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These Trail Mix Granola Bars are chewy, satisfying, and endlessly customizable. The bars are packed with wholesome ingredients like nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and a touch of chocolate, all held together with a naturally sweetened, no-bake base. Think of these as your favorite nostalgic granola bar—but made with real, simple ingredients you can feel good about.
If you’ve ever grabbed a store-bought chewy granola bar on your way out the door, you already know how convenient they are, but making them at home is a total game-changer. These healthy granola bars are perfect for busy mornings, lunchboxes, road trips, or anytime you need a quick grab-and-go snack. Bonus: these bars are TOTALLY toddler-approved.
Why You’ll Love These
Trail Mix Granola Bars check all the boxes when it comes to an everyday staple snack:
- No-bake and super simple to make
- Easily customizable with whatever you have on hand
- Naturally sweetened and made with wholesome fats
- Great for meal prep and storing in the fridge or freezer
- Perfect balance of chewy, crunchy, sweet, and salty
This recipe is a great way to clean out your pantry, just mix and match your favorite trail mix add-ins.
Ingredients & What You Need to Know
One of the best parts of this recipe is how flexible it is. Here’s what goes into the base version, plus why each ingredient matters. *Scroll down to the recipe card for all details.
- Seeds (sunflower seeds + pepitas): These add a delicious crunch along with healthy fats, fiber, and minerals. You can swap in hemp seeds or flax if that’s what you have.
- Chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds): Nuts bring richness, texture, and staying power. A mix works best, but feel free to use just one variety.
- Gluten-free oats: Oats help bind everything together and give granola bars their classic chewy texture. For a paleo option, you can leave these out and increase the nuts/seeds slightly.
- Chia seeds: A small but mighty addition—chia seeds help with binding while adding fiber and omega-3s.
- Unsweetened coconut flakes: These add subtle sweetness and texture. Toasted coconut works great here, too.
- Dried fruit (cranberries + pineapple): This is where you get little bursts of sweetness and chew. Use whatever dried fruit you love—raisins, cherries, apricots, or blueberries all work.
- Chocolate chunks: Totally optional, but highly recommended. A little chocolate makes these feel like a treat.
- Honey: Acts as the main sweetener and binder. It helps hold everything together once chilled.
- Nut butter: Adds creaminess and richness while helping bind the bars. Almond butter, peanut butter, or cashew butter all work.
- Vanilla extract, cinnamon, and sea salt: These small additions bring everything together and enhance the bars’ flavor.
How to Make Trail Mix Granola Bars
These come together quickly and require no baking—just a little mixing and chilling.
1. Toast the nuts and seeds: This step adds extra flavor, but you can skip it if you’re short on time. *optional
2. Mix the dry ingredients: In a large bowl, combine the nuts, seeds, oats, chia seeds, coconut, dried fruit, chocolate, and seasonings.
3. Warm the wet ingredients: Gently heat the honey, nut butter, and vanilla until smooth and pourable.
4. Combine everything: Pour the warm mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until fully coated.
5. Press and set: Transfer to a parchment paper-lined pan and press firmly into an even layer—this step is key for bars that hold together.
6. Chill until firm: Refrigerate (or freeze) until set, then slice into bars or squares.
Tips for Perfect Granola Bars
Press firmly: The tighter you pack the mixture, the better your bars will hold.
Chill completely before slicing: This helps them set and prevents crumbling.
Store in the fridge: These stay freshest and firmest when chilled.
Adjust sweetness: You can slightly reduce the honey if you prefer a less sweet bar.
Easy Variations
Once you’ve made these once, you can switch things up endlessly:
- Swap honey for maple syrup to make them vegan
- Use only seeds for a nut-free version
- Add mini chocolate chips or cacao nibs
- Mix in protein powder for a more filling snack
- Add spices like pumpkin pie spice or cardamom for a seasonal twist
Storage Tips:
- Fridge: Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
- Freezer: Freeze for 2–3 months (great for meal prep!).
They’re delicious straight from the fridge, or let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften slightly.
Watch the video:
Trail Mix Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup seeds of choice I used 1/4 cup sunflower seeds and 1/4 cup pepitas
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts I did a mix of chopped walnuts, pecans, and almonds
- 1/2 cup gluten-free oats
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon or apple/pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 cup cranberries
- 1/4 cup dried pineapple cut into smaller chunks if large
- 2 tablespoons chocolate chunks
- 1/3 cup raw honey reduce by 2 teaspoons if you don’t like much sweetness
- 1/4 cup nut butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Toast seeds/nuts on a sheet pan a 350°F for 5 minutes (optional).
- In a large bowl combine the seeds, nuts, oats, chia seeds, coconut, sea salt, dried fruit, and chocolate.
- In a sauce pan over medium heat, heat honey, nut butter, and vanilla for 1 minute. Pour over the nut mixture and mix to combine.
- Pour into a loaf pan or a small sheet pan lined with parchment paper and flatten with a greased spatula.
- Refrigerate or freeze until hard enough to cut. Store in refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was historically sponsored by Nuts.com. As a reminder, I have and will continue to only work with brands that I 100% use in my own kitchen and personally support!
Hi !! I Just nade you granola bars , they. are really the best bars iI nade but I need your help , how I can I do kept tihem stored without refrigerated
Just made these. And they’re FAB. Any idea on calorie count?
The oats dont need to be cooked?
Nope!
I need a low carb version. Please
What is the calorie count. How much protein. How many carbs. Can they replace protein bars
I definitely will make it, I just would like to know if you have the nutritional info, thanks.
Hi..I just made them.and they fell apart and I used the exact ingredients.
Wondering why? The taste is delicious.
What about for pre diabetic is it good?
These granola bars look absolutely amazing!
What is the nutritional count per bar?
I’m allergic to nuts can you sub something else ?
More seeds!
Just put mine in the freezer to set up. The dry ingredients alone were so yummy. I’m vegan so I used maple syrup. Can’t wait to try them once they set up. I’m literally so excited for these. Toasting the nuts and seeds definitely gives it a nice flavor. Highly recommend toasting them. I will double the batch next time so I can send some off to my son who lives out of state.
Third time making these. They are so yummy.
Do you think I could use Nutella instead of a nut butter, guess its worth a try. To the person wanting the calorie count, I think you could google all of the ingredients for calories, adding them all up and dividing by the number of bars you divide the pan into. This will only give you ballpark numbers because there is great variation allowed with the measurements, if you had grams to work with you could zero in on a more precise calorie count because u could use a scale to weigh out each ingredient. These look so wonderful, can’t wait to try them. I love the presentation with the wrappers, too!
I made this today and they were in fridge 4 hours before I cut them. They are very delicious (I used dates) but very crumbly.
If you follow the recipe without subs it won’t be crumbly!
Any idea how many calories per bar if cut into 6? Also mine were very crumbly. I did toast the nuts. Any idea what i could do differently? More honey?
I made these this morning and I am blown away!! I feel like I just ate a candy bar!! It made 10 bars for me.
Do these store well in the fridge, freezer, or pantry? I would like to make them but in not sure I will finish them all in a week.
I store in the fridge!
How long will they keep for in the fridge?
7-10 days at least!
do you have to use chocolate… and pineapple what else would work please
Customize as you would like. Sub in any dried fruit!
Since I am allergic to nuts. What would be a good substitute for nuts?
Do you think these would work ok without the oats! They look so good, I’m droooooling!
Yes 100%, they are optional.