These tasty granola bars are chewy with a bit of a crunch, chocolatey, complex tasting, and not cloyingly sweet. They are made with wonderfully nutritious ingredients that replenish your energy without weighing you down with fat. They are a terrific source of nourishment after a sports meet, a workout, a run—and also travel well, so take them with you to fuel your bike ride or hike.
Fresh cranberries are sold only around the winter holidays, but don’t let that stop you: These bars are also great if you use dried cherries (sweet or sour) instead. If you do, just remember to dial down the dates by about a cup if using sweet cherries.
Chocolate Cranberry Energy Bars
Prep Time
20 min
Total Time
1 hr 10 min
Cathy Katin-Grazzini, Food Editor at VEGWORLD Magazine, is a plant-based personal chef, nutritional coach, cooking instructor, and owner of Cathy’s Kitchen Prescription LLC. Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies at Cornell, Cathy is also a graduate of Rouxbe Cooking School’s Professional Plant-Based Program. She has a B.A. from the University of Chicago, attended graduate school at Harvard University and received a M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. Cathy lives with her husband Giordano in Ridgefield, Connecticut. When she’s not inventing and fermenting, she loves to run, hike, and adventure travel atop their trusty Ducati. Keep an eye out for Cathy’s upcoming cookbook, Love the Foods that Love You Back, to be published by Rizzoli International Press in April 2022.
Ingredients
- 11⁄₂ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3⁄₄ cup raw buckwheat groats
- 2 mashed ripe medium-sized bananas
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1⁄₂ cup freshly ground golden flaxseeds
- 1⁄₂ cup freshly ground chia seeds
- 1⁄₂ cup organic cacao powder
- 31⁄₂ cups finely chopped, pitted
- Medjool dates, or to taste
- 1 cup finely chopped fresh
- organic cranberries
- Pinch ground chipotle powder
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 325°
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well. Mound the entire mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment, and, with two straight-edge rulers or icing spatulas, shape into a roughly 8-inch square that is 1 inch thick.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and gently cut it in half. Then, using a sharp or serrated knife, slice each half into 1-inch strips. Carefully separate the strips, leaving about an inch between them to facilitate airflow and even baking.
- Return the bars to the oven for approximately 35 minutes or until fragrant, firm, and golden. Transfer the bars to a cooling rack and let cool. Chocolate Cranberry Energy Bars will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks (if they last that long). They also freeze beautifully, lasting up to 3 months.
Recipe Note
Recipe excerpted from Love the Foods that Love You Back by Cathy Katin-Grazzini, published by Rizzoli International Press, April 2022
Photographs by Giordano Katin-Grazzini
