Wholesome grain free snack bars that are packed with whole, real foods. Chewy, satisfying, and easy to make too!
Snack bars have become my favorite homemade “granola” type bar. They’re just like store-bought KIND bars, but made in your own kitchen. Primarily from handfuls simple ingredients like cashews, dried berries, and sunflower seeds. Wholesome and texture-filled for those of us who crave satisfying snacks. Grain free, gluten free, salty and sweet, too!
Besides the nuts, dried fruit, and seeds– you’ll need almond meal and honey. If you can’t find it, almond meal is so easy to make at home: simply pulse almonds until they reach a rough flour-like consistency. Honey sweetens, of course, but it also binds all the snack bar ingredients together. It’s perfectly delicious paired with the vanilla flavor, the creamy cashews, and all those sweet dried berries.
Real quick: for those cashews, make sure that you chop them up. Not super fine, but a nice coarse chop. Whole cashews prevent the snack bars from sticking together. You need some small chunks in there. Just like this:
The bars are uniquely chewy while soft in some spots (those buttery cashews!) and crisp on the edge pieces. You get large chunks of nuts and fruit that you can actually see and taste, unlike most granola or energy bars. The snack bars are infused with vanilla and each bite pops with both honey and almond butter. Then, of course, sweet dried berries speckled throughout each bar. There’s something different in every bite which is just so satisfying, isn’t it? You might love my peanut butter trail mix bars too.
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Berry Vanilla Cashew Snack Bars
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 bars
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Wholesome grain free snack bars that are packed with whole, real foods. Chewy, satisfying, and easy to make too!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (113g) honey or brown rice syrup*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (37g) almond meal*
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15g) almond butter (any nut butter works!)
- 1 and 1/3 cups (200g) raw unsalted cashews, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup dried blueberries*
- 1/4 cup (30g) dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup (44g) salted sunflower seeds*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F (149°C). Line an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper with enough overhang on the sides to easily remove the bars from the pan. Set aside.
- Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix the honey, vanilla, almond meal, salt, and almond butter together until combined. Fold in the cashews, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds until combined.
- Transfer mixture to prepared baking pan and press very firmly into an even layer. You really want it packed in tight- as tight as possible. Bake for 22 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack for 1 hour, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 1 more hour. This firms up the bars which helps them stay compact. Remove bars from the pan using the overhang on the sides and cut into bars. Individually wrap each bar in plastic wrap or parchment. Store at room temperature for 1 week or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. I find they get a little sticky at room temperature over a few days, so I prefer the refrigerator.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: These bars are freezer friendly. After wrapping individually, freeze for up to 3 months and thaw before enjoying.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8-Inch or 9-Inch Square Pan | Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowls
- Sweetener: I do not suggest a thinner sweetener like maple syrup or agave– honey or brown rice syrup are perfect.
- Almond Meal: You can use store-bought almond meal or almond flour, or you can make your own. Start with 1/3 cup of slivered, sliced, or whole almonds. Pulse them in a food processor until a crumbly meal has formed. Do not run the food processor continuously because you might end up with almond butter. Little pulses are best.
- Dried Blueberries: Sometimes I have a hard time finding dried blueberries in the store. If you can’t find them, you can just sub dried cranberries.
- Sunflower Seeds: I like to use salted sunflower seeds because they add a little salt to the sweet dried fruit/honey. If using unsalted, add another 1/8 teaspoon salt to the recipe. Instead of sunflower seeds, try using chopped peanuts, cashews, or almonds.
Keywords: berry cashew snack bars, vanilla berry granola bars, snack bars
So many more versions! Try my vanilla almond snack bars.
The chocolate cherry snack bars too!
And my favorite spiced pumpkin seed cranberry version.
These are delicious!!!!! Thank you!
★★★★★
Hi Sally, could i use baked cashews as that’s all i have on hand. Love your blog – not a single failed recipe!
Hi Aurora, yes, baked cashews should be fine–you can also swap them out for other nuts, like pecans or almonds. Enjoy!
After going around the SBA block a few times, I knew to make a double batch of these first try. So glad I did! The vanilla, honey, nut combo is perfect! I added a couple extras because they were in my pantry (raisins, chia, brewer’s yeast, unsweetened coconut) and now they’ll be used as “lactation snacks.” Thanks again, Sally & team!
