Homemade Clif Bars

Made with rolled oats, puffed cereal and sweetened naturally with dried fruit and maple syrup, you can enjoy a delicious, yet cheaper version of your favorite granola bar with this Homemade Clif Bar Recipe!

I don't know how to live without a batch of homemade granola bars in my fridge. They're a balanced snack that tastes amazing and fills me up until my next meal.

Lately I've been experimenting with homemade Clif Bars too. I mean, who doesn't love Clif Bars?!

They're basically a candy bar disguised as a granola bar!

My favorite flavor of Clif Bar has always been Chocolate Brownie or the Cool Mint Chocolate.

However, even though I love Clif Bars, I choose not to eat them very often.

Because of their high sugar and calorie content, I usually only enjoy Clif Bars when I'm doing long endurance exercise, which is rare nowadays.

If I want a Clif Bar on an average day, I'll make these Homemade Clif Bars!

These Homemade Clif Bars are vegan, gluten-free and so easy to make.

Let me show you how to make them!

Ingredients in my Homemade Clif Bars

These homemade clif bars require just 10 ingredients.

I'll list out everything you'll need below:

• Medjool dates
• Puffed wheat cereal (or puffed rice cereal to make these gluten free)
• Old-fashioned rolled oats
• Peanuts
• Ground flaxseed
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Peanut butter
• Agave or maple syrup
• Vanilla extract

These homemade clif bars are not low in sugar by any means.

However, the sugar that's in them comes from more whole-food sources such as dates and either agave or maple syrup.

Ingredients in Clif Bars

Name brand Clif Bars contain quite a few more ingredients than these homemade clif bars.

ORGANIC ROLLED OATS, ORGANIC BROWN RICE SYRUP, SOY RICE CRISPS (SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, RICE FLOUR, BARLEY MALT EXTRACT), ORGANIC ROASTED SOYBEANS, ORGANIC TAPIOCA SYRUP, ORGANIC CANE SYRUP, CHICORY FIBER, UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE‡, COCOA‡, ORGANIC SOY FLOUR, ORGANIC HIGH OLEIC SUNFLOWER OIL, NATURAL FLAVORS, ALKALIZED COCOA‡, SEA SALT. (source)

As for sugar, most clif bars use three kinds of syrups including brown rice syrup, tapioca syrup and cane syrup.

Now there is nothing wrong with eating Clif Bars, but when I'm going to reach for a granola bar a day, I love to enjoy my homemade clif bars!

How to Make Homemade Clif Bars

These Homemade Clif Bars are super simple to make!

Let me walk you through how to do it.

STEP 1: Start by preparing an 8x8 baking dish by spraying it with non-stick cooking spay. Set it aside until later.

STEP 2: In a food processor, process the pitted dates until coarsely chopped. Add in the puffed wheat cereal, oats, chopped peanuts, ground flaxseed, cinnamon and salt and pulse a few times until everything is mixed together and there are no large pieces. Pour these dry ingredients into a large bowl and set aside.

STEP 3: In a small saucepan over low heat, or in a microwave safe bowl, warm the peanut butter and sweetener of choice until heated through and thoroughly combined.

STEP 4: Remove them from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

STEP 5: Pour the sweet, peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients and stir well. It will seem dry, but that's fine.

STEP 6: Once all the ingredients are fully mixed, pour everything into your prepared 8x8 pan and press down firmly with your hands until the mixture is flat.

STEP 7: Place the pan in the refrigerator so the bars can set.

STEP 8: Once set, cut them into 16 bars and enjoy!

Clif Bar Flavors

The homemade clif bar recipe I'm sharing today is basically for the crunchy peanut butter flavor, but there are so many other amazing flavors that you could experiment with.

Use this recipe as your base and change out the nut butter you use or mix-ins you add!

I'll list out all of the Clif Bar flavors below to give you some inspiration for different flavors you could make at home!

• Chocolate Chip
• Crunchy Peanut Butter
• White Chocolate Macadamia Nut
• Chocolate Brownie
• White Chocolate Cranberry
• Spiced Pumpkin Pie
• Peppermint Bark
• Cool Mint Chocolate
• Peanut Butter Banana with Dark Chocolate
• Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch
• Blueberry Crisp
• Oatmeal Raisin Walnut
• Coconut Chocolate Chip
• Sierra Trail mix
• Peanut Toffee Buzz
• Nuts & Seeds
• Cappuccino

There are even more flavors than the ones I listed out above!

I hope you can come up with some amazing homemade clif bars using these flavors as inspiration!

How to Store Homemade Granola Bars

Homemade granola bars store so well, making them a great snack to meal prep.

You can store these homemade clif bars a number of ways.

Room Temperature: If you think you'll eat through them pretty quickly, simply store them at room temperature in an airtight container.

Fridge: To make them last longer than a week, your can store them in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Freezer: Alternatively, you can even freeze these for up to 3 months. Flash freeze them on a baking sheet before transferring them to a freezer-safe zip lock bag.

📖 Recipe

Homemade Clif Bars

Faith VanderMolen

These Homemade Clif Bars are a delicious, grab-and-go snack for busy days. Not to mention they're so much healthier for you than the store bought bars!

4.91 from 11 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Course Granola Bars

Cuisine Vegan

Servings 16 bars

Calories 127 kcal

Equipment

• Airtight Food Storage Containers
• Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls
• Unbleached Parchment Paper
• Hamilton Beach Food Processor
• 8x8 Baking Dish

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• 1 cup pitted Medjool dates
• 1 cup puffed cereal wheat or for gluten free bars, use puffed rice cereal
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• ¼ cup coarsely chopped peanuts
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Pinch salt
• ½ cup peanut butter
• ¼ cup agave, honey or maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions 

• Prepare an 8x8 baking dish by lining it with parchment paper. Set it aside.
• In a food processor, process the pitted dates until coarsely chopped. Add in the puffed cereal, oats, chopped peanuts, flaxseed, cinnamon, and salt, and pulse a few times until everything is mixed together and there are no large pieces. Pour these dry ingredients into a large bowl and set aside.
• In a small saucepan over low heat, or in a microwave-safe bowl, warm the peanut butter and sweetener until heated through and thoroughly combined. Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla. Pour the sweet, peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients and stir well. It will seem dry, but that's fine.
• Once all the ingredients are fully mixed, pour everything into your prepared 8x8 pan and press down firmly with your hands until the mixture is flat.
• Place the pan in the refrigerator so the bars can set. Cut into 16 bars.

Notes

This recipe is really adaptable! Try out different kinds of cereal, nuts and nut butter to create different variations or to use up what you have on hand!

Nutrition

Calories: 127kcalCarbohydrates: 17gProtein: 3gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 36mgPotassium: 154mgFiber: 2gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 14IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 19mgIron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!