For nearly an entire year during high school, I maintained the same afternoon routine. After Mom picked me up from one of the residential cul-de-sacs next to the campus and drove home (the line of cars to get into the itty bitty loading zone in front of the school office always stretched out for nearly a quarter of a mile!), I dropped my backpack at the kitchen table and wandered into the pantry to grab a snack.
For the next 15 minutes, I decompressed from the day by opening our family laptop and navigating to one of my favorite websites, a game-oriented one that displayed a new jigsaw puzzle every morning. With the website’s timer running in the top right corner, I carefully maneuvered the pieces with the mouse, dragging and dropping them into place, until the picture was complete. And if that day’s puzzle was too easy and took less than my self-allotted time, I clicked the “puzzle randomizer” button to try another one.
To this day, I still love jigsaw puzzles. The more pieces the better!
While working on the puzzle, and then on my homework assignments after, I slowly nibbled on my snack of choice: almost always a soft-baked Nutri-Grain bar. The kind with nearly the same texture as chewy cookies and a sweet, fruity jam-like filling. Back then, I figured that the fruit component made them healthier than the chewy Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies that also sat on our pantry’s snack shelf… Right?
Although Mom often bought boxes of strawberry and blueberry, I mainly favored the apple cinnamon flavor. (I’m still a huge cinnamonaholic, and I have to buy the 18-ounce jars {that’s over 1 pound!} just because I go through it so quickly!) With that filling, those Nutri-Grain bars basically tasted like apple pie!
Now that I better understand nutrition labels, I’ve realized my “healthier-because-it-has-fruit-in-the-filling” justification wasn’t very reasonable, and those snack bars weren’t exactly the best healthy option… But these homemade Healthy Apple Pie Granola Bar Bites certainly are! Unlike my childhood snack, these contain lots of fresh apple, plenty of wholesome ingredients, and no refined flour or sugar!
For your granola bar base, you’ll use a combination of old-fashioned oats and brown rice cereal. I know, it sounds a little strange, but it totally works! The oats provide that classic hearty granola bar texture, while the airy brown rice cereal adds the perfect complementary contrast.
This is the brown rice cereal that I buy, and I love it because it only contains brown rice and salt—no crazy additives or preservatives! You can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online, and my local Safeway has even started to carry it.
To hold the granola bar bites together, you’ll use unsweetened applesauce and Greek yogurt. The applesauce adds plenty of natural sweetness too, so you’ll only need to add a couple tablespoons of honey! As you probably know by now if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, Greek yogurt is one of my favorite ingredients in healthy baking. It keeps these granola bar bites tender and chewy, and it gives them a protein boost, too!
And of course, we can’t forget the diced apple and cinnamon for that iconic apple pie flavor! It’s important to dice the apples finely, no larger than the size of miniature chocolate chips. Bigger chunks would cause the granola bar bites to fall apart, so make sure you cut the fruit into very tiny pieces!
Snack time! And when you bake them, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees that I’ll see the notification from you! ?) I’d love to see your granola bar bites and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Healthy Apple Pie Granola Bar Bites | | Print |
- 1 ½ cups (45g) crisp brown rice cereal
- 1 cup (100g) old-fashioned oats (measured like this and gluten-free if necessary)
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (126g) unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- ¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp (30mL) honey
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup (60g) finely diced apple
- Preheat the oven to 300°F, and lightly coat an 8”-square pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine the rice cereal, oats, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, stir together the coconut oil and applesauce. Add in the Greek yogurt, honey, and salt, mixing until thoroughly combined. Stir in the cereal mixture. Gently fold in the diced apple.
- Gently press the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 300°F for 14-17 minutes or until light golden and the center feels firm to the touch. Cool completely to room temperature in the pan before slicing into squares.
Pure maple syrup or agave may be substituted for the honey.
