I’m ending September with one more apple recipe. In my house, these thick, chewy baked apple oat-granola bars are hard to keep around, with real apple chunks and fall apple pie flavors, they are loved by all ages.
With baked apples, granola and oats, they are slightly sweet, naturally gluten-free, and hearty enough to fill you up! Perfect for breakfast, lunch or snack.
Baked Apple Oat & Granola Bars Ingredients
Oats:
There are three types of oats; steel cut, rolled, and instant. I’ve broken down the difference of each, in my other overnight oat bars recipe I recommend using rolled oats for these bars too!
Granola:
There are so many types of granola out in the world. I absolutely love One Degree Sprouted brand (not an ad, just love it). I usually get the vanilla chai or honey hemp. Leftovers are great with yogurt!
Banana:
You will need one VERY ripe banana. It should be the one that has sat on your counter a day too long, it’s starting to spot and you’re wondering if it’s still good to eat or over ripe. This is the perfect banana for this recipe.
Banana Tip: if you have more than one brown spotty banana you can freeze them to use later in your banana muffins, bread, or cake recipes or in your morning smoothie.
Apples, apples, apples:
To get the apple-y pie flavors, you will use apple cider, one medium (or two small) apples and apple pie spice (see below). Choose your favorite apple cider and apples.
If you have extra apple cider heat it up on the stove or in a crock pot with some cinnamon sticks. Pour into a mug and top with some whipped cream, and sprinkle on some cinnamon for a delightful treat! Your house will smell amazing!
Other Add-Ins:
Hopefully you will have these in your pantry already. Honey (or Bee-Free Honey), coconut oil and vanilla. Coconut oil can be a little pricey, but it’s a great investment because you will be able to make these bars a couple of times with the same jar or there are other beauty tips that use coconut oil as well, so maybe a spa day?
Apple Pie Spice
You can hopefully find apple pie spice at your grocery store, it’s usually in small jar in the spice aisle. If you didn’t already notice, the spices are lined up by brand and then in alphabet order so you don’t have to read every single spice jar. If you can’t find it, or just want to make your own I came across this apple pie spice mix recipe as I was reading another blog and it works just as well.
Baked Apple Oat-Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 4 cups Rolled Oats
- 1 ⅓ cups Granola
- 1 Ripe Banana
- ½ cup Coconut Oil
- ¼ cup Honey
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- ¾ cup Apple Cider
- 1 tsp Apple Pie Spice
- 1 Medium Apple – peeled & cut into bite size chunks 1/4 inch cubes (or two small apples)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line your 8X8 cake pan with parchment paper.
- Using a stand mixer, with a paddle attachment, hand mixer or your muscles, mix together all of the ingredients except the apple chunks.
- Add in your apple chunks and hand-stir until they are evenly combined.
- Press mixture into the cake pan, lined with parchment paper.
- Bake at 350F for 35 minutes. Remove and let cool.
- Cut your bars into 8 or 16. To store, keep a covered container in the refrigerator, they will last for a week.
