Homemade Crunchy Granola Bars (2024)

FAQs

Why are homemade granola not crunchy? ›

Bake low and slow.

Cook at 300 degrees F slowly for about 30 minutes or until it is golden brown and toasty. Cooking at too high of a temperature will likely burn the honey coating, the oats, and the nuts. A lower temperature ensures even baking for crispy, crunchy granola.

While there are several different sticky ingredients that you can use, we've found that the binding agent that works the best is honey! When added to your homemade granola bars, honey acts as glue that sticks all the pieces together.

You can add more fat (in the form of butter or oil). If you're shooting for a somewhat healthy result, you can add some other binder, like an egg white or applesauce. Here's the sneakier, way more excellent method: oat flour. Take any granola recipe.

Not only can you pick the flavors and ingredients you want, but you don't have to worry about preservatives or other odd additions to your snack food. MAKE OR BUY? Homemade granola bars aren't hard to make once you have all the right ingredients and they'll certainly save you money in the long term.

Let it cool before diving in. Your homemade granola will continue to crisp up as it cools. It's tempting to start eating it as soon as it comes out of the oven, but if you let it rest for 15 minutes on the sheet pan, it'll be extra crisp and toasty – totally worth the wait! Add the dried fruit at the end.

A Hot Oven Is the Secret to Reviving Stale Granola

All it takes is spreading the granola in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and heating it in a 400 degree oven for five minutes — essentially re-baking it.

The better you press, the better the bars hold together.

When you're happy with the pressed mixture, press a spoonful of chocolate chips on top, and then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This hardens everything and makes it easy to cut the granola mixture into bars.

You can store them flat, covered, or wrap them individually in plastic wrap or parchment paper. Please let me know how your granola bars turn out in the comments!

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

The Quaker Oats Company issued a recall in late 2023 and has added more products to its recall list in 2024 due to a risk of contamination with salmonella. There are more than 100 recalled products that the Quaker Oats Company is encouraging consumers to avoid.

How do you package homemade granola? ›

Package your granola in clear cellophane bags or mason jars and decorate to your liking. You can close bags with ribbon curls, cover mason jar tops with decorative fabric, or even attach homemade cards. For bonus points, add some serving suggestions to your card.

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.

It's a breeze to make, and the bars are fantastic. They're chewy, sweet, nutty, and studded with just the right amount of chocolate chips. Filled with wholesome ingredients like oats, pepitas, and nut butter, they're healthy enough to pass for breakfast, but they're also a perfect afternoon snack.

In general, most homemade granola bar recipes will last up to a week when stored in an airtight container.

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.

NOTE: The granola will clump and harden while cooling - not during baking. Allow to cool before stirring in the raisins, cranberries, or craisins. If stored in an airtight container, your granola could last for 2 weeks.

A quick spin in the microwave helps take care of that. Microwaving heats up the oils absorbed by the granola and re-toasts the nuts and grains. I usually place the few spoonfuls I'll be eating that morning into a ramekin and give it about 10 seconds on HIGH.

Slow and low is the key to dry-not-burnt granola. You can safely bake your granola to golden-brown perfection between 300 and 350 degrees, but any hotter and you risk burning parts of your mix before it's ready, says Perry.