Recently I had to go super clean with my eating. There were a few weeks where I couldn’t eat any sugar, dairy or wheat. It ended up being easier than I thought it would be (no, really), but it has been nice to slowly add those ingredients back into my diet here and there. But now that I’ve made these positive changes to my diet, I would really like to maintain those changes. As a result, I’ve started looking at some of my favorite recipes and thinking about how I can modify them. One of the first recipes to go through a makeover was my beloved Chewy Chocolate Chip Homemade Granola Bar recipe. First I made the recipe gluten free and reduced the sugar by about 3 grams per bar. Then I took it a step further, which brings us to today’s recipe for homemade chocolate granola bars.

When I was working on reducing the amount of sugar in my original granola bar recipe, I was surprised by how much sugar was coming from the chocolate chips. I wanted to be able to take out the chocolate chips but still get a good chocolate fix. By removing the chocolate chips and adding cocoa powder to the granola bar, we still get that delicious chocolate flavor with even less sugar. I tried it and it totally worked.

This recipe for homemade chocolate granola bars is awesome. My original recipe is a bit more chewy, but the texture on these chocolate bars is fantastic, a little chewy as well as a little crispy, and they don’t fall apart at all. The flavor is wonderful – I think I might even like these better than the original chocolate chip bars, which is really saying something. This recipe is gluten free and each bar contains about 8 grams of sugar, which is 5-6 grams less per bar than my original recipe. Woohoo!

Please note that if you do not need the bars to be gluten free, you can in fact use regular all-purpose flour as a substitute for the oat flour. But if you want to go gluten free, stick with the recipe below using oat flour.

Without further ado I give you Homemade Chocolate Granola Bars!

Homemade Chocolate Granola Bars (Gluten Free)

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 24

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled old-fashioned oats (make sure label says gluten free)
• 1 cup brown crisped rice cereal
• ½ cup shredded or flaked unsweetened coconut
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons oat flour (make sure label says gluten free)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• Generous ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup coconut oil
• ½ cup honey
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325º F.
2. Combine oats, crisped rice, coconut, brown sugar, oat flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Mix well.
3. Combine coconut oil, honey and vanilla. Whisk well. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. (Stir. Stir some more. Keep stirring!)
4. Line a large cooke sheet with parchment paper. Pour granola bar mixture onto the lined cookie sheet. Press mixture out into a large, uniform rectangle, about 9" x 13" (which will be smaller than the pan, you do not push the granola all the way to the edges of the pan). It is easiest to form the rectangle if your hands are wet.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate pan and bake for 14-15 more minutes.
6. Cool completely before cutting. Cut into 24 bars, 8 rows x 3 columns.

Notes

The coconut oil can be solid or liquid - whatever it happens to be sitting in your cupboard is fine!
If you do not need these to be gluten free, regular all-purpose flour can be substituted for oat flour with the same measurement.

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OTHER RECIPES YOU MAY LIKE:

• Chewy Homemade Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
• Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
• Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Granola Bars

EQUIPMENT I USED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE:

• OXO Wooden Spoon Set
• OXO Good Grips Mixing Bowl Set with Handles
• Aluminum Half Sheet Pan
• Parchment Paper Sheets
• Kitchenaid Measuring Cups and Spoons

One of the recipes I’m most proud of on this blog is the Chewy Chocolate Chip Homemade Granola Bar recipe. I love those granola bars and everyone I’ve ever shared them with loves them. I’ve tried different flavors, but we always come back to chocolate chips. The original recipe is best! However, for reasons I will describe below, I recently developed a recipe for gluten-free homemade granola bars based on that wonderful original recipe, which I will share with you today!

Over the last few weeks I’ve had to clean up my eating and do some elimination diet stuff. (FUN TIMES!) The adjustments to my diet prompted me to modify my granola bar recipe in two ways: take out the wheat and reduce the amount of sugar. The recipe below is the gluten-free version of my original granola bar recipe and each bar contains about 3 grams less sugar than the original recipe, going from 13-14 grams added sugar per bar to about 11 grams.

This recipe tastes almost the same as the original, it’s just a little less chewy and a little more crispy. But not by much. I am perfectly happy with the modifications to this recipe and would use either recipe just as happily! Also, for those of you who do not need the bars to be gluten free, you can use all-purpose flour, which basically will make these a lower-sugar version of the original.

I have created a second modified version of these bars that has even less sugar, Homemade Chocolate Granola Bars (click here to see the recipe). The chocolate granola bars have only about 8 grams of sugar per bar and they taste great! But if you are wanting chocolate chips, here is the recipe for Chocolate Chip Gluten-Free Homemade Granola Bars!