★★★★★
These little bars are delicious!! I followed the recipe except I threw in some shredded coconut because I love it. These are so good – moist yet hold their shape and cut well. Super easy to make and very satisfying. I’m going to make another batch this weekend. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
I’m thrilled you enjoyed them so much! I also love easy homemade bars and have several recipes for them – a few with coconut! If you filter my recipes by “granola and granola bars” you will see a lot of options. Enjoy 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe;
Just made it and it’s awesome!
I didn’t have any almonds on hand for the almond meal but had walnuts so used that and a little bit of puffed quinoa. For the cranberries I used the Ocean Spray cherry infused ones and tossed in some dairy-free choc. chips
★★★★★
These bars turned out well and I will definitely be making them again. Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Can I use oat flour instead of almond meal?
Thanks..
absolutely!
Sally,
Thank you so much for sharing your snack bars. All the ones I have tried so far have been fabulous and my kids are practically inhaling them. Before I saw your berry almond vanilla bar recipe, I had made a variation of the vanilla almond with dried blueberries instead of dates (good both ways) because my older son is a blueberry fanatic. Those were a big hit as well. I usually make a double batch so I am able to grab a couple for myself before the kids eat them all. It is so hard to get store bought bars of any kind without something I don’t want myself or my family to eat and this is a great solution. Now I have some portable, healthy snack options for our road trip this June. Thank you again.
Christa
So happy you and your family love these snack bar recipes! I think this berry vanilla cashew version is my favorite 🙂
These.are.awesome! This is the third recipe of yours I’ve made this week- the other two were the Good Morning Sunshine Breakfast Cookies and the Skinny Blueberry Banana Muffins. All three were terrific and are new favorites. These snack bars are going on next week’s menu plan!
Hi Sally!
Unfortunately, I am allergic to cashews 🙁 I was wondering if you had any suggestions of other nuts to use in place of them? Or another snack bar recipe that’s just as much as a hit?
Thanks!!
Katie
Hey Katie! How about pecans? Almonds would be great too!
Hi Sally, I love your blog and am constantly raving about it to everyone!
This may be a silly question, but you say any “nut butter” would work for this recipe; is there any chance nutella counts as an acceptable nut butter? 🙂
While it would obviously be less healthy of an option, I feel as though it would taste pretty amazing….. just not sure if the consistency of it would be wrong for the recipe.
Oh my gosh they’d taste incredible! There’s only 1 Tablespoon used, so I think you’d be fine using it instead.
Oh my goodness, I made them last night and just had the first one. They taste incredible! Thank you so much Sally! 🙂
I love these snack bars! I’m a serious snack bar lover, but I don’t eat granola, so it’s usually difficult to make quick and easy snacks for on-the-go, until I discovered these! I love how adaptable this recipe is; I’ve made it quite a few times with different nuts, fruit, and even dipped in chocolate, and it never lets me down. Thanks for another great recipe, your blog never fails to impress me!
I’m a big fan of making my own snack/granola bars and have now made these several times. YUM! I made a couple of tweaks this last time only because these are really high in calories and fat (I know it’s the good kind but sadly I’ve had to reduce my gym time recently) and they are so yummy I want to consume more than one. So, I took out about 1/2 of the cashews and added organic brown rice puffs at only 50 calories/cup (if you get the ones with no added sugar). I also add some chia seeds because why not add some extra protein and fiber. One more change I made was to take out the almond meal and add wheat germ in it’s place. Such a good and versatile recipe! Thank you!
I made these last night and my fiancé and I absolutely LOVE them! Thanks so much for the great recipe Sally!
Sally,
I added chia seeds to these and they are yummy too! (Only 2 tsp)
Awesome recipe. I’ve already made these twice in 3 days. The honey takes these over the top with its sticky sweetness and I like to change out the cashews for a mix of almonds, pistachios and walnuts. They hold up very well after baking and do not fall apart. Thanks for a great recipe.
Such a great idea for snacks to bring to work! Healthy, delicious and it will keep you full for a long time. Definitely will make these bars! May be will add some dark chocolate chips 😉
Love your recipes Sally! What an inspiration!
This is my first time also making trail bars. Right now they are cooling on the rack next to me. They look and smell amazing. Can’t wait for them to cool. I hope the kids like them as they were so easy to make and I love eating whole foods!!!
Made these today and they are so good! I definitely recommend using an 8×8 and no larger. It’s the first time I’ve made any kind of snack bar. I love them! I really could eat the whole pan myself! Thank you for all the great recipes!
Great flavor combination yet again!
Could i use peanut butter instead of almond butter?
Yes.