A safe granola bar is not easy, or cheap, to come by. When we went to Disney last year, I splurged on a whole box of goodies from peanutfreeplanet.com and some NoNuttin granola bars were in the mix. The kids loved them, but at $1.50 a bar, it was a bit much for a casual treat. After a lot of trial and error, I came up with this chewy granola bar recipe that is wheat-free, egg-free, dairy-free and nut-free. And for my little buddy Kierra, they can be corn-free as well! This year, we’ll pack these for Disney and save the money for some glass slippers instead.
This recipe uses brown rice syrup rather than corn syrup. I’m pretty sure when it comes down to it, there really aren’t any major health benefits to brown rice syrup over corn syrup. Sugar is sugar. I think it just makes me feel better using brown rice syrup, and it gets rid of one more allergen! As far as cost, around here it runs about $5 for a jar of Lundberg syrup and you can get two batches out of one jar (7 cents per bar for sweetener).
You can mix up the flavors, we live in cherry country here in Michigan, so dried cherries are not hard to come by, but other dried fruits would be great. For chocolate, I use the dark chocolate chunks from NoNuttin, they are seriously chocolaty, not really sweet at all and perfect with the sweet cherries. The coconut is something I’m sneaking in. Coconut allergies are apparently pretty uncommon, my kids just refuse it on the basis of texture. Elective refusal of a good-fat item is simply not an option around here, so I sneak the coconut in. I use regular Baker’s sweetened coconut, but I chop it down fine in the food processor.
Allergy Friendly Granola Bars
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 36 bars, depending on size 1x
Description
These dairy-free and egg-free granola bars are also nut-free, gluten-free, corn-free and vegan. They pack well for roadtrips and hikes!
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup shredded coconut, chopped fine if desired.
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 2 cups quick oats
- 2 cups rice krispies cereal
- 3/4 cup dried cherries, chopped
Wet Ingredients:
- 1/2 jar Lundberg brown rice syrup (3/4 cup or so)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 T. oil (avocado, grapeseed, soy)
- 1 t. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup safe chocolate chips
- Extras (flax seed, chia seeds, if you can use these)
Instructions
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a big mixing bowl.
- In a small saucepan, heat the brown rice syrup and salt until boiling and boil for 1 minute.
- Remove from heat and add the oil and vanilla.
- Pour the heated syrup over the dry ingredients and mix well until everything is coated.
- Dump into a foil or parchment lined pan and spread it out to cool, but don’t press it down yet. I use a 1/4 sheet pan, but a 9 x 13 casserole pan will work too.
- When the mixture has cooled a bit, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and press everything down hard.
- Let the granola block cool and firm up before cutting into bars and wrapping.
Notes
For chocolate, I use Enjoy Life or Divvies.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 5
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Mixed
- Cuisine: American
Yum! I am slightly amused that in general, I take your recipes and use "normal" ingredients in them. 🙂 And I did not know that coconut was good fat!
Well…in comparison to lard and bacon! When you take out dairy, eggs and nuts…it's really hard to find anything WITH fat other than animal fats and olive oil. Which is why I have a 36 pound 7 year old! I sneak a lot of avocado, olive and coconut oil into things. These would be super-cheap if you substituted for 'normal' corn syrup!
These look fabulous. I'm thinking about making them for my celiac son. They are oat-intensive, and even using gluten-free oats, I try to limit his consumption. I think I would try to substitute something else for half the oats. Maybe corn flakes? (We're OK with corn.) Maybe slightly crushed Corn Chex?
I'm a native Michigander (long gone), and my family sends me dried cherries. This is a great way to use them!
Fab recipe…this has been on my to do list for awhile and while oats are out for us, you gave me a starting point to think about following through with my goal.
And any snack that you can take to Disney is fab in my book!
We are going again in May…did you see the gift card promotion?
wow, i just came across your blog while searching for egg free meatballs. you are quite amazing! i am definitely going to try some of your recipes. we have two sons and between them they have milk, egg, peanut, and oat allergies along with other sensitivities.
it's nice to hear some of your thoughts as a doctor. your post about crazy serious parents ending up with food allergy kids sounds about right. we definitely followed all the rules about introducing foods and we ended up with serious allergies.
so your daughter is 7 and still highly allergic? our son is 4, anaphylactic to milk. i keep hearing that by that age, our outgrowing chances are less. i hope our kiddies still have a chance to outgrow.
sorry, one more question. i see great harvest as one of your favorites. we just had one open in town. what do you love about them? our son has never eaten in a restaurant. is it a safe place to eat at? do you just like their breads and trust their allergen free baking? would love to hear!
thanks for the awesome inspiration!
Jamie, thanks for the kind comments! I usually make my own bread, but will buy a few loaves from Great Harvest when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Every bakery is independent, so talk with the staff and read ingredients. Our makes wheat and white breads that are dairy and egg free. They stopped the egg wash on their breads after a bunch of us requested that. The only restaurants my 7 year old has eaten in were at Disney, or Wendy's…so we're heading back to Disney because I can't bear another Wendy's burger 🙂
These look great! I've been looking through the recipes on your blog and notice you like to use avocao oil a lot. I have never heard of this kind of oil before and assume I can find it at my local health food store. Just curious, how did you come about using this particular oil and does it leave any, noticeable, aftertaste like coconut oil sometimes does? Thanks!
Jennifer
I love avocado oil because it blends into foods without leaving a taste. Olive and coconut can be a bit strong. My kid is really small so I mix it in yogurt, smoothies, applesauce, soups. I get it at the health food store, by Spectrum oils, it's a bit pricey though so I don't bake or cook much with it!
Wow, that's great. Do you use it to make sure they get the right amount of fat? I wish I had known about that when my son was little. I was always worried about his weight and would try to hide coconut oil in stuff and he would always turn up his nose! So frustrating! He was not allergic to nut butters, so eventually after we kept pushing them, they became his main source of fat, along with a daily supplement of cod liver oil. It took a long time and he eats a lot of peanut butter now, but I've been looking for alternative sources to create a variety. Thanks!
so, these are cooling on the counter as i comment. 🙂
do you have trouble with them sticking together? i sense they might fall apart…
i followed the recipe, using corn syrup instead of brown rice syrup and canola oil instead of avocado.
i just pressed them down a second time as they fell apart on the first cut. more cooling time?
thanks!!
Brown rice syrup is thicker than corn syrup, something between honey and molasses, so they may crumble more. I press the heck out of these things by either using my small rolling pin, or nesting the same size pan on top to sandwich the granola between the two pans…and then I stand and stamp around on the whole thing feeling kinda silly.
thanks so much! i will stamp next time. 😉
i put them in the fridge so that i could cut them, but they fell apart after they warmed back up!
they taste SOOOO good. i can't wait to try again!
I just found your blog tonight and read my way entirely though it! I have 2 non-allergic kids and 1 with a long list of food allergies. I hope to use some of your recipes and adapt them a little more for our additional allergies to give my little guy some fun new treats!
A few months ago we jumped to coconut milk. I'm wary of giving too much soy and my little guy adores soy yogurt, so coconut is a good way to pack in some more fat into his diet.