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WW Recipe of the Day: Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bars
Do you prefer homemade granola bars or the kind you buy in a box?
I definitely prefer do-it-yourself granola bars, like these crunchy peanut butter granola bars that I made last week.
Packed with real oats, honey, chopped peanuts, and peanut butter, they are like Nature Valley peanut butter crunchy granola bars, only better.
I found the recipe for these yummy crunchy peanut butter granola bars on The Americas Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook (affiliate link), a book I purged from my collection a while back because I rarely opened it.
After making and tasting these crunchy granola bars, I’m experiencing serious remorse for not holding on to it longer. “What other recipe treasures are contained within it’s pages?” I’m wondering.
How Many Calories and WW Points in Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bars?
This recipe makes 16 crunchy peanut butter granola bars, each with 203 calories.
To see your WW Points for this recipe, track it in the WW App!
(You must be logged into WW on a smartphone or tablet.)
7 SmartPoints (Green plan)
7 SmartPoints (Blue plan)
6 SmartPoints (Purple plan)
5 PointsPlus (Old plan)
If you’ve made these Peanut Butter Granola Bars, please give the recipe a star rating below and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. And stay in touch on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.
Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bars Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted dry-roasted peanuts, chopped coarse
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1-1/2 cups quick cooking oats
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
Instructions
- Position an oven rack in the center of your oven and heat the oven to 300F degrees. Line a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and coat the foil lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the peanuts in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat, and toast, stirring often, until fragrant and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the oats and oil to the skillet and cook, stirring often, until golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer the toasted oats to the bowl with the peanuts and stir in the salt.
- Add the honey and brown sugar to the skillet and simmer gently over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the sugar is fully dissolved, about 5 minutes.
- Remove skillet from the heat, stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, and peanut butter until well blended.
- Working quickly, stir the hot honey mixture into the peanut-oat mixture until thoroughly combined. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan and pack very firmly into an even layer. (I used the bottom of a measuring cup to pack the mixture down.)
- Bake until the granola bars are golden, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
- Remove from the oven and allow the bars to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove the whole slab from the pan using the foil.
- Cut into 16 bars. Place the bars on a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
(You must be logged into WW on a smartphone or tablet.) 7 SmartPoints (Green plan) 7 SmartPoints (Blue plan) 6 SmartPoints (Purple plan) 5 PointsPlus (Old plan) Packed with real oats, honey, chopped peanuts, and peanut butter, they are like Nature Valley peanut butter crunchy granola bars, only better.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Source: Adapted slightly Laine’s Recipe Box
Great tasting bars. I have made them twice and I have had problems keeping them in one piece both times. Many thanks
I know this post is old but I just wanted to say mine turned out really good! I forgot to score them while they were warm so they crumble a bit when I cut them, my fault not the recipes!
I’m really assuming tomorrow these will taste even better. I don’t think my husband will think they are just like the brand name but I DO think he will like them. He eats 2 boxes of granola bars ( peanut butter only) a week and because of Covid I’ve had a hard time finding them in the stores…hence trying this recipe!
Best granola bars ever, they came out perfect and are delicious!!! Chewy, crunchy and DO NOT crumble ! I pressed them down in the pan with the bottom of a glass measuring cup, and then, with a marble rolling pin. I am so happy I found this recipe…..question: can corn syrup, non-blackstrap molasses or anything else be substituted for the honey … I am trying to keep this recipe a little more budget and bee friendly?
Thanks, Debbie! I’m so glad to hear that you liked them as much as I did and didn’t have a problem with crumbling either 🙂 I haven’t tried the recipe any other way than as written, but imagine you could substitute the honey with other sweeteners. Here is some information I found regarding substituting honey with other sweeteners on the Joy of Baking Website:
1 cup of honey (240 ml) = 3/4 cup (180 ml) maple syrup plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) (120 ml) granulated white sugar OR
3/4 cup (180 ml) light or dark corn syrup plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) (120 ml) granulated white sugar OR
3/4 cup (180 ml) light molasses plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) (120 ml) granulated white sugar OR
1-1/4 cups (250 grams – 265 grams) (300 ml) granulated white or brown sugar plus 1/4 cup (60 ml)
additional liquid in recipe plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
To replace 1/3 cup of honey in the granola bars recipe, you would need to divide the suggested amounts by 3! Hope this helps 🙂
They’re still a favorite!!
I tried this with a great deal of excitement. They failed miserably.
First off 2 tablespoons of peanut butter doesn’t give it ANY peanut butter taste. Maybe these were supposed to be more like oats and honey granola bars, not peanut butter granola bars, but with 2 tablespoons for a recipe that makes 16 bars, it is not going to taste peanut buttery taste at all.
Second, there isn’t nearly enough in this to bind it together. I followed the instructions exactly and what I got was granola, not bars. I could tell there were going to be issues before putting it in the oven, as it was not sticky and coming together enough, but I was following the recipe. Sure enough, I now have a munch of granola.
Don’t waste your time on the recipe. I will use ideas from this to use with other recipes to get the crunch I am looking for, but as far as this, it failed.
Hi George,
Sorry this recipe didn’t work for you. But, as you can see from the photo on the post, they came out perfectly for me. The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen, a very reputable source in the world of cooking and baking (at least here in the US).
Unfortunately, there are so many variables in baking, not every recipe will be successful for everyone who tries it.
I also had trouble wirhthese holding together. Ibwonder of there is a way to get them to hold better. Perhaps I did not allow them to cool long enough? Or maybe iI ned to increase the honey a bit? As far as tbe peanut butter taste i found the taste very peanut buttery. 😉
Hi Tim, Thanks for letting me know. I really can’t explain it because mine stuck together fine. More honey might help. So might scoring them while still warm. Hope this helps.
Ok i gave these another try yesterday and followed the recipe again to a t and this time they worked great. The one thing i did different was that i used a lot more force in pressing them into the pan.
Yummy and so good with coffee for breakfast.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for letting me know. I will re-work the instructions to let people know that you really need to press them down with a lot more force than you think! I agree that they make a yummy breakfast with coffee.
Whether you like chewy or crunchy granola bars, you can probably adapt this recipe to either. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for posting! I haven’t seen this recipe and I love crunchy granola bars. Mine are almost always chewy. I’ll try to bake a batch this week 🙂