These chocolate-covered nut bars are simple to make and they taste so decadent! They’re gluten-free, paleo-friendly, and made with clean ingredients!
Paleo Granola Bars (gluten-free)
These chocolate nut bars make for perfect snacks – they’re sweet and filling!
The bottom portion is made up of a combination of nuts and dates. The top layer is just chocolate and coconut oil! So really, you just need like 4-ish ingredients to make these babies.
I used a combination of walnuts, macadamia nuts, and almonds for the base of these bars – but you can use whatever combo of nuts you want (or have in your pantry).
“Wow. These are yummy!! I set out to make trail mix and stumbled upon this recipe. Thanks for sharing! Hope this prevents the kids from picking out their favorites and leaving all the rest 😂 I did ½ cup of pistachios, almonds, peanuts, and walnuts. mmmMMMmmm!!”
Anna
As much as I’d love to have this be a “raw” recipe, it tastes 100 times better after some oven lovin’. Baking the bars gives the nuts a toasty flavor and the heat caramelizes the dates which results in them melting right into the nuts. This is what keeps the bars together so well. If you were to leave the base raw, you’d end up with very crumbly bars. Trust me, baking them is key.
Once they’re out of the oven, you can serve them as is if you want. BUT, adding a thin chocolate layer makes them taste more like a dessert. Melt some chocolate with a bit of coconut oil, then pour it right on top. Put the pan in the fridge until the chocolate hardens – then slice and serve!
You can even cut them into long bars and eat them like paleo granola bars 🙂
These chocolate-covered nut bars are picky-husband approved, which hopefully means they’ll be picky-child approved too. Because really, aren’t picky husbands and picky kids kind of the same? (or maybe I have a lot to learn?). Either way, someone in your family is bound to love these bars.
Ingredients
- 2 cups nuts I suggest: 1 cup walnuts, ½ cup almonds, ½ cup macadamia nuts
- 2 cups pitted dates delget noor or medjool
- 3 ounces chocolate
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- Add the nuts to a food processor and pulse until coarsely ground.
- Pour the nuts into a bowl.
- Add the pitted dates to the food processor and blend until the mixture becomes a sticky puree.
- Pour the date puree into the bowl with the nuts and mix well.
- Scoop the mixture into a parchment-lined 8×8 glass dish and press down.
- Bake at 350F for 15 minutes.
- Allow the pan to cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a bowl (you can use a microwave or the double boiler method by melting the chocolate in bowl over a pot of simmering water).
- Pour the melted chocolate on top of the baked nuts and place in the fridge to harden.
- Slice and serve!
Anna says
Wow. These are yummy!! I set out to make trail mix and stumbled upon this recipe. Thanks for sharing! Hope this prevents the kids from picking out their favorites and leaving all the rest 😂 I did 1/2 cup of pistachios, almonds, peanuts, and walnuts. mmmMMMmmm!!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Anna, I’m so glad to hear that you made and liked it! That combo sounds delicious!
Uma says
Can you please post Nutrition facts too for all your delicious recipes?
Helene says
It’s the second time I made these bars today
The first batch didn’t last long
All the family loved them
Thank you once again for a lovely recipe
Xxxxxx
My Heart Beets says
Helene, I’m so glad you and your family liked this recipe so much! Thank you for letting me know how the bars turned out for you 🙂
AJITA says
My daughter & I made the baked granola bar & it was really good. Thanks for the recipe !!
My Heart Beets says
I’m so happy to hear that! thank you for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Barbara says
I made these bars yesterday and they are very easy to make. I love the flavor of them, especially with the chocolate on top. Mine were very crumbly and I’m not sure if this is how they are supposed to turn out. I did the nuts and dates together in the food processor, so I suspect this might have something to do with it being crumbly. Thanks for the tasty recipe.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Barbara, yes you have to follow the directions exactly and process the dates separately. Glad they still turned out well for you.
Liz says
I recently bought your eBook, which is just what I wanted, but I prefer printed cookbooks. Cookbooks are the one type of book that just works better in hardcopy. Is there anywhere I can buy this in a printed format (Amazon, etc.)? I’m commenting here, as your cookbook contact form is not working.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Liz! So happy you got my eBook!! The contact form is working – I saw that you sent me an email yesterday 🙂 The answer to your question is that my eBook is not currently available in a hardcopy format. Hopefully that’ll change one day but for now it’s just the eBook. Thanks so much for your support!