Nut Bars Ingredient notes
- Raw almonds
- Raw cashews
- Unsweetened coconut flakes
- honey
- salt
- vanilla (optional)
- Other ingredients to add: dried fruit, any other nut, seeds (chia, sesame, flax, poppy)
How to make Nut Bars
Step one: Toast the nuts and coconut. Place in the oven, for 10 minutes @ 325F , stirring halfway through. This really enhances the flavor!
Heat the honey, water, and a pinch of salt, on med-low heat until it reaches 270F (hard ball stage) on a candy thermometer. Please see the recipe notes if you don’t have a candy thermometer!
If you heat the honey any longer it will still taste good, but result in a very brittle bar. If you heat the honey to a lower temp, the bars will be too soft and not hold together.
Heating the honey may take longer than you think.…about 20 minutes on med-low heat. I have found that once the honey reaches 250F, don’t walk away. It will go quickly from there.
How to store Nut Bars
Allow to cool completely before transferring to an airtight storage container with parchment paper between layers. For take-along convenience, use parchment paper and string to wrap individual bars—store at room temperature for up to 10 days.
Wrap Nut Bars for Gifting!
I hope you enjoy these as much as we have!
xoxo
More Snack recipes you may enjoy!
- How to Make Seed Bars
- Sprouted Pumpkin Seed Snacks
- Vegan Energy Balls with Masala Spice
- Maple Pecans
Homemade Nut Bars
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 bars 1x
- Category: snacks, granola bars,
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: american
Description
Delicious, healthy Nut Bars, similar to “Kind Bars”! A gluten-free, paleo, grain-free granola bar recipe that you will fall in love with!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup raw almonds, lightly toasted
- 3/4 cup raw cashews, lightly toasted
- 1 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut FLAKES, lightly toasted
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3 tablespoons water
- Generous pinch salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
- Other ingredients to add: dried fruit, any other nut, seeds (chia, sesame, flax, poppy), vanilla, puffed rice or millet.
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 325F ( to toast nuts and coconut)
- Heat honey, salt, water and vanilla (optional) in a small pot over medium heat until it starts bubbling. Stir occasionally. Lower to med-low heat and continue simmering uncovered until honey reaches 270F. You need to use a candy thermometer to get this exact ( available at most grocery stores in the baking section.) This will take about 25 minutes on med-low heat, and will happen rapidly once it reaches 250F.
- In the mean time, lightly toast nuts and coconut, in the oven, just until coconut is fragrant and lightly golden about 8-10 minutes.
- When honey has reached 270F, turn heat off and pour the nuts and coconuts into the pot, stirring well to coat. Mixture may seem dry, but just keep mixing, until evenly coated. Spread out on a parchment lined 8×8 inch pan, or baking sheet, to about ¾ inch thick.
- Using a greased spatula, spread out evenly and press down firmly, compressing it down as much as you can. Cover with parchment and use the bottom of a cup or pot or even your hands (if it’s not too hot) and press down really hard, compacting it as much as possible. This will help the bars stay together when you go to cut them. Let cool uncovered on the kitchen counter for 45 minutes. ( no longer)
- Once it has cooled 45 minutes, place a cutting board over the mixure and gently flip it onto the cutting board (in one piece). With a big sharp knife, cut bars before they cool down completely (otherwise they will break when you try to cut them).
- After you cut them, let them cool down completely on parchment (a couple hours) before storing. Store in an air tight container layered with parchment, or just leave them on the counter like I do and watch them disappear. Or wrap them individually with parchment and string.
Notes
If you don’t have a candy thermometer. Heat honey, just until warmed. Combine with remaining ingredients and spread out in a parchment-lined 8×8 baking dish, flattening firmly with a wet spatula. Bake at 300F on the middle rack. Check at 25 mins, rotate if need be, and continue baking. For a chewy consistency, take them out at 40-45 minutes, for a crispy crunchy consistency, let cook the full 50 -55 minutes. Keep in mind, all ovens are different, so heat may vary. The key is….You want to take them out when they are perfectly golden, before they get too dark. So watch them like a hawk after 35-40 minutes. If you take them out too early (before they are golden) they can be too sticky. Pay attention to the color.
For example, I’ve cooked these in two different ovens. In the gas oven, 50-55 minutes delivered perfectly golden bars. In the electric oven, 40 minutes were enough for perfectly golden. 55 minutes would have totally burnt them.
Remove from oven, and cool completely. You could place in the fridge to cool faster. When it’s completely cooled, take the parchment out of the pan, turn it over and remove parchment. Flip back over and cut into desired shapes or bars. Store at room temp.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 144
- Sugar: 12.5 g
- Sodium: 198 mg
- Fat: 9.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 6.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.6 g
- Fiber: 2.1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
What are recommended substitutes for cashews? We have allergies to cashews, pistachios, hazelnuts, walnuts and pecans.