Chocolate Chip Gluten-Free Homemade Granola Bars

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 24

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled old-fashioned oats (make sure label says gluten free)
• 1 cup brown crisped rice cereal
• ½ cup shredded or flaked unsweetened coconut
• ⅓ cup oat flour (make sure label says gluten free)
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• Generous ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup coconut oil
• ½ cup honey
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325º F.
2. Combine oats, crisped rice, coconut, oat flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips and salt. Mix well.
3. Combine coconut oil, honey and vanilla. Whisk well. Add to dry ingredients and mix well. (Stir. Stir some more. Keep stirring!)
4. Line a large cooke sheet with parchment paper. Pour granola bar mixture onto the lined cookie sheet. Press mixture out into a large, uniform rectangle, about 9" x 13" (which will be smaller than the pan, you are not pushing the granola all the way to the edges to fill the pan). It is easiest to form the rectangle if your hands are wet.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate pan and bake for 14-15 more minutes.
6. Cool completely before cutting. Cut into 24 bars, 8 rows x 3 columns.

Notes

The coconut oil can be solid or liquid - whatever it happens to be sitting in your cupboard is fine!
If you do not need these to be gluten free, regular all-purpose flour can be substituted for oat flour with the same measurement.

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As you know, every few months or so I do a post with Fair Trade USA to help spread the word about the great work they do. This week we’re celebrating Mother’s Day together by sharing the story of a mother from Uganda, giving away a big ol’ bunch of awesome Fair Trade goodies and sharing a fair trade recipe!

If you want to read more about what fair trade is, click here. Fair Trade USA says it all a whole lot better than I do. In a nutshell, buying fair trade products means you are supporting farmers in truly meaningful and sustainable ways in more than 70 countries. One of those farmers is Komuhendo Jacqueline, an inspirational tea farmer & me”‹mber of the Mpanga Growers Tea Factory in Uganda.

Komuhendo Jacqueline and her family have been growing tea since 2009. She says that the biggest benefit to selling Fair Trade Certified tea is that it has enabled her to pay for school fees for 3 of her children. It has also enabled her family to start sustainable food security projects for their home that can continue for years to come. She hopes to sell more of her tea so that she can send her other 4 children to school.

Fair Trade has helped Komuhendo Jacqueline and her community in so many ways, including building a nearby well that has provided much closer access to clean water, building a health clinic, providing shelter for workers during the work day, creating a women’s organization that helps empower women to be a more active part of generating income for their families in a region where traditionally men have taken sole ownership of tea farming, and MORE. It’s really amazing the long-term and meaningful ways fair trade has helped women and mothers in this community.

Learning about Komuhendo Jacqueline’s story has been especially poignant for me this week as I will be flying over her home in just a few days’ time! As I have mentioned, I am traveling to Malawi with ONE and Heifer International this week. Malawi is another country where farmers have benefited from Fair Trade efforts through the production of coffee, sugar and tea, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to meet the people of this country and talk to farmers.

I could go on and on, but I think it’s time to give away some goodies and share a recipe with you!

First, the giveaway. Fair Trade USA will send one lucky, randomly-selected commenter all of the following goodies!

• Just Love Coffee
• Whole Foods Ceylon Cinnamon
• barkTHINS
• Lake Champlain Old World Drinking Chocolate
• Wholesome! Blue Agave Syrup
• Nutiva Coconut Oil and O’Coconut Bites
• UNREAL candy
• Traditional Medicinals Green Tea
• Numi Organic Tea
• EcoLips Lip Balm
• prAna Tote Bag
• Cascadian Farm Organic Soft-Baked Squares
• Simple Truth
• Vosges Chocolate
• Near East Quinoa
• Arrowhead Mills Coconut Flour

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post! (Comments must be posted by Midnight, PT May 18, 2015. Prize must be shipped to a U.S. address.)

Recipe time! Today I have a recipe for Gluten-Free Coconut Lime Shortbread. In the interest of full disclosure, Nate and Cate did NOT like these cookies. My neighbor Kat, who does TONS of gluten-free baking and loves and cares about food very much, loved the cookies. I personally think the cookies have a wonderful flavor and I do like them. Just know this is a cookie that is meant to be nibbled…coconut flour absorbs fluid better than a sponge, and that still applies even when it’s in your mouth! Sit down with a nice cup of fair trade tea and slowly enjoy your delicious cookie!

Gluten-Free Coconut Lime Shortbread

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

A very flavorful, gluten-free shortbread cookie. Eat in nibbles, no big bites!

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 7 cookies

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons fair trade coconut flour
• 4 tablespoons salted butter, softened to room temp
• 2 tablespoons fair trade unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 tablespoons fair trade agave nectar
• 2 teaspoons lime juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
2. Mix all ingredients very well using a fork or pastry blender. Make cookie balls out of ~2 tablespoons of dough per cookie. Roll in your hand, set on a a parchment paper or silpat lined cookie sheet and gently press the cookie flat to about ¼" thick.
3. Bake for 10 minutes.
4. Let cool completely before moving off of the cookie sheet or they will crumble.

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