Try this Homemade Nutri-Grain Bars recipe.
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 2 t almond milk
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 cup white whole wheat (to make these gluten free sub gf all purpose or gf oat flour and add an extra egg)
- 1 flax egg (i used a flax egg replacement)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- your favorite fruit spread or 12 medjool dates ble
- Carbohydrate 89.5894875763735 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 161.073600226966 g
- Fiber 19.7710001611042 g
- Protein 30.8136500579408 g
- Saturated Fat 98.5633200897543 g
- Serving Size 1 1 recipe (319g)
- Sodium 3496.31375000504 mg
- Sugar 69.8184874152693 g
- Trans Fat 9.92989001288069 g
- Calories 1859 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a food processor, grind up the almonds and oats. Measure them before grinding.
- Once they are ground into a slightly course consistency, add them to a bowl with the rest of the dry ingredients.
- In another bowl, add the wet ingredients.
- Add dry to wet and mix just until combined.
- Gather the dough into a ball. It will be a bit sticky.
- Wrap it in plastic and place in the fridge for about 30-60 minutes to firm up.
- Once firm, cut a piece of parchment paper the size of a baking sheet, and lay it on the counter.
- Cut the dough ball in half. I used a bench scraper to cut mine.
- Take one piece and roll it out onto the parchment, putting some plastic wrap between the rolling pin and dough.
- Roll it until it is about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
- Spread jam onto the top.
- Roll the second ball of dough the same way onto another piece of parchment.
- Place that onto the dough with the jam. I made sure all the sides were sealed up.
- Then slice into squares with a pizza cutter.
- Bake for about 13 minutes.
- These should last a week or two. You can freeze them as well.
- Remember to save your parchment paper.
- You can re-use the same piece over and over again.
- Enjoy!
Chilling the dough for thirty to sixty minutes is the most critical step when assembling these cereal snacks. Without this specific refrigeration window, the coconut oil remains too warm and pliable, causing the structure to melt prematurely when rolled. Grinding the almonds and oats together first creates a cohesive base flour that absorbs the maple syrup and applesauce binders efficiently. When combining the mixtures, mix only until unified to prevent the gluten in the white whole wheat flour from developing too much elasticity, which yields a tough chew rather than a tender crumb. Placing plastic wrap between the rolling pin and the sticky dough prevents tearing and sticking without requiring excess flour dusting.
Equipment Essentials and Workarounds
A food processor is necessary to reduce whole almonds and rolled oats into a fine meal quickly. Standard blenders often struggle with dry nut chopping because the blades lack a wide enough surface area to circulate heavy ingredients evenly. If a food processor is unavailable, substitute pre-ground almond flour and oat flour directly to bypass the mechanical milling stage entirely. A bench scraper provides clean division lines when splitting the sticky dough ball in half prior to rolling. Rolling the dough directly on parchment paper allows for easy transfer to a baking sheet without disturbing the jam layer or stretching the sealed edges.
- If the dough feels excessively tacky after refrigeration, place the wrapped ball in the freezer for ten minutes to solidify the fats rapidly.
- Use a pizza cutter to divide the baked sheet into uniform squares quickly while the edges remain warm and pliable.
- Store finished bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks, or transfer them to the freezer for longer preservation.
