Low Fat Granola Bars with Bananas, Cranberries & Pecans Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best binder for granola bars? ›

Honey. Sweetens the granola bars and helps bind the dry ingredients together.

While there are several different sticky ingredients that you can use, we've found that the binding agent that works the best is honey! When added to your homemade granola bars, honey acts as glue that sticks all the pieces together.

One 1.8-ounce (50-gram) bar contains 190–200 calories, 8–10 grams of fat, 23–24 grams of carbs, and 6 grams of protein. They also pack 3–4 grams of fiber, less than 10 mg of salt, and 7–9 grams of sugar — of which only 4 grams are from added sugars (2).

Granola bars are convenient and preportioned, which could benefit weight control. They're also often made using oats, nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, which can improve heart health and blood sugar control.

Honey – Along with the nut butter, it helps all these ingredients stick together! I love its warm amber flavor in this recipe. Vanilla extract – It amps up the bars' warm flavor.

Add an egg white.

The whites act as a kind of glue that binds the ingredients together. To ensure that the egg whites coat all the ingredients, I beat them with a whisk until foamy and increased in volume, which makes it much easier to fold into the granola.

Homemade granola bars aren't hard to make once you have all the right ingredients and they'll certainly save you money in the long term.

Fill the bowl up with water to completely cover the mixture – enough that you can stir to combine. This soaking process will help the oats and seeds digest better. After the oat/seed mixture has soaked 8-12 hours, add the rest of the ingredients and combine.

For really crispy bars, you can either bake them all the way to 32 or more minutes or you can take the bars out after 25 minutes, let them cool for a bit, slice them up into the bars, and then put them back in on a baking sheet to bake for 10 -15 minutes so that they get more crispy.

Are granola bars good for losing belly fat? ›

These bars typically do your body more damage than they're worth—especially when it comes to your weight. "Granola bars are the worst 'healthy' food for weight loss because they are full of inflammatory ingredients that prevent weight loss, including refined sugars and grains," Hanks tells us.

Yes, it is possible to eat too much granola. While granola can be a healthy and nutritious food, it is often high in calories and sugar, especially if it contains added sweeteners or dried fruit. Eating too much granola on a regular basis can contribute to weight gain and other health problems.

Peanut, almond, cashew, sunflower seed, and pumpkin seed are all great options. Another great addition is dried fruit, which sweetens up your bar with naturally occurring sugars while providing fiber and vitamins—plus chewiness and binding.

Overall, raisins are an excellent binder that perform well when used in protein bar applications and could be used as a binder in many other applications. BENCHTOP PROCESSING METHOD: In a food processor or buffalo chopper, blend whole raisins, half the nuts, all the egg white, salt, vanilla, and yogurt powder.

The three most common binders are xanthan gum, guar gum and psyllium husk powder. Each one works in a slightly different way to help create the structure we need to hold baked goods together.