Nut-Free Paleo Chewy Granola Bars

Ask and ye shall receive. Well, if you’re my sister-in-law–who e-mailed me a couple of weeks ago with a plea for help. She needed a granola bar recipe that was gluten-free, nut-free, and dairy-free to go to a nut-free school with her daughters and accommodate her daughters’ food sensitivities. (Clearly, any recipe I come up with will be grain-free too.) Oh, and her kids don’t like dates or raisins. Did I have anything that would work? Erm.

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So, I set to work and came up with this recipe. Given how quickly each iteration of this recipe was devoured, they’re obviously kid-approved. Inspiration comes from many places for me (pleas for help being one of them). I’ve actually had many requests for more nut-free treats like these, either for those of you with nut allergies or for those of you with kids who go to nut-free school or classrooms. So, it’s good to get the occasional motivation to create something new like this. And, while I can’t develop brand new recipes for every special request, I guess if you’re related to me, you can go ahead and make elaborate recipe requests. 😉

If you want to change up the flavors here, you could use your favorite dried fruit or add some fun spices. But, I do have to warn you that my husband used the P-word to describe these (Perfect).

I cut these into 16 squares. If you want to cut into rectangles to be more granola-bar like, it would make about 10.

Nut-Free Paleo Chewy Granola Bar Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves: 10-16

Ingredients:

2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1Tbsp Honey
1/2 cup finely Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
1/2 cup Pepitas (Shelled Pumpkin Seeds), chopped
1/3 cup Sunflower Seeds
3 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
1/3 cup Dried Apricots, chopped
1/3 cup Dried Cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life brand)
1/2 cup Flaked Coconut (aka coconut chips) , chopped
Pinch Salt
Pinch Cinnamon

Directions:

Grease a 9″x9″ pan with coconut oil or palm shortening. Preheat oven to 350F.
Coconut flakes should be chopped to the size of large flakes of oatmeal. Pepitas should be chopped to roughly the size of sunflower seeds. Apricots and cranberries should be chopped to the size of raisins or slightly smaller.
Optional: toast chopped flaked coconut in a skillet over medium-high heat for 6-7 minutes, until lightly browned.
Blend eggs, honey, salt and cinnamon to completely combine (about 20 seconds).
Combine all the dry ingredients. Pour blended eggs over and mix to fully combine. Pour into pan and press down evenly.
Bake for 18 minutes. Let cool completely then cut into bars or squares.