By Easy, Original Recipes, Snacks
Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Tropical Fruit Granola Bars

These fresh and fruity and granola will satisfy your sweet tooth and your midday snack craving. They’re delicious, nutritious, and easier on your wallet than store bought bars!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Servings 12 bars

Ingredients
  

  • 3 tablespoons pineapple - coconut juice
  • 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed *see note below recipe
  • 1 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup almond flour
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped roasted and salted macadamia nuts
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans
  • 1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
  • 1/4 cup chopped dried pineapple
  • 1/4 cup chopped dried mango
  • 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/3 cup Tahini
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup or other liquid sweetener

Instructions
 

  • Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Whisk the juice and ground flax seeds together in a small bowl. Set aside.
  • Combine all dry ingredients (oats through salt) in a large bowl. Mix well.
  • Whisk the tahini and maple syrup into the bowl with the juice and flax seeds. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix well. It will seem like the mixture is too dry at first - keep mixing! After stirring with a spoon for a few seconds, I switch to my hands to squish it all together.
  • Pour the mixture into a parchment lined 8x11 (or similar size, see note below recipe) casserole dish. Press the mixture in really well, spreading evenly to all edges and smoothing out the top as much as possible. Cut into 12 bars by making one long cut lengthwise, and 5 cuts crosswise. It’s best to make the cuts with a dough scraper or spatula so you can press directly down without dragging the blade, which will cause the uncooked bars to smoosh.
  • Carefully move the paper and uncooked bars to a cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Move to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before separating. Store in the fridge.

Notes

*When ground flax seeds are combined with a liquid, they form a thick gel which works great as a binder in recipes like this. Also, their nutrients are more available to us when they're ground. However, once they are ground, they will go bad and lose their nutritional value faster. The best practice for buying and storing flax seeds is to buy them whole, grind a small amount yourself with a coffee or spice grinder (takes only a few seconds!) and store the ground seeds in the freezer. It is never a good idea to buy ground flax seeds off a non-refrigerated shelf. Sometimes you can find them already ground in a refrigerated section - I question whether these products have been refrigerated during their entire traveling and storing process, so I prefer to grind my own.
*The size of the casserole dish you press the mixture into will determine the thickness of the bars. I’ve found 8x11 to be the perfect size. 9x13 will render thinner bars. You could split the mixture between two loaf pans and cut each into six bars.
*This method of pressing and cutting in a dish and then moving to a sheet gives you the best of both worlds - you get the firm nicely shaped and sized bars from the dish, and the more even cooking from the baking sheet. This also helps the bars come apart more easily after they’ve cooled - no more squishy or overly crumbly bars!