Name: Easy Fruit Granola Bars
Prep time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups quick or rolled oats; 1 cup dried cherries or blueberries; ½ cup peanut butter; ⅓ cup honey (agave or maple syrup)

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These homemade soft and chewy Easy Fruit Granola Bars are so delicious and super easy to make, using just 4 basic ingredients from your pantry. Oats, dried fruits, peanut butter and honey is all! So simple to make granola bars! They are awesome for a quick breakfast on the go or a satisfying snack when you want something delicious and healthy.

The kids will love these homemade granola bars! You can make them in less than 5 minutes, press them in a loaf pan and let them firm up a bit in the fridge. There’s no baking required! After they’ve firmed up, just slice them into whatever size you like and snack away!

What I love about these easy granola bars are, these are very interchangeable with just four building block ingredients, so you can make them different every time if you want want to.

Peanut butter, dried cherries, honey and oats is what flavor combo we went for! It tastes like a peanut butter and jelly granola bar and it’s life-changing healthy with lots of yum!

Ingredients You Need

1 ½ cups quick oats or rolled oats
1 cup dried cherries or blueberries
½ cup peanut butter
⅓ cup honey, agave or maple syrup

How to Make Fruit Granola Bars

Microwave the peanut butter and honey for 30-40 seconds and stir together. Heating helps everything bind together more easily while they firm up after they’re made.
Add in the oats and dried fruit and mix it all up. Add more oats if needed. Too many will make them dry.
Press the granola firmly and evenly into a 9×5 loaf pan lined with parchment paper or tin-foil for easy removal, lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. You can use the bottom of a measuring cup to help press it down so that it’s nice and flat and firmly packed so that the bars will hold their shape well.
Refrigerate until chilled. Then cover the baking pan and pop it in the fridge for an hour or until the bars are chilled.
Cut the bars. Lift up on the parchment paper or tin-foil to transfer the granola onto a cutting board and cut the bars into whatever size you like.
Chill the bars to better hold their shape. You could even roll them into bite-sized balls! Place them in a zip-lock or sealed container to keep them fresh and enjoy!

For Vegan Option: Make them with maple syrup or agave syrup and vegan peanut butter.

For Gluten Free Option: Use gluten free oats.

Fruit Granola Bar Options

Oat Options

Use old-fashioned oats or quick-cooking oats or a combo of both. Old-fashioned oats have a more chewy texture, whereas quick-cooking oats disappear more into the bars. Plus you can make these gluten-free if you wish as well, simply by using gluten-free oats. Pulse them in the processor if you want to break them down a bit if you have old-fashioned, but want the bars a little softer.

Add-ins of Your Choice

So many options here! Choose from a variety of dried fruits like cranberries, raisins, cherries, strawberries or blueberries. But hey, don’t stop there! You could also add some chopped almonds or honey roasted peanuts, shredded coconut or some mini m&m’s or mini chocolate chips! Sea salt anyone? Hint of cinnamon? Add a teaspoon of vanilla if you wish! Bring out all the flavors! Explore your options.

Tip: If you add chocolate chips or m&m’s, you may want to wait a bit for the mixture to cool down, so the chocolate chips down melt into the mixture and you can also just add them to the top after you’ve pressed the bars down in the pan.

Nut butter options

Your favorite nut butter will help hold these yummy healthy granola bars together, and it offers healthy fat, protein and fiber. We used peanut butter, but you can use almond butter, cashew butter or hazelnut butter, plus there a lot of nut butters you can buy for different flavors, like Justin’s. For a nut-free option, sunflower butter Suntella will work.

Honey, Maple Syrup or Agave Syrup

These natural sweeteners will also help bind the healthy granola bars together for a deliciously sweet option. I love honey and peanut butter together, but if you choose to use maple syrup and you want to cut back on sugar, go for some sugar-free healthy maple syrup like Lakanto. USE MY LAKANTO DISCOUNT CODE: thebakingchocolatess15 to get an extra 15% off when you check out.

More Healthy Treats!