Tahini Granola Bars
Lightly sweetened with honey and flavored with coconut, vanilla, cherries and cinnamon, these bars are a wholesome and yummy treat.
I like to keep these bars in the refrigerator, so the texture stays firm.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 16 bars 1x
- Category: Snacks, Treats & Little Things
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 4 cups rolled oats (also called old fashioned oats)
- 1/2 cup oat flour*
- 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup dried cherries (ideally unsweetened; this is my favorite brand)
- 1/4 cup raw shelled hemp seed (hemp hearts)
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or 3/4 teaspoon table salt)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2/3 cup tahini
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
*You can buy oat flour, or make oat flour by putting oats in a food processor and blending them into a smooth flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- In a large bowl, mix together oats, oat flour, shredded coconut, cherries, hemp, flax, salt and cinnamon
- In a medium bowl, whisk together tahini, honey, coconut oil, olive oil and vanilla until thick, smooth and well combined.
- Pour the tahini mixture over the oats. Mix really well with a spatula until the oats are completely coated.
- Cut a large rectangle of parchment paper to line the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan, leaving several inches of overhang on two sides (the overhang of paper will make it easier to lift the bars out of the pan after baking).
- Dump the oats on top of the parchment and into the pan, using a spatula to smooth the oats out evenly. It's really important to press the oats down as firmly as possible, so that the bars hold together. You can use your hands to do this, but the easiest way is to use a wide off-set spatula to press down the oats. You can also use a glass jar to press down.
- Bake the bars for about 25 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned and you smell a sweet, toasted aroma in the air.
- Keep the bars in the pan to cool completely before cutting. If the bars aren't completely cool, they are likely to crumble and fall apart when you cut them. I let the bars cool in the pan on the counter for about 20 minutes, then I put the pan in the refrigerator and let the bars cool and harden for a couple of hours before cutting them into squares or bars.
- Use the parchment overhang to lift the cooled bars out of the pan. Use a long knife to cut the bars.
Notes
Tahini granola bars stay fresh at room temperature for about a week, although bars left out on the counter have a much softer texture than if you refrigerate the bars (which I prefer to do.) Refrigerated bars will stay fresh for 2 weeks or more. You can also keep the bars in the freezer.
I prefer unsweetened tart dried cherries with no added sugar, but they're hard to find at grocery stores. My favorite brand is Brownwood Acres unsweetened tart dried cherries, which I order from Amazon.
You can use dark chocolate chips instead of (or in addition to) dried cherries.
If you like the flavor of cardamom, you can add 1/4 teaspoon to these bars