Make Your Own Chewy Granola Bars

I’m going on a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park for some bouldering this weekend, and I needed some easy-to-pack, easy-to-eat food. Space may be limited since I’ll be with a group (can’t bring my own cooler), and the short nature of the trip means that my biggest concern is getting enough energy to send. Thus, granola bars are a superb option.

There are a thousand and one brands of granola bars (or energy bars) you can buy prepackaged, and every one will make its own health or ingredient claims. I can’t cover them all, but it’s pretty easy to sum up what goes into the typical energy bar:

1. A source of glucose-based carbohydrates, such as oats or puffed rice.
2. A ton of sugar to bind those carbohydrates.
3. Flavoring ingredients, such as nuts/seeds, coconut, chocolate, or fruit.
4. Vitamins and minerals for fortification.

Except for item #4 (which are completely unnecessary, anyway), these are all cheap, easy-to-find ingredients—and combining them into your own granola bars is easy.

Below is a recipe for some very basic homemade chewy granola bars. And because it’s in my nature—I once described brown sugar during a game of Catch Phrase as “it makes cookies softer”—I’m going to detail each ingredient and why I used it.

(Also, please note that this is a very basic recipe; it’s not meant to be gourmet camping cuisine, it’s just energy. Don’t get me wrong, I love good food—but like my recipe for a sports drink, this bar’s primary purpose is ergogenics, not culinary delight. It is simple to tweak, though, so if you want to imbue it with more flavor it’s easily done. Try adding crystallized ginger, nuts, chia seeds, or currants for more than a basic bar.)

Ingredients

• 1 cups quick-rolled oats
• 4 cups puffed rice cereal
• 9 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Quick-Rolled Oats

The difference between quick-rolled oats and regular rolled oats is that quick-rolled oats are either rolled thinner or very roughly chopped so the flakes are smaller. Both methods increase surface area and allow the oats to more quickly absorb liquid. In this recipe, the quick-rolled oats will prevent your granola bar from being too tough. If you don’t know what I mean, soak some regular rolled oats in water for ten minutes and then try eating them.

Puffed Rice Cereal

I love oats and would use only oats if I could, but they are also very calorie dense until you cook them (at which point they are so thick and viscous that they’re less calorie dense than any other cereal). In fact, the four cups of puffed rice cereal contains an equal amount of carbohydrates as the one cup of rolled oats. Rice is an easily digested glucose-based carbohydrate, and an easy way to increase the volume.

Honey

Honey serves two purposes: it’s a binder, and it’s a source of fructose. You need a binder because otherwise the other ingredients won’t stick together, and you need a lot of it because the other ingredients make up the majority of the recipe’s physical volume. The fructose is less necessary, but I planned these bars to provide glucose and fructose in a 70/30 ratio.

Brown Sugar

You could use any type of sugar here, but you need some form of crystalline sugar because otherwise your bars won’t stay together. The combination of super-soft honey and rock-hard sugar brings the recipe to a nice level of chewy.

Salt

You’re going to be sweating, so you might as well add a source of sodium. The amount added isn’t a ton, but it’ll at least give you some sodium throughout the day. You could eliminate it if you really don’t want salt, or double it if you want more, but I wouldn’t go over double.

Shredded Coconut

I didn’t use enough to make a major difference in the taste, but the coconut is there as a healthy solid fat source. A liquid source would potentially work (in small amounts), but may reduce the ability of the binder ingredients to effectively hold the bar together. You could use other healthy solid fats as well, like nuts or seeds.

Chocolate Chips

What sort of granola bar doesn’t have chocolate chips? No real purpose to these except to make the bar look and taste nice.

Directions

1. Place the oats, rice cereal, and coconut in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. In a saucepan large enough to hold your dry ingredients, add the honey, brown sugar, and salt. Heat on low until the brown sugar melts and the texture is smooth.
3. Add the oats/rice cereal/coconut mixture to the saucepan and mix until the liquified sugar mixture is evenly coating the dry mixture.
4. Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and scoop the mixture onto it. Flatten using a spoon, then lay a second piece of parchment paper on top and use a second cookie sheet to flatten even further. Aim for 1/2″ to 1″ thick (or 1.5-2.5 cm).
5. Remove the top parchment paper and sprinkle chocolate chips as evenly as possible, or as unevenly as you like if that’s your whim. Replace the parchment paper and use the cookie sheet to press the chocolate chips into the surface.
6. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, then cut into 20 bar-shaped pieces.
7. Alternatively, you can bake the sheet of granola bars at 350 Fahrenheit (175 C) for 10-15 minutes for crispier (but still chewy) bars) and then let cool.

Nutrition Facts

These bars are really about ease of fueling. If you don’t want to drink a sports drink, they’re a great way to keep your energy high without unnecessary amounts of fat or protein.

Protein is important, but given that these bars are designed to be an anytime source of energy it didn’t make sense to add more than what is there from the oats. You’ll still need to (and want to) eat a decent source of protein every few hours as well.

I crafted the bars to be low in fat not because I don’t think fat is healthy or important, but because it doesn’t serve any ergogenic purpose. While you can easily add fat to the bar, it will cause it to digest slower, thereby releasing the energy more gradually. This may or may not be a good thing depending on your situation; as it is, the bar is a good source of rapid energy, though the oats and rice cereal will still provide a more trickle-paced flow of glucose so it’s not just a big insulin dump.

Ultimately, these are exactly what most energy bars claim to be—bars made to give you energy. They’re not meal replacements, and while they will supply a decent amount of energy on my trip during the day, I will also be sure to eat plenty of normal food that is rich in protein and healthy fats as well.

In the future I’ll post another recipe for energy bars that are designed to be much less sugary—I didn’t have time this week to throw them together! I’ll give you a spoiler, though: since you can’t use sugar to bind the ingredients, you need to create a much more cakey bar.

Alright, have a great weekend and I’ll see you guys again Monday!