You only need 8 ingredients to make these amazing Chocolate Pecan Granola Bars. They are vegan, gluten-free and no added oils! These are so delicious and made with wholesome ingredients, that you will never need to buy preservative and chemical-filled store versions again.
2 of my favorite things in the world are chocolate and pecans. Combining them into granola bars turns into the most delicious healthy snack. I usually make batches of granola to take as snacks when on-the-go, but it can somewhat be a pain to keep grabbing handfuls of granola in the car, dropping crumbs all over the place. So, I decided some bars were in order. I have a few delicious vegan granola bars already on the blog.
NATURALLY SWEETENED AND OIL-FREE
These are so delicious y’all, perfectly and naturally sweetened with pure maple syrup and with a buttery touch from the pecans. No need for oil! These are chewy, dense and have a slight crispy touch from the brown rice crisp cereal. They really are the perfect granola bar.
I’m a huge fan in general of granola bars. My very favorite ones are my Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Bars. You can see all my granola and delicious bars here.
I hope you really love these healthy Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Pecan Granola Bars! They are so simple to make, just 8 ingredients (+salt&water) and about 30 minutes to make. Be sure to leave feedback below after you make them.
Looking for more chocolate and oat granola inspiration? Then check out this super popular Double Chocolate Molasses Granola….and, it’s nut-free!
And I made another video!! You all were so excited over the video I did on the Fudgy Low-Fat Vegan Brownies from 2 weeks ago, that I was excited to do another one!
Chocolate Pecan Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups 214 g old fashioned rolled oats (use gluten-free if necessary)
- 1/2 cup 20 g brown rice crisp cereal (I use Nature's Path, only ingredient is rice)
- 1/2 cup 70 g pecan pieces (if using pecan halves, give a rough chop so they are small pieces)
- 1/4 cup 24 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons 200g pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup 64g almond butter
- 2 tablespoons 30 ml water
- 1/4 cup 24 g ground flaxseed
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees and line an 8x8 metal pan with parchment paper going both directions for easy removal later.
- To a large bowl, add the oats, rice cereal, pecans and cocoa powder. Stir well to mix everything.
- To a small pot, add the syrup, almond butter and water. Turn the heat to medium, once it is bubbling stir well to mix the ingredients until smooth and let it bubble for a good minute. Now stir in the flaxseed, vanilla and salt until smooth. It is very important that you are adding the flaxseed at this step because it causes the flaxseed to react and become much more sticky this way, which will help the bars hold.
- Pour the heated mixture over the dry ingredients and stir for a couple of minutes until everything comes together and is sticky, making sure to get everything at the bottom of bowl. Stir and press the mixture with the back of a metal spoon to help it get sticky.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and press down the mixture with the back of a spoon or spatula, making sure to spread it evenly and flat and not forgetting the corners. Place a piece of parchment paper on top and press down flat and hard with your hands. Go along the edges with your fingernails pressing down to smooth the edges and corners, making it all even. This is important to help the bars bake firm and hold their shape.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until firm. 25 minutes will be soft and chewy (what I did) and 30 minutes will be harder and crispier. Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes, do not try and cut these early or they will fall apart! Slice them into desired shapes. I sliced them into 10 bars while still in the pan, the standard size of a granola bar, then place them in the fridge to finish completely cooling and firm up before removing from the pan, as they will still be tender. Then you can store each bar individually wrapped tightly and inside a container or large ziplock bag. The longer these sit, the firmer they get. They are the most firm by the next day.
Notes
If you make this recipe, please do not repost it in full on your site, please link to me instead giving proper credit. I work very hard to create my recipes and share them for free, so please be respectful and link properly. If you are inspired by this recipe, again, please give proper credit and do not simply post it on your site and ask before reprinting any of my recipes.
Oops I forgot to rate it. I think every recipe of yours is 5 star 😊
I had to change it a bit for what I had on hand, but these are still amazing! Do you store them in the refrigerator or at room temperature and how long do they stay fresh?
So glad you enjoyed them! I keep them stored at room temperature! They should be good a couple of weeks but mine never last that long! But, just like with any baked granola bar, they are good for awhile.
Hi there, I just found your site. I found this recipe and am always on the lookout for fat free breakfast bars to take to work. I made these this morning for a meeting and there is hardly anything left. Someone also asked me for the recipe. They are awesome!
So very happy to hear that Marion! Thank you so much for the review!!
Could you use PB2 powder which has been reconstituted instead of almond butter to make it lower in fat?
Hi Mike! The powder won’t work very well in place of the almond butter because the almond butter is what helps to make them hold and is a liquid ingredient helping to form the batter, a powder won’t work well in it’s place and they would probably crumble and be too dry. You could try maybe substituting 2 tablespoons of the almond butter with applesauce or banana puree for a lower fat option and see how that works, but I can’t say if that would work without having tested it.
HEllington, I live overseas right now and don’t have access to brown rice cereal. would regular rice cereal work? thanks
Yes, definitely!
Hi, thanks for the recipe it looks delicious 😋.. quick question, can I use aluminum foil instead of parchment paper?
Hi Diana! They will stick really badly to foil, unfortunately. This is why I always use parchment paper, so they release easily.
Those purple finger nails though!!! SO pretty! LOL! The granola bars are pretty good looking themselves 😉 I love love crispy rice in my treats. I made some balls with them the other day. I’m a sucker for the different textures in my food and the crispy rice adds that perfect light crunch! I have some peanut butter balls on my blog with it too and although they are a super old recipe with crap pictures, my friends that have made it love it. I’m totally putting this on my must make list because I know the boys would LOVE them.
I just made a double batch of these delicious bars to take with us this weekend when we go camping. I couldn’t find the plain rice cereal, but found chocolate rice cereal by the same brand you mentioned. More chocolate can only be a good thing, right? I also substituted peanut butter for the almond butter. I’m eager to enjoy these as we hike part of the Appalachian trail!
