Peanut Butter Trail Mix Bars

These chewy peanut butter trail mix bars are filled with healthful, wholesome ingredients like almonds, oats, nut butter, and raisins. Add chocolate chips for delicious flavor and pop them into the refrigerator to set. They’re no bake, easy, and totally customizable based on what you have or like.

One reader, Tina, commented: “I consider myself a rather experienced baker but have never made granola bars before. I like the ease of swapping the nuts and raisins for whatever you have on hand or prefer to eat. These were absolutely delicious AND easy to make. Thank you so much for sharing. ★★★★★“

Always in my regular rotation of homemade snacks, these no bake peanut butter trail mix bars are my favorite pick-me-up. The combination of chocolate chips and peanut butter make it feel like you’re indulging, while the nuts and oats keep you nourished and satisfied.

It’s a fact: 1 batch disappears in 24 hours. Same exact story with my no bake coconut granola bars. (Please tell me you’ve tried those by now!)

While I’ve been making these for years, I recently made 2 small updates to the recipe. They used to crumble and fall apart easily. However, gently pulsing some of the ingredients together and adding a touch of coconut oil keeps these granola bars compact, while still offering plenty of texture.

Why You NEED to Try These Peanut Butter Trail Mix Bars:

• From mixing bowl to refrigerator in 15 minutes
• 9 simple ingredients
• No bake, chewy, soft, wholesome
• Most of the ingredients are customizable
• Sweet, salty, totally satisfying
• Freeze easily

As much as I love granola bars, I can’t always justify buying them at the store. Obviously store-bought is the more convenient choice, but these are so simple that I end up throwing 1-2 batches together at a time. You also have complete control over what you’re putting in them. Like my healthy berry streusel bars, no-bake chocolate fudge oat bars, and gluten free fudge no bake cookies, the ingredient list here is pretty small—and you can make substitutions based on what you have.

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Customize Them (Ingredient Substitution Ideas!)

I’ve made the bars countless times and here are the swaps I know work:

• Instead of almonds or cashews, use all almonds, all cashews, or use all or a mix of peanuts, pecans, or walnuts. I don’t recommend skipping the nuts. If you love cashews, be sure to try my berry vanilla cashew snack bars, too!
• Oats are a key ingredient, so I don’t recommend any substitutions. However you can use quick oats if that’s all you have.
• If you don’t have ground flaxseed, add another 1/3 cup of oats in step 3. See recipe note.
• Feel free to use any dried fruit you enjoy. If the dried fruit you’re using isn’t small like dried cranberries and raisins, chop into smaller pieces.
• Instead of honey, you can use pure maple syrup, agave, or brown rice syrup.
• Feel free to use your favorite peanut butter, creamy or crunchy, natural or processed, or another nut butter you love like almond butter or cashew butter. All the same options work in these flourless peanut butter oatmeal cookies, too.
• Coconut oil holds these bars together. Just like when we make pumpkin granola and granola clusters, I don’t recommend leaving it out. However, if needed, you can replace with butter because you need a fat that’s solid at room temperature.
• You can use regular size chocolate chips, but the mini size make these bars easier to cut. Feel free to skip the chocolate chips and replace with sunflower seeds, dried fruit, or chopped nuts.

Overview: How to Make Peanut Butter Trail Mix Bars

1. Pulse some of the ingredients in a food processor. The food processor (or a blender!) is key in this preparation. Pulsing about 10x gently breaks down the nuts and oats, which guarantees the bars will stay intact.
2. Pour the pulsed mixture into a large mixing bowl and add the rest of the dry ingredients. (Except for the chocolate chips—we’ll stir those in last!)
3. Melt the peanut butter, honey, and coconut oil on the stove or in the microwave. Pour over dry ingredients.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Press tightly into a lined 8-inch baking pan or 9-inch baking pan.
6. Refrigerate. The bars take about 1 hour to set up in the refrigerator.
7. Cut into squares or rectangles.

All of the different textures—the dried fruit, the crunchy salty nuts, chewy oats, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth peanut butter, and the dots of chocolate—work SO well together!

Are These Peanut Butter Trail Mix Bars Healthy?

I say this a lot with the lightened-up recipes I publish, but “healthy” is a relative term. In my eyes, these are perfectly healthy granola bars. They’re made with whole foods like almonds and fiber-filled oats, plus there’s no white flour or refined sugar. However, they may be too sugary for someone who needs to watch their sugar intake and they’re obviously not ideal for anyone allergic to nuts.

When it comes to labeling recipes as healthy, use the best judgement for YOU. 🙂

• I’m unsure of the nutritional information for these, but feel free to calculate it yourself using an online calculator and the exact products/brands you use.

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