These homemade granola bars with chocolate, tahini, sesame and jujube are halfway between a crunchy cereal bar and a gourmet snack: easy to prepare, low in sugar and nutritious enough for breakfast, snack or a little hunger during the day.

Homemade cereal bars that are crunchy, chocolatey and not too sweet

What I love about these homemade granola bars is that they start with a very simple base: a ready-made chocolate granola that you turn into a completely different snack.

So it’s also a good anti-waste recipe when a packet of granola sits in the cupboard a little too long.

The granola brings structure and crunch. I deliberately crush about a third of it before incorporating it: these small crumbs fill the spaces between the larger pieces and allow the bars to hold better after cooking.

The tahini then plays several roles. This sesame seed puree provides a creamy texture, a slightly toasted flavor and enough fat to prevent dry bars. It works particularly well with chocolate, almost enhancing its roasted side.

Honey or maple syrup is mainly used as a binder and provides just the right amount of sweetness. These homemade granola bars are therefore not “sugar-free”, even if the granola used does not contain added sugar. They are simply less sweet than many store-bought bars.

The egg white is the second element that ensures their hold. By coagulating during cooking, it consolidates the preparation without the need to add a lot of honey.

Finally, there are the dried gummies, probably the most original ingredient in the recipe. Their slightly chewy texture creates small fruity pockets in the middle of the crispy granola and their sweet flavour is at times reminiscent of dates or dried apples.

It’s this mix of textures that makes these homemade granola bars so much more interesting than a simple chocolate oat bar.

In short – How to make homemade granola bars?

To prepare homemade granola bars, mix granola with tahini, a little honey, egg white, dried fruit and seeds. Pack the mixture very firmly into a mold, bake for 16 to 20 minutes at 160°C and then let cool completely before cutting the bars.

Granola: How a Cure Food Became a Breakfast Staple

Today, granola is often thought of colourful bowls filled with yoghurt and fresh fruit, specialty coffees or healthy granola bars. However, its history is much less Instagrammable.

One of the ancestors of granola appeared in the United States in the nineteenth century. In 1863, physician and food reformer James Caleb Jackson developed a food called Granula in the sanatorium he ran in Dansville, New York.

It was graham flour cooked in the form of sheets, broken into pieces and then baked a second time. The result was so hard that it usually had to be soaked before eating.

A few years later, John Harvey Kellogg developed a similar cereal in his Battle Creek sanatorium. After a dispute over the name Granula, its preparation became known as “granola”.

Modern granola has obviously evolved a lot. Current recipes usually mix cereal flakes, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, fats and sweeteners before baking in the oven.

But “granola” does not automatically mean “healthy food”. Its nutritional composition depends greatly on the recipe: some references contain a lot of added sugars and fat.

For these homemade granola bars, the point is precisely to control what you add to the base. A sugar-free or low-sugar chocolate granola allows you to maintain a gourmet profile without having to add a large amount of honey.

The combination of cereals, dried fruit, tahini and seeds also produces a snack that mixes carbohydrates, fat, protein and fibre. Research on snacks suggests that snacks containing whole grains, proteins and fibre, among other things, can contribute more to satiety than snacks that are mainly made up of unnutritious calories, although portion size is obviously still a determining factor.

These homemade granola bars are therefore an energy snack, and not a food that you eat without counting. A small bar is usually enough for a snack.

Jujube, this thousand-year-old fruit that deserves to be used other thant in infusions

Jujube is sometimes nicknamed “Chinese date”, even though it does not belong to the same botanical family as the date.

Ziziphus jujuba is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees. A major scientific journal devoted to its history traces its origin to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in China and traces about 3,000 years of documented knowledge around its cultivation. Today, it is cultivated in several dozen countries.

The fresh fruit is green at first and then becomes reddish-brown as it ripens. When dried, its flesh concentrates in sugar and takes on a denser and slightly elastic texture: this is the version we use in our homemade granola bars.

