Crunchy Peanut Butter Honey Granola Bars

I just love a good make-ahead breakfast. Whether it’s a nice chia pudding or a nutritious muffin, knowing I have breakfast ready when I wake up makes my mornings a little sunnier. Those days when snoozing the alarm is a given, a tasty breakfast makes it easier to get out of bed. And granola bars are the ultimate make ahead breakfast, don’t you think? 

Peanut Butter Honey Granola Bars

We’re major granola bar fans here at Hello Veggie – they’re just so convenient, yummy, and nutritious! They make a great breakfast on the go, and they make a nutritious snack, too. Everyone in the family loves them, they’re relatively mess-free (here’s looking at you, kiddos snacking in the car!), and you can make them ahead of time. “I’m so sorry I made such a big batch of these peanut butter honey granola bars” – said no one, ever. 

We think you’ll become a major fan of this particular recipe, made with old fashioned rolled oats, peanut butter, and honey. The resulting granola bars are sweet, crunchy, and pack that amazing peanut butter flavor we can’t get enough of. The recipe makes 18 bars, which should be enough to satisfy the whole family for a few days. The granola bars keep well, but you probably won’t need to store them for too long… 

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Peanut Butter Honey Granola Bars

Reprinted with permission from Uncle Sam Cereal Blog.

Servings 18 bars

Author Irvin Lin

Ingredients

• ¼ cup natural peanut butter
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup raw local honey
• ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup quick cook rolled oats
• 2/3 cup dried fruit or other dried fruit mix of your choice
• 1/3 cup oat flour
• ½ tsp of cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line a 9” x 9” pan with parchment paper, leaving an extra inch or two on each side of the pan.
2. In a small saucepan, heat over medium, peanut butter, brown sugar, honey and unsalted butter until the butter has melted and the brown sugar has dissolved. Stir to make sure everything is incorporated.
   
3. In a medium heat-proof bowl, toss and stir the Uncle Sam Original Cereal, rolled oats, dried fruit, oat flour, cinnamon, and salt until uniform in texture.
4. Pour peanut butter batter over the Uncle Sam Original Cereal and toss to evenly coat. Make sure all the cereal and rolled oats are moistened and the peanut butter batter has coated everything.
5. Press the batter into the lined 9” x 9” pan pressing down so that the batter is tightly packed into the pan as densely as possible (don’t force and crush the flakes, but if the batter is loose, the resulting bar will be crumbly so be sure to tamp down tightly).
6. Bake the pan for 15 minutes or until the sides of the granola starts to look a little toasty golden brown (browner than they already are).
7. Remove and cool to room temperature. Once cooled to room temperature, move the pan to the refrigerator and chill for an hour or until firm.
8. Once chilled, remove the bars from pan by grabbing the sides of the parchment paper and lifting straight up. Slice the bars into 1 ½” by 3” bars (six cuts horizontally, three cuts vertically) resulting in 18 bars.