Homemade granola bars - recipe for how to make them at home

Muesli bars gained worldwide popularity in the West about 60 years ago; the product was conceived as an attribute of medical nutrition for Europeans. Supporters of a healthy lifestyle even today choose such sweets as an alternative to harmful confectionery products filled with dyes and chemicals. The bars have a reputation for being figure-safe and healthy desserts. Let's find out if this is really so?

Touching on the topic of healthy snacks, it becomes sad because there are very few such products in stores. Yes, and they are expensive. But we can prepare a healthy lean snack for ourselves and our children at home in our kitchen.

Homemade granola bars or otherwise energy bars will help you solve the problem of school lunches. It’s better to let your child take such a snack with him, and you will be calm about his health, than to buy buns and cookies with margarine and palm oil with an incredible amount of sugar in the school canteen.

What components are included?

In the classical sense, muesli bars are compressed whole grains, nuts, seeds and dried fruits in various proportions.

The bars contain:

Cereals: oats, rye, barley, wheat, flax, buckwheat, hemp seed, rice, corn. The product recipe may be based on the use of only one cereal crop, for example, oatmeal, or it may contain several different cereals at once.
Nuts and seeds: almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
Dried fruits: raisins, prunes, dates, dried apricots, dried pineapples, cranberries. The bars can contain both dried fruits and berries and fresh ones.

The useful components of store-bought products end there. Unfortunately, industrially produced cereal sweets may contain many additives.

Additional Ingredients:

Sugar. Often the mass fraction of sugar in the finished product is higher than the proportion of cereals, nuts and seeds combined. Sugar can be hidden under the name molasses, corn syrup, maple syrup, fructose, invert syrup.
Wheat flour. The product of milling wheat is not harmful, but it also has nothing in common with a healthy snack.
Chemical additives: flavors, sweeteners, dyes, preservatives, emulsifiers, acidity regulators, antioxidants. These components extend the shelf life of the bar and make the taste properties of the product more pronounced.
Butter and vegetable oils. The ingredients are rich in fat and greatly increase the calorie content of the product.

Sometimes, to improve the taste of sweets, manufacturers add salt, condensed and powdered milk, and cocoa to the product.

Forming and baking products

After preparing the main components, you can safely proceed to the actual preparation of the dessert. To do this, you need to combine oatmeal, nuts and dried fruits in one bowl. Next, all ingredients should be flavored with slightly heated honey (with the addition of vegetable oil) and mixed thoroughly. Then you need to cover a small baking dish with parchment paper, spread the prepared mixture evenly into it and compact it thoroughly. The filled dish must be placed in a preheated oven (up to 165 degrees) and baked for half an hour until golden brown.

The finished product should be cooled completely, cut into small bars and presented to the table. Bon appetit!

Benefits and harms for losing weight

cereals and nuts included in the product are valuable sources of plant proteins necessary for building muscles;
cereals are rich in fiber, which gives a feeling of fullness and stimulates digestion, improves the process
fat breakdown;
a muesli bar is a good snack, it quickly satisfies hunger and gives strength;
Whole grains take a long time to digest and leave you feeling full for several hours.

Along with the development of the food industry and changes in the composition of once healthy sweets, the attitude of doctors towards these products has also changed. Today, nutritionists no longer advise relying on store-bought muesli bars, as they can be detrimental to your figure and health.

a product containing sugar in the first place provokes a large jump in blood glucose, after which a strong feeling of hunger appears again;
flavoring additives and sweeteners in the product affect taste buds and awaken appetite;
the product consists of 15% pure fat due to the addition of palm or sunflower oil to the recipe;
The product contains a lot of calories; in large quantities, muesli bars can lead to rapid weight gain.

Glazed bars are also harmful to your figure. Frosting adds empty calories with no benefit to the body.

Is it possible to go on a diet?

If the delicacy you eat fits into your daily caloric intake and does not have a negative impact on the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, you can eat muesli bars on a diet.

You need to understand that, despite the “fitness” and “healthy eating” labels on the packaging, a muesli bar is a very high-calorie product and does not help you lose weight. If you consume no more than 1 bar (30-35 g) per day as a dessert or a snack in the morning, there will be no harm to your figure.