I would just sub more almonds or another nut you are not alergic to.
Hello,
Can I use maple syrup rather than honey?
Hi Carla- Im not sure if maple will have the same hardening effect. It would also be different timing I think, but worth exploring!
Absolutely delicious! My family devoured these bars and am making more! Thank you for the great recipe!
These bars are absolutely fantastic! I’ve made them more times than I can count, but have never been able to get the honey up to 270 degrees in less than an hour and a half. And that’s using all sorts of different types of honey, in different pots. What am I doing wrong?
Hummm, I wonder if my medium low setting, is “hotter” than yours??? Could you try this on medium for the first 15 minutes? Then lower?
Great recipe! For how long do they last until they expire or is there no real expiration date?
a couple weeks?
OMG. I just made them and they came out sooo good. A wonderful healthy tread even my husband will love. I’m so excited to eat these.
These coconut almond bars definitely looks yummy! I love your recipe cuz it contains healthy ingredients! Thanks a lot for sharing!
Can I add oats to make it more filling and slightly more crunchy?
Yes, I think so, but keep proportions of dry ingredients to honey the same.
I tried it with oats,but it got sticky and soft. Did this happen because honey wasn’t hot enough?
Oh no! Probably. I’m not positive though. Did you use a thermometer?
These are so good! I love the Almond Apricot Kind bars, so I added some chopped, dried apricots to this recipe. Yum!
Hi there! I love this recipe but I removed the cashews and put poppy seeds and cranberries instead because my sister is allergic. I added the honey but there definitely wasn’t enough, i still tried following the recipe even so but there was no success so I added the same amount again. After that it was perfect! Yummy breakfast bars! I’ll definitely use this again!
This coconut almond bars looks absolutely fantastic. Beautiful photos, too. I look forward to trying this. My husband would love it!
OMG these are delicious! I made these for the first time today and although it felt like the honey took ages to reach temperature, I think it will be easier and quicker next time as I’ll know what I’m doing. My husband usually hates this type of thing and tried the tiniest little bit, then took the rest of the bar off me and scoffed the lot! Winner
Hee hee. My husband devours them too. glad they worked out…yes the honey takes a while. 🙂
We love this recipe!! I doubled the recipe and used half the amount of almonds ingredients and replaced with pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, and walnuts. I used my candy thermometer and it work out great, everyone thought the flavors were excellent. So I just wanted to thank you for publishing your hard work for all of us to enjoy!
Want to try these…I didn’t read all the comments, but why do I heat my oven to 325?
To to toast the nuts
Made these this morning didn’t use coconut but added rice crispies chopped dates and sultanas and pumpkin seeds and 1 cube of crystallised ginger chopped and they turned out wonderful thanks trying to cut out carbs and sugar.
Hi Sylvia, thank you so much for sharing your delicious recipes, and I am trying many of them and my husband enjoying everything specially this one Coconut Almond Bars,
God blessed you
Milena
So good to hear! Glad you are enjoying them. Thanks- means a lot!
Hi Sylvia, so glad I came across your fantastic recipe! Used fireweed honey that my mother in law gave me for Christmas! I live about an hour north of Bellingham, in Chilliwack, BC. So glad I can shop at Trader Joe’s occasionally as I paid $5.50 Cdn (approx. $4 US) for 2 oz of coconut. TJ’s has 8 oz for $1.99 LOL!!!
I feel the bars are still soft and chewy. From your experience, how much more should I heat the honey to get a real crunch? I am only making small batches, not sure if that makes much of a difference. Thanks
It sounds like the honey is not hot enough. Are you using a candy thermometer? This, unfortunately, is one of those recipes that should be followed precisely for the best results. So even making a smaller batch may be the culprit but I’m not sure.
Hello, thank you for this wonderful recipe.
I have a little problem with the bars I was hoping you can help me with. After leaving them out for an hour or so, the bar starts to crumble. Is there any way of preventing this from happening? I really like the crunch and want that to remain.
Thank you for your words of wisdom.
Sanna
Do they feel soft and crumbly? or hard or dry and crumbly? If soft, then heat honey a little more, if hard or dry, then heat honey a little less.
THIS IS A FANTASTIC RECIPE – THANKS SO MUCH – please advise if the nutrition information is it per severing ?
THESE ARE SO GOOD! They taste amazing and are the perfect texture too! Thank you for the great recipe! 🙂
Having seen dozens of granola bar recipes I wonder is there any way making them without the paper wrapper and the string around them?
Of course! its just for looks. 🙂
My daughter has peanut allergies and lots of other food allergies. She’s also just diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I think these will be great! I LOVE Kind bars and HATE paying for them! Thank you!
Enjoy!!
Seeing the beautiful picture I was compelled to make them. Made them and posted on my blog. They are so delicious. Thank you for all your wonfpderful recipes.
So glad you liked them Nima!
Has anyone tried freezing them? If so, how were they once eaten after eating ?