These homemade cherry, chocolate and hazelnut granola bars are chewy, packed with oats, nuts, seeds and sour cherries, making an easy snack or lunchbox treat.

These cherry, chocolate and hazelnut granola bars are a homemade snack that’s easy to pack into a lunchbox or take with you when you’re out and about. They’re chewy, packed with oats, nuts and seeds, and have bursts of sour cherry and dark chocolate throughout.

I started making these because I wanted to create a granola bar that would work well as a packed snack. However, my first attempts at these were a little too crumbly and weren’t sticking together quite as well as I wanted. So, I turned to my flapjack base for a little help. Using the same combination of butter, sugar and syrup allowed them to have a chewy texture as well as help everything stick together.

I also soaked the dates before adding them to the mixture rather than simply mixing them through. I then kept the rest of the ingredients more in the style of a granola bar, with oats, hazelnuts, almonds, linseeds and sesame seeds, finished with sour cherries and dark chocolate chips.

The result is somewhere between a flapjack and a granola bar: chewy and sturdy enough to pick up and eat without falling apart, but with plenty of texture from the nuts and seeds.

Star Ingredient

Sour cherries are one of those ingredients I always like having in my baking cupboard. I love the contrast they bring to sweeter bakes, and they’re particularly good paired with dark chocolate.

In these granola bars, the sour cherries add little bursts of tartness alongside the chewy oats, crunchy nuts and dark chocolate. I think they’re what stops the bars from becoming overly sweet and gives the flavour combination a little more interest.

How to Purchase Ingredients to be Conscious to the Planet

Homemade granola bars utilise a lot of ingredients that you can pick up in refill shops. This shopping swap can reduce a lot of plastic packets from the kitchen cupboards. Nuts, seeds, dried fruit and chocolate generally come in plastic bags when picking them up in supermarkets. As these bars use a variety of all of these, that could otherwise be a lot of plastic.

Container wise when purchasing these products at refill shops, I would lean towards glass jars or stainless steel tubs. These vary in size which makes them useful for the assortment of dried ingredients. Jumbo oats I also enjoy getting in bulk, and I utilise my bulk food bags when shopping for these.

Utilising chocolate chips for the recipe, reduces the amount of chopping you need to do. However, if you can only find buttons, or even bars, just simply chop them to add to the mix.

Equipment You Will Need

• 8 Inch Square Cake Tin
• Baking Parchment Paper
• Small Bowl
• Mixing Bowl
• Spatula / Wooden Spoon
• Medium Saucepan
• Soup Spoon / Table Spoon
• Cooling Rack
• Sharp Knife

Tips and Tricks when Baking Cherry, Chocolate and Hazelnut Granola Bars

Soak the Dates First

The dates aren’t simply being added as another dried fruit in this homemade granola bars. Soaking them softens them so they can break down into the mixture. Thereby, they help to bind the bars together as well as adding some extra sweetness.

Chopping the dates before soaking them increases their surface areas aiding with softening them.

Nuts for your Cherry, Chocolate and Hazelnut Granola Bars

These homemade granola bars, have 2 types of nuts in them. Hazelnuts and almonds. The almonds for the recipe can be unblanched or blanched. Chopping these for the recipe helps with their distribution. When comes to the hazelnuts, I will sometimes chop them. These are small nuts in themselves, so I tend to only chop the ones which I think look a bit bigger. And this would only be in half.

Press the Bar Mixture Firmly into the Tin

This is important for getting bars that hold together rather than crumble. Use the back of a clean metal spoon helps with the compression as well as smoothing out the top. Sometime people may prefer to use the bottom of a glass to press in mixtures like this.

Cut your Granola Bars before the Fully Cool

Once you remove the tin from the oven allow them to cool for roughly 10 minutes. Then using a sharp knife to cut into bars. Allow the bars to then cool completely. Cooling them completely allows them to firm up, making them easier to pack and handle.

Cherry Chocolate and Hazelnut Granola Bars

These homemade cherry, chocolate and hazelnut granola bars are chewy, packed with oats, nuts, seeds and sour cherries, making an easy snack or lunchbox treat.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time:30 minutes mins

Cook Time:45 minutes mins

Keyword: Lunch, Snack, Traybake

Servings: 8 Bars

Equipment

• 8 Inch Square Cake Tin
• Baking Parchment Paper
• Small Bowl
• Mixing Bowl
• Spatula / Wooden Spoon
• Medium Saucepan
• Soup Spoon / Table Spoon
• Cooling rack
• Sharp Knife

Ingredients

• 125 g Pitted Dates chopped
• 300 g Jumbo Oats
• 40 g Ground Almonds
• 20 g Hazelnuts
• 30 g Almonds chopped
• 20 g Linseeds
• 20 g Sunflower Seeds
• 10 g Chai Seeds
• 150 g Butter / Plant Butter / Margarine
• 150 g Caster Sugar
• 75 g Golden Syrup
• 25 g Sour Cherries
• 20 g Dark Chocolate Chips

Instructions

• In a small bowl, add the chopped dates and 4 tablespoons of boiling water, and allow them to soak for 15-20 minutes, giving them a mash and stir every so often.
• Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
• Line the baking tin with the baking parchment paper.
• In a mixing bowl, add in the oats, hazelnuts, almonds, ground almonds, sunflower seeds, linseeds and chai seeds and stir together.
• In a saucepan, add the butter, sugar and golden syrup and melt together over a medium heat, stirring.
• Remove the saucepan for the heat and add in the soaked dates and stir together.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry mix and stir to coat completely.
• Add in the sour cherries and chocolate chips and stir through.
• Tip the mixture into the prepped tin, and using a metal spoon press the mixture firmly down and smooth the top.
• Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.
• Remove the tin from the oven and pop on a cooling rack to cool for 10 minutes.
• Using a sharp knife cut into 8 bars by cutting in half one way and then into 4 the other ways.
• Allow the bars to cool completely before removing from the tin.
• Store in an airtight container.

Other Bars that you may be Interested in

• Goji Berry Granla Bars
• Homemade Brunch Bars
• Chocolate Orange Flapjacks
• Pecan Turtle Bars

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