Chewy fruit and nut granola bars, filled with apricots, cranberries, slivered almonds and rolled oats. These granola bars make the perfect snack, or delicious breakfast bar to enjoy with your morning coffee!
Honestly, I hesitate to even call these granola bars – because they aren’t dry, crispy and crunchy. Instead, they are deliciously chewy and juicy because of all the dried fruit they contain.
When I was little, I spent a lot of time at my good friend Ingrid’s house. Her wonderful Mom, Lisa, made these delicious fruit and nut granola bars mostly every week. This recipe is adapted from Lisa’s Famous recipe (those bars, as we used to call them), which we enjoyed almost everyday after school at Ingrid’s house. The smell of these baking in the oven instantly takes me back to their wonderful home, and transports me to those childhood memories. If you can’t travel back in time to childhood, at least you can enjoy those delicious comforting foods that make you feel like a kid all over again!
The Star Ingredient: Apricots
The star of the show in these fruit and nut granola bars is truly the dried apricots. They add so much chewy texture and juicy flavour. When you think of granola bars, usually you think of something dry and crunchy. These bars are the opposite – totally moist and delicate in the best way. I am not a huge fan, of candy but the way that the apricots are cut into small chunks reminds me of Jujubes. But, unlike candy, dried apricots contain carotene, vitamin C, lots of fibre, and potassium.
Snack Time
These fruit and nut granola bars are very easy to make, and they store really well for snacks throughout the week. They may just become a favourite in your home, so get ready to stock up on dried fruit and slivered almonds, because you’ll want to have the ingredients for these on hand at all times. Next time you’re headed out for a road trip, camping, or afternoon hike, be sure to pack some of these for a snack that the whole family will love!
Tips for Making Fruit and Nut Granola Bars
Flax Egg – The original recipe contains 1 egg, but I’ve swapped it out for 2 flax eggs to make this recipe egg-free and vegan. If you prefer to use a real egg over flax, you can! You can swap “flax eggs” for real eggs in any baking, and it works so well to hold the ingredients together.
1 Flax Egg: 1 tablespoon ground flax + 2.5 tablespoon water
2 Flax Eggs: 2 tablespoon grond flax + 5 tablespoon water
Directions: add ground flax and water to a small bowl and stir. Let sit for 5 minutes to thicken.
Nut Free Option – If you’d like to make these granola bars nut free, you can omit the slivered almonds, or swap them for sunflower seeds.
Dried Fruit – You can really use any dried fruit that you prefer in this recipe, but I highly recommend keeping the apricots because they really add a nice chewy and juicy texture to this recipe. For the cranberries, I’ve also swapped them for a blend of mixed dried berries that included blueberries, cherries, golden berries, and cranberries and – and it was delicious! You can get creative and use whichever dried fruit you like best.
Dairy Free – This recipe is made dairy free by swapping butter (commonly used in granola bar recipes) for melted coconut oil. If you don’t like the flavour of coconut oil, be sure to buy refined coconut oil that is flavourless. I love coconut flavour in anything, so I always purchase virgin coconut oil.
More Healthy Snack Recipes
Chewy Fruit and Nut Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 2 flax eggs: 2 tablespoon ground flax 5 tablespoon water equals 2 flax eggs
- ⅔ cup coconut oil melted
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats whole flake, not instant
- 1 cup light spelt flour or regular all purpose flour if preferred
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped dried apricots
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup slivered almonds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven and line a 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper. I like to line the bottom with parchment, and grease the sides with coconut oil or avocado oil.
- Prepare the flax eggs: Add ground flax and water to a small bowl and stir. Let sit for 5 minutes to thicken.
- In a large bowl, beat together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, coconut sugar, flax eggs, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in the finely chopped dried apricots, cranberries and slivered almonds.
- Fold dry ingredients into the coconut oil mixture.
- Spread dough into the pan, pressing it down evenly and firmly.
- Bake 350 oven for 20 – 30 minutes or until lightly browned; don't over cook, but the centre should be done. Let cool on a baking rack for 10 minutes and cut into bars. Enjoy!
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Absolutely delicious recipe! I didn’t have apricots so added chopped dates and sprinkled in some organic dark chocolate chips!! Love this recipe.
So glad to hear you loved these as much as we do Janelle! I will have to try with chocolate that sounds amazing. Next time you try them, for sure try the apricots because they are so tasty!