shot!
I just read through your recipe, are you cooking the oats ahead of time? I can’t imagine that you’re using uncooked, rolled oats for your finished recipe? Could you elaborate? Thank you.
No need to cook the oats here, just plain uncooked rolled oats.
Are these old fashion oats or quick oats?
Old fashioned!
Do these have to go in the freezer or will the fridge work too? Thanks!
Fridge should work just fine!
I really enjoy your website. Congratulations. It would be nice to have all your recipes in grams and ounces as well. I think it would be ideal to open your website to different markets other than the US. Just sayin… Congrats again.
Do you have to freeze the soft granola bars or can you wrap them individually and leave in an airtight container on counter?
Thank you!
These were good! I made them for my one year old & myself so I left out the peanut halves. I am definitely going to try them using Cheerios. Thanks for the quick & easy treat!
Nice. Fitness’ people thank you, thank you!
These are killer good and so easy to make. I subbed peanuts with walnuts and added chopped dark chocolate and I cannot stop eating them. Thank you for such a simple and delicious recipe!
Do you use old fashioned oats or quick cooking oats for these? Thanks in advance for clarifying!
Old fashioned oats. 🙂
These bars are soooo delicious! They have become mine and my husband’s favorite, go-to bars. I’ve been making a fresh batch for us almost every week, with a little extra peanut butter and added protein powder to give us that nice protein boost after our workouts. I’m about to start doubling the recipe, as our friends have started gobbling them down as well 😉 Thanks for another awesome recipe, Lindsey and POY team!
Do you think I could sub puffed rice for the pretzels? Would it get soggy?
I will definitely be making these – I’m looking to get healthier myself.
Hope you enjoy them! 🙂
Because peanut butter is not one that I like in your opinion would be a good subsitute for it Nutella?
We haven’t tried it so can’t really say. Would love to hear how it goes if you give it a try!
thanks! something gluten free for my cub scouts!
These look SO good I can’t wait to make them! Do they hold together well? I have an almost 2 year old who loves “bars” as she calls them but don’t want to give her one that will fall to pieces in her hands! 😛
They do! I’d for sure store them in the fridge or freezer though. 🙂
Yummy. I left out pretzels, added carob and other seeds and nuts, snipped apricots (never could leave well enough alone)! I live in Albuquerque, NM. I call it the armpit of the country. But at least we don’t have to worry about earthquakes or tornados, as global warming continues to cause sea levels to rise, at our altitude we’ll be among the last to sink below the sea. Thank for inspiring me to finally make my own soft bars!
I don’t know what to say, except, wow! These are by far my favourite peanut butter snack now (and there have been many, many recipes trialed over the years!). Thanks for such a great recipe. You’ve taken sweet/salty to a whole new level!
Glad you enjoyed them, Melissa!