These peanut butter granola bars have the best nutty sweet flavor! They’re the perfect homemade snack for PB lovers.
Love peanut butter? Here’s the ultimate snack for PB lovers: Peanut Butter Granola Bars! Storebought granola bars are convenient, yes. But they taste sugary sweet and one note, with a a slightly artificial aftertaste. The flavor difference versus a homemade granola bar? It’s transcendental: honey sweet, nutty, nuanced with a hint cinnamon and a pop of rich chocolate. We think you’ll agree: these are amazing. Make up a batch and eat off of them for treats and healthy snacks all week long.
What you need for peanut butter granola bars
You do not, in fact, need granola in order to make granola bars. (Who knew!) No, these bars are no bake bars using oats and peanut butter. Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- Creamy peanut butter: no sugar added is best here. A very creamy brand is best (some brands can be drier than others). Make sure to stir your PB well before making the bars.
- Honey: want vegan granola bars? Use agave syrup here.
- Old Fashioned rolled oats
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Mini chocolate chips: make sure they’re mini! Standard chocolate chips don’t work well because they’re too large to integrate into the texture of the bar.
Toast the oats for maximum flavor
These peanut butter granola bars are no bake: but they do involve a quick 10-minute toast in the oven for the oats. It might be tempting to skip this step (and you can if you’re in a rush). But here’s why it’s ideal for this recipe:
- Toasting the oats adds major nutty, irresistible flavor. It’s absolutely worth the extra minutes for the payoff in flavor.
- You’ll need just 10 minutes at 350 degrees. It’s quick and simple, and easiest in the oven because it lets you place all the oats in a single layer in a pan.
Chill a few hours for best results
Once you mix together the dough for this peanut butter granola bars recipe, you’ll freeze it for 10 minutes to solidly. Then, you can cut it into bars. Right away, the texture will be very chewy. If you can, refrigerate the bars for 2 hours before eating! This helps the texture to firm up. Technically you can eat them right away, but chilling them makes them more solid.
Storage info for peanut butter granola bars
These homemade peanut butter granola bars are different from the store-bought variety: so they’re not shelf-stable! Store homemade granola bars refrigerated for up to 3 weeks in a sealed container. You can still include them in lunch boxes that aren’t refrigerated during the day: they’ll be a bit softer but will still hold together.
Want to transport them individually wrapped? You can wrap in parchment paper and secure with tape, or use the storage container of your choice.
More peanut butter recipes
And that’s it! These peanut butter granola bars are the ideal healthy snack or treat to whip up and keep in your fridge for munching all week. Want more ways to use PB? Here are some of our favorite peanut butter recipes for using up a jar:
This peanut butter granola bars recipe is…
Vegetarian, dairy-free, plant-based and gluten-free. For vegan, use agave syrup.
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter (no sugar added)
- ½ cup honey (or ½ cup agave syrup for vegan)
- 3 ½ cups Old Fashioned rolled oats
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips, divided
- Toast the oats: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the oats in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them for 10 minutes until lightly golden. (This step adds incredible toasty flavor to the oats: don’t skip it!)
- Mix the ingredients: Transfer the oats to a large bowl and mix in the peanut butter, honey, oats, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in ¼ cup of the chocolate chips.
- Form into bars: Add a sheet of parchment paper to a 9″ x 9″ pan, letting the edges drape over the sides. Place the mixture into the pan and press it into an even layer. Add the remaining ¼ cup chocolate chips to the top of the bars. Use a small glass to roll over the top to make them as smooth as possible.
- Freeze and cut the bars: Freeze the bars for 10 minutes. Then remove the pan from the freezer and use the parchment to lift the bars out of the pan. Use a sharp knife to cut them into 14 bar sized shapes (that are 4 ½ by 1 ¼ inches), or the size of your choice. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. The texture becomes solid after refrigerating for 2 hours, so if you have time do that before tasting the first bar.
- Category: Snack
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: Snack
- Diet: Vegetarian
Keywords: Peanut butter granola bars