Paleo Breakfast Bars
This recipe for Paleo Breakfast Bars is an amended version of a recipe I posted in 2009. I have rewritten this recipe for several reasons.
First, although a number of people swore by it, others commented that the bars came out crumbly for them. Second, the original recipe was not Paleo as it contained grapeseed oil and agave (for more information on which foods are Paleo go to this list from balancedbites.com, or this list from fitbomb.com).
In any event, this simple gluten-free homemade breakfast bar recipe is a favorite in our house as it is easy to pack for a hike and delicious enough to serve as a healthy dessert after lunch or dinner. I also serve it to the boys as a Paleo after school snack –their friends love it and eat a whole dish at a time, however they refer to these as granola bars or power bars.
Paleo Breakfast Bars
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup blanched slivered almonds
- ¼ cup raisins
- In a food processor
combine almond flour and salt
- Pulse in coconut oil, honey, water and vanilla
- Pulse in coconut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almond slivers and raisines
- Press dough into an 8 x 8 inch baking dish
, wetting your hands with water to pat dough down
- Bake at 350° for 20 minutes
- Cool bars in pan for 2 hours, then serve
Makes 16 bars
Last week I had the good fortune to pop into New York to do some pre-publicity for my new book, Paleo Cooking from Elana’s Pantry
Just a reminder, my book Paleo Cooking from Elana’s Pantry
Here are some of my other favorite Paleo snack recipes:
- Cherry Vanilla Power Bars
- Vegan Almond Pulp Crackers
- Chocolate Espresso Power Bars –not Paleo if made with agave, use honey as amended in the recipe
You might also enjoy:
I just printed off this recipe and can’t wait to try it. We will be going on a road trip in the next couple of weeks and I think these would be great to bring along for the car and hotel room. Thanks!
P.S. Great interview by the way!
so since this is Paleo u all leaving the honey out or do I mistake about honey?
Honey is paleo-friendly.
Elana–such a wonderful interview on Fox! You’re very poised and articulate. I’m going to look up those cookies now & see if they will work for Pesach.
I am a huge fan of these bars, and have been making the modifications above since I first discovered the recipe. My decidely un-healthy friends pout if I show up to a weekend event without a batch of “Hippie Bars” with me. Luckily, they’re ridiculously easy to make, so its rare that I show up empty handed.
Delish.
Don’t you just love it when you read a recipe and realize that you have all of the ingredients in your pantry? I’m so excited to go home and try this!
BTW… I originally had a typo in “pantry”… I’ll let you use your imagination.
I’m all for this new, revised version, Elana! I remember when you were on tv before sharing the original version. ;-) Great interview per usual! :-)
xo,
Shirley
You are SO awesome Elana! Awesome interview, so excited to see all of your success :)
Anyone have an idea on what could replace the honey? I’m doing a candida cleanse and can’t have anything sugary/sweet. Maybe apple sauce?
Maybe try vanilla creme stevia. I don’t know the conversion amount to use and you’d have to add some additional liquid but would be a good sugar free option.
I made a batch last night omitting the honey and raisins to “fit” a candida cleanse I’m doing. They turned out super crumbly (I think these are the most delicate gf/paleo item I’ve made!). I love the flavour of the crumble and I’m thinking of using a few tablespoons of melted coconut butter in my next attempt. Who knows if that will work, but I thought I’d throw it out as a suggestion!
This recipe sounds delectable and I’m looking forward to making these this weekend. Definitely going to add in some 100% cacao to satisfy my chocolate addiction! Love all the use of coconut oil and flakes: good fats, low sugar and tons of health benefits!
Congratulations on your interview! I’ve been eating GoodGreens bars, but even those I’ve found too sweet. I think I’ll try a little (real) maple syrup – about half the amount of honey because it’s thinner — and because I have maple syrup and not honey, lol. These look great! Looking forward to baking a batch :)
Great interview!!
This is a breakfast bar that I’m sure we’d enjoy any time of the day!
Elana,
I’ve followed your blog for a few years and don’t know if I’ve ever commented. I just have to say that I watched your interview and you did such a great job. It must’ve been pretty unnerving to be on television but you handled it perfectly while keeping it light. I always have a hard time explaining the paleo lifestyle because people don’t believe that you can lose weight or that its healthy eating so much meat.
Anyway, you rock! You did terrific.
Sara
Hi Elana,
I love receiving your recipes and I try out most of them and some turn out well and others do not….. Until today, while reading someone else’s comment, I realised why most of the things that I made did not turn out like your photo’s of scrumptious food. I had no idea that your cup measurements are all different for different dry ingredients/wet things. Here in the UK a cup measurement is a standard cup 8oz or 225g. So everything I have tried to make from your ingredient list has been using the 8oz cup. Hence the disasters in some of my cakes/bread etc. I am sure that this is why there are so many people with the same problems and comments.
Would it be possible to write the ounces and fluid ounces or even grammes and millilitres, for each item that you use in your recipes, so International people can have the same success as you have in your baking as most countries can use ounces or grammes etc.
Thanks Elana :) I am really grateful for all the work you have put in helping others and creating this web site for the world to share.
great interview. can’t wait for the cookbook in june!
[scream] You are soooo cute!!!
You are SO modest…you didn’t tell me you were just in NYC and on TV! Nice job!