Jujube also has an ancient place in traditional Chinese food and medicine. However, this does not mean that eating a few pieces of jujube can treat a disease.

Modern studies show that the fruit contains various interesting compounds: fibre, polysaccharides, polyphenols, flavonoids, amino acids and several micronutrients.

Tahini and sesame: the gourmet binder of these healthy granola bars

Tahini is simply a paste made by grinding sesame seeds.

In these homemade granola bars, it is a great substitute for some of the butter or oil found in some recipes.

Sesame seeds naturally contain fat, protein, and fiber. Their fat is largely made up of unsaturated fatty acids, including oleic and linoleic acids.

This also explains why tahini is very energetic: “healthy” does not mean “low in calories”.

This is precisely what makes it interesting for a fitness snack, a grab-and-go breakfast or a snack after a busy day: a small amount adds a lot of substance and gives the bars a real gourmet feeling.

The tahini-chocolate duo works particularly well with a pinch of fleur de sel, which awakens the flavors without increasing the amount of sugar.

How to prepare these homemade chocolate and jujube granola bars?

The recipe is deliberately very simple.

Start by finely dicing the dried gummies . The smaller the pieces, the more evenly they are distributed in the bars.

Then mash about a third of the granola. This step seems trivial, but it makes a real difference: the crumbs mix with the tahini and honey and almost serve as a mortar between the large pieces.

Heat the tahini and honey very gently for one or two minutes. The goal is only to thin the mixture.

Once slightly cooled, add the egg white, vanilla and fleur de sel.

Mix this mixture with the granola, gummies and sesame seeds and pour everything into a 20 × 20 cm tin.

And then comes the most important step of all: packing.

To make homemade cereal bars that don’t crumble, you really have to compress the preparation strongly with the bottom of a glass or a spatula.

Then bake the homemade granola bars for 16 to 20 minutes at 160°C.

When they come out of the oven, pack them down a second time. Then let them cool completely before placing them in the refrigerator.

Do not cut them while they are still hot: they will seem fragile while they will firm up as they cool.

7 Tips for Baked Cereal Bars That Don’t Crumble

The success of these homemade granola bars is based more on the method than on the difficulty of the recipe.

Mash some of the granola. The crumbs allow the binder to be better distributed.

Don’t cut out honey completely. It really contributes to cohesion. Reducing the quantity greatly risks producing crumbled granola rather than bars.

Pack very tightly. This is probably the most important tip.

Use a suitable mold. A 20 × 20 cm tin gives enough thickness to obtain a slightly tender heart.

Re-set after cooking. The preparation is still malleable and the individual elements can be compressed one last time.

Wait before cutting. Putting it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes makes cutting a lot easier.

Use a sharp knife. Cut with a straightforward motion rather than sawing the bars.

For a children’s snack, you can also make ten small bars instead of eight large ones. Just remember to check for any allergies to sesame and egg.

Calories and Macros of Homemade Granola Bars

The nutritional value depends a lot on the granola used. Sugar-free granola may contain more nuts or chocolate and be as high in calories as a sweetened granola.

For 1 bar out of 10, with the quantities indicated and without the chocolate finish, count approximately:

• 227 kcal
• 6 g protein
• 26 g carbohydrates
• 12 g fat
• 4 to 5 g of fibre

With the 30 g of dark chocolate finish, a bar brings more likely:

• 245 kcal
• 6 g protein
• 27 g carbohydrates
• 13 g fat
• nearly 5 g of fibre

Homemade granola bars for breakfast, sports or snacks

These homemade granola bars ultimately tick a lot of the boxes I look for in a practical back-to-school recipe.

They are prepared in advance, easy to transport and allow you to transform a simple granola into a much more interesting healthy snack .

The chocolate brings greed, the tahini and sesame give depth, while the pieces of jujube bring that little fruity note that changes from the eternal raisins or cranberries.

