Wholesome, soft and chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Granola Bars! The name makes me hungry, and this photo makes me want to eat one more right now as I write this post. These are quick and easy to make and are not loaded preservatives or a large list of ingredients that are hard to pronounce. They are made with dates, sprouted raw almonds and cashews, unsweetened coconut flakes, flaxseed meal and dark chocolate. This is a great snack to take with you to give you a boost of energy before or after a workout.
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Granola Bars (paleo, gluten, grain free)
Author: Adriana Harlan - LivingHealthyWithChocolate.com
Prep time:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw cashews
- ½ cup raw almonds
- 10 large medjool dates
- ½ cup coconut flakes, unsweetened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons flaxseed meal
- ⅓ cup chocolate chips 60% dark or darker (or cacao nibs)
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Chop the cashews and almonds separately in a food processor and place them in a large bowl. Be sure to leave some large chunks, but not too big so your bars hold together and don't crumble.
- Remove pit from dates and process them in the food processor until a creamy paste forms.
- Mix the date paste, chopped nuts, coconut flakes, vanilla, flaxseed meal, chocolate chips and salt with your hands until fully combined.
- Line the bottom and sides of an 8½” x 4½” medium loaf with parchment paper and press mixture evenly across the bottom of the pan.
- Refrigerate for an hour, then cut into bars. Store bars in the fridge in an airtight container.
Cook’s Notes
If you find your dates are hard to process or you don’t have a powerful food processor, you can soak your dates in hot water for about ½ hr and that will soften them up and make them easier to process.
Recipe yields 6 1×4-inch bars.
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What would the nutritional information be for these??
All are ingredients that I love.. I bet the final product tastes amazing
I tried to make these this weekend and they were really crumbly :/. I didn’t have medjool dates and used normal noor dates and even doubled the amount. Are you suppose to soak the dates first? I made the raw cookie dough brownies and the same thing happened to the brownie part.
They tasted amazing but the crumbliness made them look bad plus and a mess to eat.
Hi Katie, soaking the dates is only needed if your dates are not soft and are hard to turn into paste with the food processor. 10 medjool dates is about 1 full cup. Are you using this much?
I think it was a combo of not using enough and a few were a little dry (the last of a older container). Thanks for the info! Will try it again this weekend cause they were yummy 🙂
Hi, can I replace cashews with walnuts?
walnuts will works in this recipe, but the overall flavor will be different
Is there anything that can be uses to replace the dates seeing as they act as a binder?
Marshay, you can use any dry fruit of your preference. In case you want to omit the dry fruit all together, I would have to do some testing to see what works best.
Really does taste like chocolate chip cookies. I just have soaked my dates first. I used about 15 refrigerated dates and the bars are still a little crumbly but I.dont.care. SO GOOD
I just tried these and mine are crumbly too. When I processed my nuts, I used my Vitamix and they got really powdery. Could this be why? They look so awesome cooling in the freezer. Not sure what happened!
Marquita,
Did you use about 1 cup of dates and process them into a creamy paste? If you did that and mixed everything together with your hands, then pressed the dough on the bottom of the pan, your bars should not be crumbly, especially since you ground the nuts so fine. You could try using more dates next time also.
From other granola bar recipes I have done, the trick is to usually pack the mixture in as tight as possible when pressing it into the pan. The back of a spoon works really well, or a rubber spatula
Could you replace flax seeds with sesame seeds?
Cynthia, this recipe used flaxseed meal, not the seeds. This is basically the flax seeds ground to flour. You can try with sesame seeds or you can omit this ingredient altogether.
Thank you for that amazing recipe!
Oh my 😍… Your bar looks amazing Tatiana! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Made this recipe today. They turned out amazing! I actually used chopped up chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips. I am so happy with the result. Thank you for sharing this!!
I love seeing your photo Diane! Looks so good! Thank you so much for your feedback and photo! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe Adriana! I made these on the weekend and they were amazing. I did substitute 70% dark chocolate instead of using the cacao nibs and they were all devoured in no time at all. Will definitely be making them again soon.
Thank you Julie. It’s great to her you like them!!
These were super easy to make, love the instructional video! Taste amazing! I forgot the vanilla and they still tasted great! Will be making again and again!
Thank you so much Erica 😘
Adriana thank you so much for the granola bar recipe. I know I will enjoy it. This is my kind of snack all natural without preservatives.
You’re welcome Laverne! Let me know how it goes after you make it.
Very tasty and easy to make… Any idea how many carbohydrates are in a bar ?
Hi Lisa, thanks for your feedback 🙂 Depending how big you cut your bars the carbs will vary. But if you use the same size pan as mine, and cut into 6 bars the carbs for each is about 40g
These are my go to now! Love making a double batch on the weekend for the week ahead! I also add raw pumpkin seeds (I break up in the processor for a couple seconds). Such a great recipe! Thanks!
😍😍😍
Thanks Erica, love your photo! The pumpkin seeds are a great addition!