Love the term “gluten-free Dark Ages” and I loved it how he said they tasted “naughty” ahahaha
Elana, you were so great during that interview (and explained paleo so well; some people make it so complicated)! Well done. These breakfast bars sound perfect for our family. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve tried a number of your recipes since I’ve discovered your website about a year ago. I’m not celiac but gluten intolerant and have found that I feel better when I don’t eat a lot of grains.
I would love to try these bars but my oldest daughter does not like coconut. What could I use instead to make sure there is enough ingredients?
i JUST made these and my kids are gobbling them up as we speak. they’re 4 & 6. i was pretty skeptical because of the amount of nuts since my 4 year old “doesn’t like nuts” (tough being a paleo kid). anyway, glad i took the chance!
thank you!
Delicious but still crumbly. I wasn’t able to pull them out of the pan as bars and am thinking I’ll turn the resulting heap of yumminess into granola.
I made these bars and they did not turn out. They did not turn into bars. They were just as crumbly when I took them out of the oven as when I put them into the oven. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong or what may have happened.
Made these tonite, and although they came out a little crumbly, they tasted delicious! Other than using cranberries in place of raisins (personal preference) I followed the recipe as written. I will definitely make these on a regular basis.
Just made these this morning for breakfast. LOVE them! My little guys would not go for the nuts/seeds/raisins, so I added 1/4-1/3 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips in lieu of the nuts/seeds/raisins and left in the coconut-tasted a little like Almond Joy bars! Thank you for another great recipe to work in to our morning rotation!
Thanks Elana – I can’t wait to try these at home. This may be the next perfect addition to our traveling food bag. Questions – do they travel well and how long would you say they last?
These look so yummy! I will have to make them soon! :)
Delightful interview! Thanks for sharing your recipes with us. I follow your blog, and so far have one of your cookbooks, but someday I will have all three. :) Blessings and joy to you. You are a blessing to so many people.
Thank you for this healthy recipe. I made these bars for breakfast. They taste so delicious.
Alas, my bars didn’t form either. Instead I have what could be called granola.
I am disappointed as I was hoping to be able to transport these. I followed the directions exactly with the only difference being that I had sliced almonds instead of slivered and used cranberries instead of raisins. I can’t imagine either of those making a difference.
However, they taste good. Next time I might try adding in a little gluten free flour and see if that helps bind it. Since I am not Paleo that’s not an issue for me.
Wow, These are delicious and packed with good ingredients. I’m amazed at how you can come up with so many good ideas and recipes to get all these different food sources in your diet. Very creative and great tasting. I wish I had that talent.
Thanks for the recipe.
Awesome interview! You are super cute!
Although I am a little confused. Why is grapeseed oil not paleo? And shortening is? I’m a little new to this.
Neither are paleo. I’m not even kind of new to paleo. Grapeseed oil is high in inflammatory omega 6 and shortening has some of that plus potential trans fats. Cavemen certainly did not have vegan shortening. While the paleo diet includes some foods not available to cavemen (modern varieties of fruit, vinegar etc), one must weigh up the health pros and cons. For me and most paleo people i think that coconut oil, lard, ghee (a lot of dairy free people can tolerate) are far better options if you want a firm fat to cook with. Macadamia oil is a great semi neutral tasting liquid fat you can use instead of grapeseed oil- even light olive oil is a pretty good option (though not as buttery as macadamia oil).
Those having trouble with it being crumbly – are you sure you are using Almond flour and not almond meal? Almond flour is much finer and I would assume it would bind much better than meal.
Yep! I used blanched almond flour from Honeyville. I am going to try another commenter’s suggestion next time and try pulsing longer to see if that helps. I might also add in a little gluten free flour since I am not on a Paleo diet.
Made this last night and it was wonderful – not too sweet but very flavorful. I think it is important to firmly press the mixture into the pan (I used a smaller roller. Next time I will use parchment paper so I can lift it up and slice it cleanly after cooling. Not crumbly but it’s delicate. Great recipe – thanks!
I have been using the blanched almond flour and this recipe still comes out crumbly and not formed. I have made it a few times trying different things (less coconut, a bit more almond flour..) but nothing works. That said, I don’t mind using this as a granola recipe. Much rather have my children snacking on anything that isn’t sugary and processed.
I just tried these and the flavor is great. However mine was crumbly too. I took a close look at your photo and I think I see the problem. I don’t think I “pulsed” them long enough. The seeds and nuts are still recognizeable in mine and yours looks more like dough. I just put in a second batch that I “pulsed” more and hope they turn out a bit less crumbly. If not, as others said, it will make a great granola. Thanks for the great recipe. I have pre-ordered your new book and can hardly wait to see all the new recipes.
I made these yesterday and they were GONE by the end of day. Delicious, flavorful, healthy, not too sweet! I added an egg because I was worried the bars would be too crumbly. Next time, I’ll use parchment paper to be able to get them out of the pan in one piece. Definitely a keeper of a recipe.
Good idea on the parchment paper. That would make them easier to get out of the pan.
Well, I made these. Never know if my family will like my healthy goodies. My 17 year old daughter loved them!!! In fact she almost ate the whole batch by herself. I’d say they were a hit! Thank you for the recipe, it’s a keeper at our house!
I would like to know if I can make your breakfast bars without coconut.
Thank you
I just made the walnut and date bread. It was delicious but did not rise as much as the others. It seemed a lot flatter. It was a great tasting sweet bread.
my friend alman just let me try it and this junk was the bomb. i would pay for it! :)
Can anyone explain how almond flour is paleo? I keep seeing it in paleo recipes but it’s full of phytic acid isn’t it? It is a grain of sorts is it not?