Have you ever read the back of a food package and seen all of the ingredients in the simplest of items? I have to! My children are both allergic to such familiar items that it has become second nature to see what is in a product, and make a mental note of who can/can’t eat it. Then, we have the wonderful battle of, Can I eat that? I wish I could eat that! Why does he get to eat that?
I wish I could buy convenient breakfast foods. Cereal is as convenient as it gets at my house. I have only found one breakfast bar that is Gluten Free and Dairy Free and they are almost $5 a box. With 3 kids they go fast! So, like my other great recipes this one has come out of necessity. I have made some super yummy, granola bars that are dairy free, gluten free, and disappear quickly!
You guys will have to try these! You won’t go back to store bought bars!
Homemade Granola Bars (GFCF)
Homemade Granola Bars Printable Version
- 3 cups Oatmeal
- 1 ½ cups chopped pecans
- 1 cup coconut (optional)
- ¾ cup sunflower kernels
- 5 TBSP Butter flavored Crisco
- 1 cup honey
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp. vanilla
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 cup Raisins/craisins
- 1 cup choc chips (Ghirardelli Semi sweet are Dairy free)
Preheat oven to 350. Line 9×13 with parchment
Toss oatmeal, pecans, and coconut together on a sheet pan and toast for 10 minutes. Until lightly browned.
I was out of coconut for round 1 ( I am making another batch today! )
Transfer to large bowl and stir in Sunflower Kernels.
Reduce oven to 300 degrees
Place Crisco, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture.
Add the Raisins.
Sprinkle Chocolate Chips in the Bottom of the pan.
This makes a fun layer of chocolate on the granola bars! mmmmm!
Quickly dump and press the oat mixture in the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Cool for at least 2-3 hours before cutting into bars.
Makes 16-24 bars depending on size!
I have lots of great breakfast recipes!
I linked this recipe up over at Beauty and Bedlam!
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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
my daughter has multiple food allergies, so we use Ghiradelli chips, too. I was somewhere else and snagged a handful of off-brand chips and realized how spoiled I’ve become with the good-tasting chocolate chips!
I don’t have any allergies to worry about but I can no longer buy regular chocolate chips! I have to have Ghiradelli. It’s amazing the difference GOOD quality chocolate makes in a recipe!!
Do you think you could substitute butter for the Crisco? I don’t have any Crisco on hand, but I want to try these!
You can totally use butter or margarine! I just use butter flavored crisco because my daughter can’t have dairy!
Enjoy!
Do you think it needs the cup of honey and the 1/3 cup of brown sugar or do you think that could be reduced.
Angela, it creates the sticky that holds them together. You could reduce the sauce to to 2/3 cup of honey, 3-4 TBSP Butter or margarine and 1/4 cup of brown sugar.
If you reduce it any more the oats, and stuff may not have enough to stick together! It is a large pan! It made 24 granola bars!
Hope this helps!
WOW! I made these this morning and they are GREAT! My boys are in Boy Scouts and these would be great trail bars. You could probably throw in some protein powder and make a “Cliff” type bar. They are sooo expensive — about $1.00 a bar IF you buy a multi-pack! Thanks for such a great recipe!
I can’t wait to try these!! I know my son will love them. Thank you for all your “special” recipes!
I would like to try these because my last batch didn’t turn out so hot. I don’t have any crisco and my children are allergic to dairy too, could I use canola, olive or coconut oil? Those are all the oils that I have on hand for them.
I love how healthy these are!! I added a little flax seed and wheat berries to mine and they came out great!! Wonder what the cost difference is from the store bought ones..???
Hard to say Danielle. It makes alot, but it all depends on the quality of ingredients you use. I had to use GF oats which are a lot more expensive. The way I look at it….It is totally worth the cost to know what is in our food!
wondering if you could add almond butter and omit the crisco or add some coconut oil too. Also wondering if you could substitute the honey for agave?
I am currently on the anti-inflammation diet and GFCF….so I need to cut out sugar and animal products… just wondering? This is all so new to me.
These sound great. My son has food allergies too and we can’t buy many breakfast foods either. I’m going to make these, I’ve been looking for a recipe for some! We have to skip the nuts but can do the sunflowers.
Can anyone tell me if Ghirardelli is nut safe? I’ve not looked.
Question about Honey. I’ve got mine in the fridge (first time buying it) and it looks cloudy now…is it good? (it’s only about 2 months old)
Rockin’ Momma. You could do pumpkin seeds too YUM! I think Ghiradelli is nut safe, but I am not positive. You would have to contact them. The honey should be fine. The cloudiness will go away when it is room temperature.
Enjoy!
I was going to ask the same question re: changing out the Crisco, cause I never have used it and wouldn’t know where to begin! I may have to try these … yum …
Do you think it will make much difference I do not use the sunflower kernels? DO not particularly care for them.
Also, what do I need to do if I do not use the choclate? Not necessarily a chocolate fan, either. I will use the chocolate if it makes a difference, but what about the sunflowre kernels?
Thanks, Geneva
Neither one make a difference Geneva. You can leave both out just fine. Maybe add a little more oats in place of the sunflower kernels. That is it.
My son is gluten and dairy free also, and I use a delicious recipe from a clean eating cookbook I have. It doesn’t have crisco, the wet ingredients are honey, agave nectar, egg white, and safflower oil. Also, we get bars that are EnviroKids that are about $3.50 a box. We also get their cereals and they are very reasonably priced. Thanks for sharing the yummy recipe!
Do these have to be refridgerated? How long do these last….storage wise?
I store mine in a container in the fridge if it is summer. They do fine in the pantry too. My kids never let them last longer than a week. So, after that I am not sure.
These sound great!!! My boys and hubby love granola bars but prefer the chewy ones. Are these chewy or more crunchy?
These are chewy
Oh, Amanda — These are WONDERFUL!!! Made them with the kids today and about halfway through making them realized the bottom of our honey jar had crystallized. @.@ Soooooooo, we reversed the honey and brown sugar proportions, added a little extra Crisco and voila! Gorgeous delicious granola bars! I also sprinkled the mixture with cinnamon as I mixed it up. I love the idea of making these with the cherry craisins … chocolate and cherries are my favorites! And maybe throw in almonds next time, too.
Thanks for posting and making this so easy! I’ll never go back to boxed granola bars again!
Oh I am so glad you liked them. I have been thinking about a white chocolate, almond, and crasin combo myself…I may just have to do that this week.
Update! Made them with Cherry Craisins, slivered almonds (chopped up a little bit with my Chopper) and white chocolate chips. They are delicious, tho the white chocolate chips don’t melt as easily as the darker chocolate. Might need to heat the oven to 350 to entice those white chocolate chips to melt better. Or….. melt them separately and pour them on top of the parchment before you put your oatmeal/nut mixture in. Thanks for a superb recipe!
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