Easy Peanut Butter Granola Bars with Chocolate Drizzle

These easy peanut butter granola bars with chocolate drizzle come together quickly, have a limited number of ingredients, and as long as you make sure that your rolled oats are gluten free, these are a gluten free, dairy free treat that anyone can enjoy! Note that if you want to be completely sure that these are dairy free, be sure to check your chocolate before you use it as that can have milk solids in it. These can also easily be made vegan if you swap the honey for maple syrup and omit the collagen powder. I have not tried using maple syrup instead of honey, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. You could also easily use any nut butter here if you have a peanut allergy, or sunflower butter if there is a general nut allergy.

• 2 cups rolled oats
• ¼ cup coconut oil
• ¼ cup creamy salted peanut butter
• ¼ cup honey
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 scoops collagen powder (optional)
• ¼ cup roughly chopped chocolate or ¼ cup chocolate chips

To shape these easy peanut butter granola bars, I use a standard loaf pan lined with parchment paper. These come together quickly, so start by preparing your loaf pan. Place a piece of parchment paper that is as wide as the long sides of the pan so that the paper comes up and hangs over the long edges of the pan. This will help you remove the granola bars from the pan later. Once you’ve placed a piece of parchment in the pan, set it off to the side.

You can absolutely leave the oats raw, but since we’re not baking these easy peanut butter granola bars, I like to toast the oats ahead of time to give them a nice nutty and toasted flavor. To do this, add the oats to a dry sauté pan over medium heat, and stir them until they become fragrant and get light golden brown around the edges.

Set the oats aside.

Next, mix the coconut oil, peanut butter, honey, and salt in a small saucepan. Note that if you’re using the organic peanut butter, be sure to stir it well before using it so you don’t have a bunch of oil that has separated from the peanuts. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir to combine. You’re not trying to cook the mixture, but just warm it up a little so that you can easily mix the ingredients together into a well combined liquid. I’m sure you could also just stick the mixture in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it through, but I like to have control over how hot it gets, and I feel like I can control the heat more on the stove. Once the mixture is well combined, remove it from the heat and add in the vanilla extract and collagen if you’re using it. Stir to combine so that everything is smooth and there are no lumps. The collagen is optional, but adds extra protein.

Place the oats in a mixing bowl and add in the peanut butter mixture. Stir so that the wet ingredients evenly coat all of the oats.

Next, pour the oat mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Grab an extra piece of parchment paper to place on top of the oats once they are all in the pan, then press the mixture evenly into the pan. The parchment paper on top of the oats will act as a barrier so you don’t get peanut butter all over your hands while you’re pressing the mixture into bar form.

Make sure to press down very firmly and evenly. If you don’t pack the granola mixture into the pan well enough, it won’t hold together in bar form, so it’s important to really press down and compact the oats into one solid layer.

Leave the piece of parchment on top of the oats once you’ve pressed the mixture into the pan, then place in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably for two hours. You can always place the bars in the freezer to speed up the process. The longer they sit in the fridge, the more solid they will become.

Once the granola bars are firm, remove them from the fridge, grab the sides of the parchment paper, and lift them out of the pan. The parchment makes it easy to lift them out with no sticking. Once you’ve removed the slab of granola from the pan, use a sharp knife to slice it into bars. I got 8 granola bars from my loaf pan, but you can slice them bigger or smaller depending on what you like best.

Once you’ve sliced the bars to your desired size, place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it at 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until the chocolate is melted. Mine took 2, 30 second intervals in the microwave to melt.

Once the chocolate is melted, take a spoon and drizzle all of the chocolate over the granola bars, then place the bars back in the fridge to firm up.

These easy peanut butter granola bars are a great breakfast, snack, or sweet treat. They do need to be stored in the fridge, or can be stored in the freezer to keep them fresh for even longer. Unfortunately, since they do begin to soften a little bit as they warm up, these probably aren’t the best snack to take on the go, but since we’re all home more often, these are great to keep on hand in the fridge for when you need some quick nourishment or to curb your sweet tooth!