Some trainers recommend eating a cereal bar before morning exercise: the product will give you vigor and strength, making your workout more productive.

This delicacy allows you to prolong the feeling of fullness and get valuable proteins and fiber. To ensure that the product does not harm your figure, you must carefully study the composition of the product and give preference to bars made without the use of sugar, artificial colors, sweeteners, preservatives and excess sources of fat.

Muesli bars are considered one of the most popular dietary treats. They were initially conceived as medicinal products. The grain delicacy quickly gained popularity among people leading a healthy lifestyle.

Benefits and composition: calorie table for everyone

To prepare the bars, cereals are pressed - oats are used most often. It can also act as a base or be mixed with rye, barley or wheat. Many fans of healthy eating prepare a muesli bar at home, adding dried berries, fruits, seeds, and nuts to a self-composed base. To make the treat sweet, you can use molasses, maple syrup or honey. It’s good to add milk or yogurt, nuts, cocoa, chocolate to the bar. Depending on the ingredients chosen for preparation, the calorie content of the product can be 150-400 kcal per 100 g.

Calorie table of the most popular components

For those who are planning to make muesli bars with their own hands, but don’t know anything about it yet, it is recommended to select suitable recipes in advance and think about the composition of the mixture for the product. Even the choice of muesli must be approached wisely.

Product	Calorie content	Squirrels	Fats	Carbohydrates
Cereals (oat)	305	11.9	7.2	69.3
Walnut	650	15.2	65.2	7
Honey	400	0.8	81.5
Raisin	280	2.9	0.6	66
Banana	89	1.5	0.1	21.8

*All data in the table below is based on one hundred grams of product.

Benefit

The popularity of the bars is explained by the fact that they have many advantages. The following can be listed:

good taste;
low calorie content, which you can choose yourself if you prepare dietary muesli bars at home;
does not require special storage conditions;
inexpensive;
nutritious;
Convenient to take on the go.

Healthy food lovers prefer to eat it all for breakfast. The products are delicious and can give you energy for a long time. If you prepare muesli bars at home, you can choose a convenient composition and calorie content for yourself. By making a batch of these bars, you don't have to waste time making breakfast until you run out.

Forming process and heat treatment

Before placing the granola bars in the oven, they should be shaped correctly. To do this, you need to combine the following products in one bowl: oatmeal, grated apple and pear, banana pulp, chopped dried fruits and nuts. These ingredients must be thoroughly mixed until a dense, homogeneous mass is obtained, which will very much resemble the consistency of thick dough.

After these steps, the base must be evenly laid out on a baking sheet, which must be lined with parchment paper in advance. Next, the edges of the mass should be leveled with a spoon and immediately placed in the oven. Muesli bars should be baked at 185 degrees for 16-22 minutes or until fully cooked.

How to make granola bars at home

First decide on the ingredients. For example, you can use fruit puree instead of butter for the base. Then the product turns out airy, delicate in taste, and very aromatic. When planning to make your own muesli bars, a recipe with photos can be quickly found on the Internet. The ingredients must be suitable for your diet. If they do not all coincide with the intended nutritional system, you can change them arbitrarily by checking the calorie content in the table above.

Recipe 1: with strawberries

Compound

Oatmeal – 250 g.
Dates, dried apricots - 100 g each.
Light and dark raisins – 50 g each.
Sesame – 2 tablespoons.
Pumpkin and sunflower seeds (hulled) - 4 tablespoons each.
Honey – 70 g.
Butter – 60 g.
Blackberries – 120 g.
Strawberry – 180 g.
Medium size apple - 1 piece.

Preparation

Choose a deep bowl, place cereals, seeds, sesame seeds, and raisins in it.
Remove the pits from the dates and cut them together with the dried apricots into small pieces.
Combine dried fruits with a mixture of oats and seeds, stir.
Prepare the fruit base - first grind the berries in a blender.
Then pass the mixture from the blender through a sieve.
Grate the apple, combine with berry puree and stir.
Pour the puree into a bowl with the dried fruits and seeds.
Mix the butter with honey in a separate saucepan, put on the fire and heat, stirring, until it becomes syrup.
Pour the syrup into the main mixture and stir until smooth.
Take a baking dish - the ideal size would be 25x25 cm or close to it. Line the pan with baking paper and pour in the mixture, trying to compact it tightly. The layer should be as dense as possible, otherwise the bars will crumble.
Place the mixture in the oven. Bake for about an hour at 150 degrees.
Remove the pan from the oven, cool, and pour over the pre-melted chocolate. Then put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

Cut the layer into pieces. Ready bars can be stored in the refrigerator.

