No-Bake Fruit and Nut Bars with Nutella
No bake energy bars are a great snack to fuel you throughout the day. They’re a reader favorite.
I used to love granola bars as a kid. Especially the ones with chocolate chips or a chocolate coating on them, but somewhere along the life’s journey, the love affair ended.
Then, about a year ago, we were on the road and we had stopped in an REI to pick up some supplies. Needing a quick pick-me-up, I grudgingly sorted through their health/power/energy/granola/random-good-for-you-so-you-can-go-all-day-but-tastes-less-than-desirable bars.
Yummy Video for No Bake Energy Bars with Nutella:
I looked for something at least somewhat appealing. After all, it had been years since I’d given anything in the granola bar classification a chance. Finally I settled on a fruit and nut bar. Couldn’t be that bad, right? It looked about as appealing as a bar could through cellophane packaging.
Damn! That bar was good. Maybe it was just the low blood sugar talking, but bars were back on the menu for me. Ever since then, I’ve been searching and experimenting with recipes which get my mojo goin’.
A couple days ago Diane found a recipe for a no bake energy bar and nut bar in Sunset magazine. I was intrigued. I had yet to find the bar I had been searching for so I gave this one a shot.
Reading through the recipe, mentally tasting the ingredients, I was pretty sure this one would be good. Simple, quick, lots of nuts and dried fruit. A little hit of chocolate. I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients and it was too nice of a day to waste it running to the store, so I subbed in nutella for the almond butter and honey for the brown rice syrup.
End result for these no bake energy bars was excellent. Better than I had even expected. We’ve been loving recipes with dried apricots in them lately and the apricots were the perfect compliment to the roasted almonds and dried sour cherries. The puffed brown rice was just enough to add texture and not get in the way of the almonds and dried fruit. And the nutella and chocolate are always winners for us. The recipe was a winner. Loved it. Hope you enjoy these no bake energy bars as much as we did.
-Todd
This no bake energy bar recipe was originally published in 2012 and re-published in 2016 with a new video!
No Bake Energy Fruit and Nut Bar Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (50 g) puffed Rice Cereal (brown rice, white rice, or other similar puffed cereal)
- 2 cup (300 g) Dried Fruit (cut into pieces if needed - we prefer dried cherries, dried apricots, golden raisin, dried blueberries)
- 1 1/2 cups (215 g) Roasted Almonds *see Note 1 for roasting raw almonds (or other preferred Nut - salted or unsalted depending on your preference)
- 1/2 cup (90 g) Dark Chocolate Chips or chopped Dark Chocolate
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) unsalted Butter
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) packed Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup (170 g) Honey
- 1/4 cup (75 g) Nutella
- Sea Salt or Kosher Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Line an 8"x8" pan with foil and lightly butter foil.
- In a large bowl combine puffed rice cereal, dried fruits, nuts, and chocolate. Set aside.
- In a small saucepan heat butter, brown sugar, honey, and nutella over medium heat until butter melts, whisking until mixture is smooth. Pour over cereal mixture and stir until completely coated.
- Spread into prepared 8"x8" pan and press firmly down. Lightly sprinkle sea salt on top of bars. Chill until firm, about 1 hour.
- Using the foil, lift bars out of pan. Cut in half, then cut into preferred bar width.
These are so great!
Oh I am so going to make these!
Love the recipe… just thought I would let you know that your image and the exact recipe is on this blog. They have a link back to you, but are breaking your copywrite statement. always like to help a fellow blogger!
http://sweetlittlethang.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/homemade-nutella-fruit-nut-bars/
Thanks so much. Glad you loved the recipe too!
Do you by any chance know the nutritional value of these gorgeous bars?
Sorry lucia. No idea. We only go for the deliciousness value and haven’t ever figured out the nutritional value. ๐
Thank you! I made these twice already- once as is, and once with my own variations, and my kids loved them.
I switched the nutella for carob spread, the cherries for cranberries and raisins, the honey for date syrup, and some of the almonds for pecans. I also cut out the sugar completely – they were still sweet enough for my kids.
Oh, most excellent!!! I have been looking for a recipe like this for a long time! How would you describe it–chewy? Crunchy? I love the simplicity of the ingredients and how easily it’s put together. Thank you for sharing the recipe and the lovely photos. ๐
I made these with dark chocolate peanut butter instead of nutella for my girlfriend who doesn’t like nutella and they were awesome!!
How long do things like this stay good for? I can’t imagine they’ll last very long, but I’ve always been curious about the longevity of homemade bars like these.
After a couple days the brown rice cereal is slightly less crispy, but the texture is still quite nice, just different than how it originally felt like. Otherwise ours have only lasted a little over a week+ before the batches have been completely eaten, so it is hard to say what its full life is.
I’ve never been interested in making granola bar type things, but I think this has finally convinced me to give it a try. Looks super good.
These are amazing. To make them a bit more healthy, I tried using who wheat oats in place of cereal and I used half the honey and half the brown sugar the recipe calls for. They still turned out fantastic!
Sounds yummy. Also sounds STICKY. How does this travel? ‘Cause in our family, bars like this are eaten “on the road” or “on the trail”.
In 75 degree weather, the bars have a bit of a chocolate-melted-in-the-hand touch to them. We wrap each one in a bit of parchment paper for the on-the-go usage.
Like you, these type of bars have been off my radar for a long long time. Well, looking at your version, not any longer. The cross-section photo tells the whole story.
LL
Love the recipe! I always look forward to reading your blogs. On a side note, I have been seeing lots of stuff online about brown rice syrup having high amounts of arsenic. Might be worth your time checking it out. I found it on sites relating to children and babies where it’s often used in organic baby foods.
Thanks for the heads up on the brown rice syrup. Glad we made these with honey instead!
It really does sound great, Todd!
Yum, these look so delicious and easy to make! Now I’m hungry!
Kate {Something Fabulous}
http://thesomethingfabulous.blogspot.com
{BESO HANDBAGS GIVEAWAY ON MY BLOG!}
Oh, I so wanna make these; however, I am not familiar with “puffed brown rice cereal”. Could you give me an example or brand? Thanks.
The one we have is from our local Sprouts sold under their house label. The article mentioned that Whole Foods will also sell a puffed brown rice cereal. Arrowhead Mills also has this one. You could always use rice crispies if you can’t find any.