Granola bars have to be one of my favourite things to make. I’ve had a soft spot for them since running the bakery. I look back to those days with (mostly) warm, fuzzy memories. Maybe making + shipping 500 bars a week by hand wasn’t ideal, but it was the experience that I enjoyed the most – the process of growing a business and having others enjoy something I created from scratch. I still look back at the pictures and laugh, seeing a 9-foot table buried in packaged bars while I stuck on the front and back label as fast as possible. My mother-in-law used to help assemble all the boxes for me. Some days I’d walk into the living room to see about 200 boxes of various sizes assembled and stacked in towers with all of the shipping envelopes stuck on the top. And then Eric would often help me at night when he got home from work. It takes a village. We’d create an assembly line packing all the boxes with bars, receipts, labels, hand-written thank-yous, business cards, all before sealing them up and attaching the shipping label. It was organized chaos to say the least. Heavy on the chaos part. Ever since I closed the bakery, I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I’d like to open it again some day, if the stars align. We’ll have to see. For now, I still enjoy making granola bars whenever I can just for the heck of it.
By the way – It’s official – I’m including two of the most popular Glo Bar recipes in my cookbook, so keep your eyes peeled for those!
I’ve made these protein bars a few different ways over the past few weeks – one with peanut butter, one with almond butter, and the last with sunflower seed butter. All worked out lovely, although the roasted peanut butter was probably my favourite, flavour wise (no surprise here). Rest assured you can make these nut-free simply by using sunflower seed butter (shown top, right). My go-to is Sunbutter.
This recipe also calls for plant-based protein powder. This is the Sunwarrior powder that I use. I specifically bought the unflavoured version of Sunwarrior because I’ve concluded that stevia gives me headaches (anyone else?) and I’m really not crazy about the flavour of stevia to begin with. If you are using a sweetened protein powder, you’ll likely have to reduce the liquid sweetener in this recipe and make up for the loss of liquid with a bit of non-dairy milk. Just play around with it – as long as your dough isn’t super dry and crumbly you should be fine! We’re aiming for the consistency of cookie dough here.
After mixing the dough together, simply press it into the pan (I like to use a pastry roller to smooth it out – you can find these at the Dollarstore!) and pop it into the freezer while you melt the chocolate.
{Here is a random freezer shot featuring fillo shells, chickpeas, butternut squash, hemp hearts, blueberries, pita bread, torn kale (for smoothies), Amy’s California burgers, and corn!}
Finally, slice into bars, drizzle on the chocolate, and freeze until set. I love keeping them stashed in the freezer – they are the perfect pick me up when my energy is low and I need something fast.
Quick 'n Easy No-Bake Protein Bars
Yield
12
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Chill time
15 minutes
Total time
These no-bake bars are thrown together in minutes and make the perfect snack to store in the freezer for a quick burst of energy. Feel free to use sunflower seed butter to make these nut-free. I used an unsweetened/unflavoured protein powder, so if you are using a sweetened protein powder, you will likely have to reduce the liquid sweetener (and make up for the lack of liquid by adding some non-dairy milk). Play around with it if necessary and aim for a cookie dough texture. You can also roll the dough into balls and add in chocolate chips if you don't wish to make them into bar form.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups gluten-free rolled oats, blended into a flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened/unflavoured vegan protein powder (I use Sunwarrior Warrior Blend Natural)
- 1/2 cup rice crisp cereal
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, to taste
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter, almond butter, or sunflower seed butter
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (or liquid sweetener of choice)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons mini dark chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)
- 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
Directions
- Line an 8-inch square pan with a piece of parchment paper. Mix the oat flour, protein powder, rice crisp, and salt together in a large bowl.
- Add in the nut/seed butter, maple syrup, and vanilla. Stir well to combine. If the mixture is a bit dry, add a splash of non-dairy milk and mix again.
- Press into pan and roll out with a pastry roller until smooth. Pop into the freezer.
- Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil together in a small pot over low heat. When half of the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir until smooth.
- After freezing the bars for about 5-10 minutes, remove from freezer and slice into bars. Drizzle with melted chocolate and freeze again until set. Store in the freezer for a week or longer in an air-tight freezer bag or container.
I use Vegan Smart chocolate protein and my friends, kids and husband LOVE these!
These are fantastic snack bars! I made them with almond meal instead of protein powder and they turned out really well.
These protein bars met all the criteria: easy, vegan, kid-friendly and yummy!
Just made a batch of these — wow! Husband took a bite and said, “these can’t be healthy. and they certainly aren’t going to last.” Love them and will make them regularly. Thank you for sharing.