Recipe 2: dried fruits

Compound

10 g each of prunes, dried apricots, almonds, hazelnuts, cashew nuts, sunflower seeds, dates;
one banana;
sesame – 5 g;
vegetable oil – 40 ml;
sugar – 10 g;
oat flakes – 70 g.

Nutritional value per 100 g

Calorie content – 364 kcal.
Fat – 23.1 grams.
Proteins – 6.5 grams.
Carbohydrates – 34.2 grams.

Preparation

Chop prunes, dried apricots and dates and place in a bowl.
Add oatmeal.
Add chopped nuts, sesame seeds, seeds.
Beat banana with sugar and butter in a blender.
Add the contents of the blender to the cereal, stir with a fork.
Place the mixture on parchment paper and smooth it out.
Place on a baking sheet and dry for 10 minutes in the oven at 170 degrees.

At the end of cooking, remove the baking sheet from the oven, cool it, and cut the mixture into portions.

Recipe 3: almonds and seeds

Compound

Bananas – 80 grams.
Almonds – 50 grams.
Sunflower seeds – 50 grams.
Apricot kernels – 60 grams.
Bananas – 80 grams.
Sesame – 30 grams.
Dates – 50 grams.
Raisins – 50 grams.
Honey – 40 grams.
Water – 50 grams.

Processing of main components

Granola bars can be made using a variety of ingredients. In this recipe, we decided to use only fresh and ripe fruits, oatmeal and other additional ingredients. Before forming them into a dessert, each purchased product must be carefully processed. To do this, you need to wash the pear, apple and banana, and then wipe them dry and finely peel the peel, if necessary. Next, the first two ingredients should be grated on a coarse grater. As for the banana, it is advisable to place it in a deep bowl and mash it into a homogeneous puree without lumps using a fork or masher.

It should also be noted that a homemade muesli bar will be more satisfying and tasty if you additionally add ingredients such as dried fruits and nuts. To do this, wash the raisins, dried apricots and prunes well, then pour boiling water over them and leave them aside for a short time (3-6 minutes). This procedure will completely remove dirt and dust from the products. It should be noted that you should not keep the ingredients in boiling water for too long, as they will become soft and absorb too much water, which will complicate the process of forming the dessert. After the dried fruits are processed, they must be finely chopped with a knife. You also need to wash the nuts separately, dry them in a frying pan or in the microwave, and then grind them into coarse crumbs.

Video recipe for granola bars

Muesli bars are a great snack option and an alternative to confectionery, especially when it comes to homemade bars. As a rule, the recipe always contains grains. Most often oatmeal with the addition of other grain flakes (rye, wheat, barley) or cereals (couscous, quinoa). Pieces of dried fruits, nuts or seeds are mixed into cereal bars. Instead of sugar, this energy bar recipe uses honey, maple syrup, or molasses. In addition to the main ingredients, a healthy snack may contain bananas, chocolate, cocoa and other ingredients.

Why are they useful?

If you make this sweet correctly, according to traditional recipes, then it contains quite a lot of different grains, that is, complex carbohydrates that do not go to waste and satisfy hunger well. For me, such bars are the only opportunity to force myself to eat different healthy crops. More precisely, you don’t even need to force me here. I eat here with pleasure because it’s delicious. Oatmeal quickly gets boring, but you still need to eat it.

The big plus is that such food is universal and almost harmless in adequate quantities. It is suitable for breakfast, as a snack or as a sweet for tea. Another plus is that there are tons of options for what you can do with this cereal mixture.

You can dilute them with milk, and add fresh berries and dried fruits. I also like to add cereal mixture to kefir. But most of all I love making baked muesli at home. The results are such correct and healthy cookies that you can eat without remorse.