These delicious honey crunch granola bars are similar in both taste and texture to the Nature Valley granola bars, with the exception of the expense! For the price of one box, you can make four times the amount!
This recipe is so easy and tasty that you’re probably better off making a double batch from the get-go!
Copycat Nature’s Valley Honey Crunch Granola Bars
You’ll Need:
4 cups of quick oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
- In a large bowl combine all ingredients: mix well.
- Press firmly into a well-greased or parchment-lined 10.5″x 15.5″ jelly roll pan.
- Bake at 450°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut into bars, cool completely.
Variety Options
For a bit of variety add 1/2 – 2/3 cup chopped nuts, seeds, or raisins.
For Cinnamon Granola Bars– add 1 tsp cinnamon with the rest of the ingredients.
For Cinnamon Apple Granola Bars– add 1/2 c. finely chopped dried apples and 1 tsp cinnamon
these look easy and quick to do. i’m all for that. will be making these this weekend.
yummm.
a potato mashed works great for pressing the mix, makes it nice and even. just spray it with cooking spray so it doesn’t stick.
yum! the best part is, i have everything in my pantry.
this is exactly what i’ve been looking for. going to make up a batch, or two tomorrow. thanks for a great site.
just got back from the grocery store, where i got the ingredients for these, and a dozen other recipes from this site. when i’ve recuperated from the shopping trip, i’ll get started making stuff. my last post here is not here…what happened?
oops, just found it, my bad!
lol, I was just about to ask you Where you posted 🙂 Glad you’re enjoying the site, feel free to share photos of your finished recipes- we have a big album area on the site too:
Gallery
We love photos!
just finished making these bars…and what a mess. the edges burned, cutting them caused crumbs jumping every where, and my hand hurts from the cutting. will i bother to make them again?
you bet! one bite made it all worth it. these are an improvement on nature valley, which i love.
i did not change anything in the recipe, just followed the suggestion, and added chopped almonds and dried cranberries. i’m going to be making these a lot. thanks for a great recipe.
oh boy, i love this site!!!
after making these bars, letting them cool, cutting and wrapping, (plastic snack bags) i got one out for my breakfast this morning. it was soft!!! how can i fix this and avoid it happening in the future?
i made up a bunch of ready to use mixes with all the dry ingredients so i just have to add the moist stuff, and i’m ready to go. please tell me there is a way to keep these bars crunchy.
i posted a few hours ago, but don’t see it. my granola bars have gone from crunchy to soft and chewy. i let them cool, put them in plastic bags, and by the next morning they were not how they had been.
is there any way to crisp them again? i tried putting them in the oven on very low and it helped a bit, but they are still too soft. how can i avoid this in the future, and how do i make sure that my posts will show up?
I would put them back in the oven for 4-5 minutes. I’m not sure why they went soft, unless there was still alot of moisture in them.
When we made them, we used old-fashioned oats rather than quick oats. You might want to leave lynn a msg on her wall and ask her if she’s had this trouble, (it’s her recipe 🙂 !)
Your posts are showing. This may be due to the cache settings of the site- which are in place to make the content load faster. Also, please note that article comments are moderated due to the settings allowing guests to post.
thanks for the great recipe. my daughter loves the brand name bars but they are rather expensive.
sounds like another great recipe… i will be trying these and your chewy granola recipe this weekend… will be great to send my husband to work with a granola bars to snack on.
thanks as always for your great suggestions and recipes.
:party1:I just made these granola bars and added almonds……they are absolutely delicious :party1:…..my dh loves them and posted a picture of the batch on fb commenting how great they are and better than bought ones…..will be making more tomorrow…..will be putting chocolate chips in a batch, peanut butter in a batch and some craisins and nuts in a batch….thank you for this wonderful recipe….did you fiqure how much it costs to make a batch?……i plan to…i’m sure it’s cheaper than the store bought ones….
this was simply the most easy and delicious recipe :party1:….when I made it tonite, I added almonds…..it made 24 bars…my DH absolutely loves them….I will definitely be making more batches of this recipe….will add peanut butter, chocolate chips, craisins, nuts, etc….of course, not all in the same batch…thank you for this recipe…
just what i needed. thanks!
:springsmile:i have made 3 batches of these granola bars…love them….however, the third batch was the charm…..I lowered the temperature to 350 and cooked about 30 minutes…..I checked every ten, just in case, but thirty minutes was the charm on a lower temp….I made peanut butter granola bars today…..I put 2/3 cp. plus 1 TBS. of chunky peanut butter in the basic mix….it is absolutely amazing…..:springsmile:
i tried your method with the lower oven temperature.
it ended up making a toffee-like layer on the bottom. the bars were crisp (almost too crisp!) and tasted great, but my ds and i both didn’t care for the hard honey layer. i’m thinking that the butter/honey mixture just had more time to melt and then harden underneath with the lower temp/longer baking time.
i will definitely be trying these again, but next time at the higher/faster baking instructions. perhaps it all depends on one’s oven… 🙂
well i gave this a try and it taste great unfortunately i can not get it out of the baking dish. guess i will have to crumble it and make granola!
Yes, you definitely have to do what the directions say and grease the pan REALLY well or they stick, or you can also line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper (& reuse it over and over)
great granola bar recipe! very yummy!
the problem with these bars…you cant eat just one. 🙂
i made these last night. amazing! my husband took 4 to work today =) Thanks so much!
made these today and they are scrumptious. never will i go back to store bought!
i can’t wait to try these. i like the idea of using the parchment paper, too. thanks.
i lined my pan with a silicone baking liner that i had lying around. (alternately i would have used parchment.) after taking the bars out of the oven, i cut them while they were still hot. i didn’t push the whole way through as i didn’t want to cut my liner, but rather just kind of “scored” them.
when they were completely cooled, i was able to break them cleanly at the score lines. the bars came out looking almost professional, and it didn’t kill my hand. hope this helps somebody else!
great recipe! looking forward to trying them.. love your site!
haven’t run into anything on here that i don’t love! – thank you ! :worthy:
i followed this recipe very closely, only i didn’t have quick oats and used whole, rolled oats.
this was good, definitely as good as store bought, but far too sweet for homemade. this made 22 bars for us and always by the last few bites we’re overwhelmed by how sweet it is. We do cut sugar by 1/3-1/2 on everything we make, so maybe it’s just our taste.
Next time, I’ll cut the brown sugar a bit.
Grease it really, really well and wait until it’s completely cool to take it out of the pan. Ours came out looking like store bought bars this way.
my daughter is allergic to peanuts. so, granola bars have been a food of the past for us. i just made these!
thank you so much! i suggest reading all the comments. i used a couple of tips (parchment paper and score before cool).
i made 1/2 batch just in case. I’m not that great in the kitchen and low on honey. Although they did burn a little around the edges (like I said…not that great in the kitchen), I will make these all the time now.
I will be trying these
i’m new here. i will be making these tomorrow!
These sound and look so good so I copied the recipe and hope to make them soon. I read all the great comments and suggestions and that helps.