Yes, the more chocolate the better! I’m so glad you loved them, thank you so much for the feedback!!
I’ve been wanting to make these since I first saw the video. It took me a while to get to the right store and find the rice cereal. Well worth the wait. I baked them this morning and just had my first taste. Totally awesome! I sent a link to my sisters who might want to try them too. They are just sweet enough. Simple to make. I don’t have much hand strength so I used a flat potato masher to push down on the batter in the pan once it was evenly distributed. Then I just had to do the corners with my hands. Watching your process on the video was a big help. Thank you.
Wonderful Anne! I’m so happy to hear you loved these and that the video helped so much, thank you very much for the feedback and rating the recipe!
hi ….
what can i substitute for the maple syrup ?
Hi Annette, you can use agave!
THaNK YOU !!!
Awesome video, Brandi! These look so delicious! 🙂
Thank you Sina!
These look SO perfect, Brandi!!! And I am right there with you on the chocolate + pecan combo…pure heaven. That shot of the syrupy goodness had me drooling! And I’m so excited about the videos! It’s always nice to see the process. I’ll have to make these for Josh and Willow, I know they’d devour these!
Thank you so much my friend!! That action shot was tricky because I was too lazy to get my tripod for that shot and I had to hold and pour with my left hand while holding the camera with my right hand, LOL! I was lucky to get a good shot out of about 10, hahaha!
Well this is THREE of my favorite things: chocolate, snacking, and a video from Brandi!!! Actually you threw rice cereal in there too, so make that 4 faves. You know how much I adore that stuff! These are utter perfection! I’m not sure if they should be snack or dessert, which means I should probably just eat them all day 🙂 The part at the end where you broke into one in slow mo, that is about the sexiest a granola bar has ever looked lol! So incredibly yum <3
I laughed SO HARD at your slow-mo comment Natalie….hahahaha!! I was going for effect, lol! I love that rice crisp cereal too, but my other bars on the blog where I use it, it is just the rice cereal (mint chocolate bars and chocolate basil bars), not with oats, so I liked having the slight crisp effect from using a small amount of it within the granola.
I loveeeee the video!!! 😉 and these granola bars look delicious! I’m gonna need to try these because I eat granola bars ALL the time!
Thank you so much Michele, so glad you love the video! I do too and these are so simple!
Yummy yummy! I feel like pecans get tossed to the side during the non-holiday months (do not fair!) They deserve the love <3 I'm always stocked on them!
Omg I eat pecans year round girl! My favorite nut BY FAR!!
Can you tell me what the sugar content is. They look wonderful cant wait to try!! So glad I found you on fb
The only sugar is from the maple syrup so you can get a pretty good estimate by looking on a bottle of syrup (divided by 10), otherwise I plan to upload the nutrition stats tonight and you can check back in the morning 🙂 So glad you found me too!
Thank You!!!!!!!!
Wow I can’t even handle how amazing these look. Like for real. Wow. These are definitely an occasional treat cause they seem quite fatty but wow they are incredible. Do you think you can substitute something for the almond butter? Maybe pecan butter? Man seriously girl I wish you were my neighbor and we were best friends. 😛 You are beyond amazing.
Oh and I am so excited about the youtube vid. Keep them comin girl 😀 yay
Thank you so much Christina, it is a TON more work, so to hear from readers that like seeing them and thank me for them, does not go unnoticed, so thank you!
Thank you Christina! You are the sweetest! Thank you! Yes, all granola bars are typically full of nuts and seeds, whole foods, but nuts and seeds because that is what gives them flavor and crunch and texture. They give me energy because they are full of wholesome calories. Nuts satisfy my hunger like nothing else, lol. The only bars out there that are low fat that I’ve seen are the ones made with dates and those tend to be more squishy texture and not chewy crunchy like I like. You can definitely use pecan butter in place of almond butter, just really make sure to follow the steps in cooling and chilling because the pecan butter is less thick and will make them more fragile.
Oh, and if you want them less fat, replace the pecans with more rice cereal and that will reduce it drastically. Won’t taste as buttery yummy, but should still work!
Talk about food porn!! These photos are the definition of that term :-)!
Awww thank you so much Annie, so glad these photos scream food porn, thank you!! Ha!
Awww thank you so much Annie, so glad these photos scream food porn, thank you!! Ha!
There have to be better substitutes for the brown rice cereal and the maple syrup for the Chocolate Pecan Granola Bars. There are wayyyyy too many grams of sugar and simple carbohydrates in this recipe. It is not diabetes or pre-diabetes friendly.
Theresa, the rice cereal has NO sugar in it, it is just 100% brown rice. The syrup is my favorite liquid sweetener to use, I always use it. I do not see an issue using maple syrup in recipes because you aren’t eating the 1/2 cup syrup by itself, it is combined with other whole food ingredients. Most granola bars are full of brown sugar and butter, these are much healthier and of course there has to be sweetener in them or they will taste like bland oats. If you don’t want to use it, you can try agave (which should work great) or date syrup, but I have never tried the date syrup and cannot vouch for the result.
I’m drooling, Brandi! The problem is I can see myself to eat the whole pan, yes I would eat the whole thing. Do you know what? You combine all my favorite things here, almond butter, pecans and chocolate! Your pictures are just gorgeous and so inviting. These granola bars look so thick and delicious, just how granola bars should look! The first pic and the last closeup are my favorite love the different perspectives and settings you did here. The video is just wonderful, yes love to watch this video and just listen to the music and the granola bars are done! Do you deliver?
Thank you so much Florian, so happy you love the photos! Aren’t chocolate and pecans the best?!! So glad you love the video, thank you so much for watching 🙂