When cutting the apple, make sure the pieces are no larger than the size of miniature chocolate chips. Bigger pieces will cause the granola bar bites to fall apart.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie}
View Nutrition Information
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♥ Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars
♥ Brownie Batter Energy Bites
♥ Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Protein Bars
Haha I always had the same after-school routine too, and it most definitely always included Nutri-Grain bars too! TWINS! 🙂 These look waaaaaay better than the traditional version though, I always thought their Apple Cinnamon version tasted kind of fake. Cannot wait to try these and post them! 🙂
Oh my gosh Marina, this is SO freaky in a freaky-Friday sort of way… We really are twins separated at birth! 😉 I’m so excited to see your picture and hear how they turned out!
Hi Amy, are these supposed to turn out really soft and chewy? Your picture looks like they are more crispy. Mine taste yummy but are very soft and fell apart a bit as I cut them. I used all the right ingredients, diced the apple very small and baked at 300 for 16 min and let them cool completely before cutting them. Just curious if I did everything right. Planning on bringing these to dinner with hubby’s family tonight and warming them up with a topping of vanilla ice cream (:
Yes, they’re meant to be soft and chewy Becky! If yours were soft, you made them just right. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what your husband’s family thinks of them — vanilla ice cream sounds absolutely amazing! I definitely need to try that myself!
As I do not keep any rice cereal around, I am trying to come up with substitutes from what I do have in stock. So far I could imagine cinnamon graham cracker crumbs or cinnamon chex crumbs. I have both of those items. Opinions? I do have cheerios too, could crumb those up, I imagine.
I think that either the Chex cereal or Cheerios, lightly broken up (not to the point of crumbs! about a quarter of the original size of the Chex cereal or a little less than half the size of the Cheerios), would be the two best options. I’d love to hear what you try and how it turns out Skirnir!
Hi, thanks for a healthy take and new twist on an old favorite, granola bars!
I have a question, though: might the amount for the coconut oil or butter, 1 tsp., be a typo? Should it actually be 1 Tbsp.? I just have a hard time imagining that a single tsp. of fat would make any difference in this recipe, especially with a whole 1/2 c. of applesauce acting as a fat substitute. Thanks!
It’s not a typo! It really is meant to be 1 teaspoon. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the granola bar bites Chris!
Heehe, I TOTALLY used to make my parents buy Nutri-grain bars for us because I thought they were healthy, too.
Twinsies! 😉
Not so happy with these. I wish I would’ve read further and seen that they turned out soft and chewy. Mine sure did, I’ve baked them much longer and leaving it out now hoping it will crisp up and I can use it for granola at least.
If you’d like to make crunchy granola out of the chewy granola bar bites, pop the pan back in the oven! Continue to bake, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until the mixture turns crisp and crunchy. Hopefully you like that texture better than the intended chewy granola bars Allison! 🙂
I haven’t made these yet, but I am wondering you think I could freeze them and just thaw what I want to use?
I haven’t tried freezing these before, but if you’ve been able to do that with other granola bar recipes, then it should probably work for this one as well. I can’t wait to hear what you think of them Toni!
The first time I made these I wrapped them individually, stored them in the freezer and took them out as needed. My son ate them right out of the freezer, but 3-5 minutes at room temperature will soften them right up. Although it does not keep up with the intended level of healthy snaking, to satisfied an extreme sweet tooth we sometimes top them with Nutella before freezing. Either way, they never freeze rock solid and are easy to enjoy as long as they are cut into the small squares as indicated in the recipe.
Thanks so much for letting me know about freezing Raven!! That’s really good to know that they freeze well — and not rock solid! 🙂 As a big Nutella fan, I absolutely love your idea… And I just might have to try that the next time I make a batch of these! 😉
Hi! how long to these keep for? Thank you!
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe! I’ve actually answered that already in the text underneath the recipe title in the recipe box. It can be easy to miss! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of the granola bar bites!
How many servings does this recipe make?
That information is included in the Nutrition Information underneath the recipe Emily! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of these granola bar bites!
This looks delicious! Unfortunately, we’re without an oven at the moment, and I haven’t mastered the art of trying to make granola in the microwave. (It burns….so, so many burnt oats…)
After going through a kitchen renovation, I can completely relate Jess! If you’d like to try my single-serving microwave granola, I have a recipe for it here. I have a special trick so the oats don’t burn! 🙂