These are good homemade granola bars, generous enough to satisfy a little hunger, but low enough in sugar that you don’t feel like you’re eating a candy at 10 a.m.

And that’s probably what makes them as suitable for the snack box as they are for the gym bag.

Print Recipe

Homemade chocolate, tahini, sesame and jujube granola bars

Easy homemade granola bars with chocolate, tahini, sesame seeds and dried gummies. A low-sugar, crunchy and nutritious snack for breakfast, or a snack to go.

Prep time15 minutes mins

Cooking time20 minutes mins

Type of dish: Breakfast, Snack bar, Taste

Cuisine: American

For: 10 barres

Author: dumplingsandmore

Ingredients

• 300 g sugar-free chocolate granola
• 90 g tahini
• 55 g honey or maple syrup
• 1 egg white
• 45 to 50 g pitted dried gummies
• 20 g sesame seeds
• ½ c. teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 nice pinch of fleur de sel
• 30 g dark chocolate optional

Preparation

• Prepare the ingredients
• Preheat the oven to 160°C fan.
• Cut the gummies into very small cubes of about 5 mm.
• If they are particularly dry, let them soak for 5 minutes in hot water and then blot them thoroughly before cutting.
• Crush some of the granola
• Roughly crush about a third of the granola between your hands or with the bottom of a glass.
• Keep the rest in pieces: the small crumbs will serve as “cement” while the large pieces will bring crunch to the homemade granola bars.
• Prepare the tahini binder
• In a small saucepan, gently heat the tahini and honey for 1-2 minutes, just enough to make the mixture fluid.
• Do not boil.
• Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes.
• Stir in the egg white, vanilla and a nice pinch of fleur de sel.
• Mix
• In a bowl, mix the granola, the diced jujube and about 15 g of sesame seeds.
• Pour the tahini-honey mixture on top.
• Toss thoroughly until all the granola is evenly coated. The mixture should become slightly sticky.
• Tamp down the bars
• Line a square tin of about 20 × 20 cm with baking paper.
• Pour the mixture into it and then press it very firmly.
• Use the bottom of a glass or a spatula lined with baking paper to compress the whole thing well.
• Sprinkle with the remaining sesame seeds and a tiny pinch of fleur de sel.
• Bake
• Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown.
• Remove from the oven, immediately remove the mixture with a spatula or the bottom of a glass.
• This step helps homemade granola bars stay compact immensely.
• Cool and cut
• Let cool completely without removing from the pan.
• Then place the pan in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes.
• Turn out and cut into 10 small bars, or 8 large ones for larger portions.
• Chocolate-sesame finish
• For a more gourmet version, melt 30 g of dark chocolate.
• Pour it in thin streams over the homemade granola bars and add a few sesame seeds before the chocolate sets.

Notes

Packing before and after cooking is essential to obtain bars that do not crumble.
Nutritional values vary depending on the granola used.
For a less sweet version, use 55 g of honey rather than greatly reducing the amount: honey also helps hold the bars together.
Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 to 7 days.

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FAQ – Homemade granola bars

How do you make homemade granola bars last?

Crush about a third of the granola, respect the amount of binder and press the preparation very tightly before and just after cooking. Then wait for it to cool completely before cutting the bars.

How long do you keep homemade granola bars?

Store them for about 5 to 7 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Optionally, separate the layers with baking paper to prevent them from sticking together.

Can you freeze homemade granola bars?

Yes. Wrap them individually and then freeze them in an airtight container. You can let them come to room temperature before eating.

Can you substitute tahini?

Yes. An almond or peanut puree also works, as long as you use a fairly fluid texture. The flavor of homemade granola bars will obviously be different.

Can you make this recipe without egg white?

It is possible, but the binder will have to be modified. The egg white plays a major role in the hold of the vines while limiting the honey. A vegetable version would therefore require a complete adaptation of the proportions rather than a simple removal.