HI! These look awesome! I just wanted to say, as the parent of a kid with food allergies, that if you use coconut oil, these bars are not nut free! Please don’t label them as nut free! Coconut is a tree nut, according to (biology, as well as) the FDA. Giving coconut to a child with tree nut allergies can be very dangerous, and many, many children have coconut allergies and rely on “nut free” designations just as all kids with nut allergies. Just FYI.
Hi,
Would soy protein powder work for this recipe?
thanks in advance!
This recipe is exactly what I’ve been looking for! My picky eater needs a “junk free” bar for fuel after running club in the morning and I can’t wait to give this a try. Do you have any suggestions to reduce the sugar? It’s not overly high but my daughter is sensitive to it – I don’t like fake stuff either. Thanks for all the yummy recipes.
Hello, I’m very interested on trying this recipe- I’ll actually make them today. I would like to ask you if you would know the protein amount of these bars? I will make them into balls-I’m going to give them to my girls as a healthy snack. :)
Thank you very much for sharing this recipe!
Angelica :)
LOVE IT!! Great recipe and super excited that its nut free. As I try to lose weight,eat clean and cook as much as possible with whole proteins.. I’m struggling with finding peanut-free recipes.
Wow! I’ve been meaning to make this for a while now, and all I can say is, “What took me so long?!” They are delicious. I used just half the maple syrup to make them even more low glycemic and made up the liquid with organic rice milk and some melted coconut oil. I also added the chips directly into the mixture, mostly because I’m lazy, but sometimes lazy pays off. I would do the same again. Thanks, Angela for all of your hard work to create delicious yet healthy recipes. Your blog and cookbook have been an incredible resource as I’ve made some wonderful lifestyle changes that are empowering my entire family to live a lifetime of good health.
Hello these look yummy.
I want to try making them this weekend.
I am wondering if I could substitute the Maple Syrup for Prune juice?
Or would a juice not be thick enough?
These are in the freezer as I type this :) When mixing I “had” to lick the “batter” off my finger and holy crap! SO good!!! So good, in fact, it got me wondering the calorie count ;) I used the peanut butter method (it’s my favourite) and I was wondering if you’ve worked out a nutritional/calorie count by chance? I thought I would ask before breaking down all the math myself :p Thank you for the recipe, and info if you have, beautiful lady.
NVM!! I just saw the link on the bottom… you rock!! :D
Do you have an estimate of how many calories there are per bar? Thanks!
Just wanted to let you know that I live in Israel where we don’t have rice crisp cereal. I just made it without that and it came out amazing! Thanks so much!!
Hi Angela,
Thanks for sharing, these are far and away the best I’ve made yet! I was wondering about the nutrition info–they say that 42 g is 190 calories or so but when I cut the dough into 12 bars ( the serving size) they are was smaller than 42g. Is each bar meant to be 190 calories, when the dough is cut into 12 bars?
Thanks!
I love this recipe, it’s so quick and easy to make, easy to remember, and absolutely scrumptious! I like my protein bars to have a bit more protein, so I thought I’d comment with my modifications in case anyone else wants to change the macros too:
1. Decrease the oats to 1.25 cups
2. Increase the protein powder to 3/4 cup (in other words I exchanged 1/4 cup oats for 1/4 cup protein powder)
3. Substitute rice puffs for a higher protein puffed cereal, I use a combination of millet and amaranth
4. Add a milk/milk substitute that contains a good amount of protein to achieve the right consistency, I think protein powder has a drying effect, so more will be needed than in the original recipe. The first time I needed 75ml, the second time it was about 60ml. I use (lactose free) dairy milk as I am not a vegan. Soy milk or protein-fortified rice milk are other alternatives. Just note that almond milk and non-protein fortified rice milk are extremely LOW in protein so will not add to the protein content.
Based on these modifications, I tend to get bars with around 11g protein, 22g carbs, 7g fat. I have rounded these figures and they will vary depending on ingredients and quantities used and whether you add the chocolate topping (I do). You’d get even more protein if you went with a full cup of protein powder (and therefore 1 cup oats) but I’m wary of mucking around with the recipe too much.
Enjoy!
Someone gave me one of these today, without the drizzle. So amazing. Taste and texture just like a Butterfinger candy bar!
I just made these…they are unreal! So good! thank you! :)
These are seriously delicious! I added Maca powder along with the protein powder. and I omitted the chocolate. Iv been making them non-stop and I have them every morning. LOVE!!
I have been searching for a good protein bar and this one is amazing! I used a mix of all three nut butters. My kids gave them 2 thumbs up! Thank you!