Chewy Peanut Butter Coconut Granola Bars

Prepared by Sarah Shilhavy, Photo by Jeremiah Shilhavy

1 cup whole sugar, less to taste
2/3 cup peanut butter (or part or all coconut peanut butter)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups thick rolled oats
1/3 cup Tropical Traditions organic coconut flour
1/2 cup organic flaked or shredded coconut
1/2 cup organic sunflower seeds
1/2 cup organic raisins
2 teaspoons organic sesame seeds
1 cup chocolate chips, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine sugar, peanut butter, honey, butter and vanilla in a large bowl until well combined.

Stir in remaining ingredients until well combine. Mixture will be like very wet granola. Press into a Texas sheet pan* greased with palm shortening or coconut oil.

Bake 20 – 25 minutes or until edges are nicely browned. Run a thin butter knife along the edges and cut while still warm. Let cool in the pan before removing. Bars will be fragile while hot but will firm up as they cool. Enjoy!

*If you do not have a Texas sheet pan you can use a regular jelly roll pan, a 15×10 glass baking dish or use both a 9×15 and a 8×8 baking pan.

Recipe submitted by Tabitha, Springville, CA

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Published on November 27, 2009

(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

11 Comments

Ellen November 29, 2011 at 6:32 am - Reply

You can definitely substitute Stevia for the sugar. See below link for Stevia to sugar conversion ratios. Also, contrary to popular belief, you can bake with Stevia. The taste is different, but still just as sweet. Good luck!  http://cookingwithstevia.com/stevia_conversion_chart.html

Amanda November 19, 2011 at 1:05 pm - Reply

I’ll bet you could use Coconut crystals, ( a brown sugar replacement) that would definitely work !!  I will give it a try and let you know!

zana November 19, 2011 at 7:27 am - Reply

Sarah:try replacing sugar with a variety of finely chopped dry fruits,like dates,raisins,cranberries,pineapple or apricots,also increase the honey a bit if need be. Hope it works :)

Sarah:) May 26, 2011 at 9:57 pm - Reply

Amanda: There really isn’t a suitable substitute for the sugar here. You could probably eliminate it and increase the honey, but I’m really not sure how that would hold up.

The recipe calls for “whole sugar”, by the way. Not white sugar. Whole sugar is a “true” brown sugar. If you click on the hyperlink you’ll be able to read more about it.

Amanda May 26, 2011 at 9:12 pm - Reply

This recipe sounds very good.  What could we substitute for the sugar though??  Zylitol?  Applesuce with stevia??  My family is on a sugar free diet.  Although I will accept the honey, the white sugar we cannot allow.  Any thoughts?

otama July 2, 2010 at 7:58 am - Reply

Very delicous and easy to make. I added 1 tbsp chia seeds to boost the nutrition. This will sound wacky, but I trimmed off the edges because they weren’t straight. Then crumbled them and now have a small container of granola cereal. I tried a small bowl of it with soy milk and it was so good. This recipe is pretty versatile given that it also creates a crunchy granola cereal! Great recipe..

Sarah April 5, 2010 at 9:27 pm - Reply

You’re welcome Ed! I hope you enjoy them. 

Butter contains a little bit of water, whereas coconut oil contains no water at all. So it’s good to add a bit of water to coconut oil if you’re substituting it for butter. There usually isn’t a very noticeable difference, but it does turn out more like it would if you were using butter.

Ed April 5, 2010 at 8:57 pm - Reply

Thanks, Sarah. I am going to try these tonight with adding chopped pecans. 
I am new to the whole baking thing…So why is a little bit of water needed?
Thanks.

Sarah April 5, 2010 at 7:50 pm - Reply

It should work. Add about a teaspoon or so of water though since butter contains some water.

Ed April 4, 2010 at 9:06 pm - Reply

Any reason I should not substitute CO for the butter?

Thanks.

Miss Rachel December 30, 2009 at 10:55 pm - Reply

I’ll be trying these with some of the new coconut peanut butter I’m getting, with probably 1/2 n 1/2 with regular peanut butter. :) looks delicious though! yum!

Chewy Peanut Butter Coconut Granola Bars