Chewy Orange & Coconut Granola Bars
Recently, I was taking a stroll through my archives, and I came across this orange coconut granola bar recipe. Between you and me, I think it's been hiding because it's embarrassed about the not-delicious-looking photos it's been sporting.
Do you feel anxious to make these?
Yeah, me neither. Oy.
These actually are really tasty (assuming you like the flavor of oranges. And coconuts.) and they're delightfully chewy, which is how I love granola bars to be.
Another great feature: the recipe makes a big half-sheet pan of bars, which is handy if you happen to have four hungry children. A 9x13 pan of bars disappears way too fast around here, so yay for half-sheets of granola bars!
If you don't have a large crew to feed, you'll be glad to hear that these freeze beautifully, so don't be afraid to bake a whole pan.
These are really quick to make...you just mix up the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, and bake.
Boom, you're done.
I've often thought that it would be fun to change up the orange flavor of these bars, but I can't figure out how I'd do that. The idea of mixing, say, raspberry jam, into the bars hits me all wrong.
If you have any great ideas, let me know in the comments. But for now, you can enjoy orange-y granola goodness. 😉
This is everything you need...melted butter, orange marmalade, and then the dry ingredients (oatmeal, coconut, chopped walnuts, brown sugar, and salt.)
If you don't like walnuts, you can certainly substitute whatever nuts you'd prefer. Walnuts are not my very favorite nut, but I don't eat enough of them and that's why I use them here.
Mix all of the dry ingredients together and then add the butter and marmalade.
Press the whole shebang into a greased 18x13 half-sheet pan and bake in a preheated 350 ° F oven for 15-20 minutes.
They're not going to look a whole lot different once baked. The edges will just be a little bit brown.
Before baking:
After:
I like to cut mine into bars right after they've cooled a bit because the warm bars are easier to cut than the cooled bars.
Store 'em in an airtight container. Or if you want to freeze them, just package them in a plastic bag or air tight container, and you'll be good to go.
Orange Marmalade Coconut Bars
Printable Orange Coconut Granola Bar Recipe
4 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1-½ cups chopped walnuts
1 cup flaked coconut
¾ cup butter, melted
¾ cup orange marmalade
Preheat oven to 350 ° F.
In a large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, salt, walnuts, and flaked coconut.
Stir melted butter and orange marmalade into dry ingredients; mix thoroughly.
Spread oats mixture into greased half-sheet pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.
Let cool for a few minutes, then cut into bars. Store in airtight container.
Have you ever made these with other types of oats? I only have old fashioned oats on hand, and these look like a perfect snowy day project for the kids to help me make.
I wondered the same! I kinda don't want to go buy more oats, but I don't want to make them and they be inedible.
In fairness, I have made the "no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies" that call for quick oats and just used the old fashioned oats with no real problem. Perhaps just slightly more toothsome. So, I think it would be safe.
I did find this online with another recipe:
"Granola always starts with oats, in this case, old fashioned rolled oats. These are oats which are cleaned, toasted, and hulled to become what we call oat groats. If you are wondering what the difference between old-fashioned rolled oats and quick cooking, it is in their thickness. Old fashioned oats are thicker because to make quick-cooking rolled oats the oat groats are first cut into pieces before being steamed and flattened. Although they are usually interchangeable in recipes I recommend using old-fashioned rolled oats in this recipe as I prefer their thicker texture and better flavor."
Source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/Granola.html#ixzz41HnUAqCp
I think it's probably true they are "interchangeable in recipes" but it's a matter of preference. So, I'm gonna try them with old fashioned!
Do let us know how that goes!
In granola, I always use old-fashioned oats, but in baked goods, the old fashioned oats are sometimes a bit chewy/hard. The quick oats are a little more flour-like, and I wonder if that's why they often work better in baked goods.
In case anyone comes back here to read the comments with the recipe...I DID in fact make these with old fashioned oats yesterday because that's all I had in the house and they were awesome! I loved this recipe and would make it again. I probably should have baked them a few minutes longer because they are so chewy that they almost fall apart, but I thought the oats were just fine...and not too crunchy/chewy. The only thing I omitted were the walnuts because I was out, but they were still good.
Looks yummy can't wait to try them! I don't have orange marmalade so I plan to use up some of the apricot marmalade that we made two summers ago or the ginger marmalade we made last summer. I think these would be tasty with nearly any sort of jam but perhaps would need some citrus zest for that punch of tangy flavor...
These look delicious, and I'd love to make them. I just have a question that I'm almost embarrassed to ask. What size is a half-sheet pan? (Baking novice here...)
I wondered that, too:)
Ah, so sorry! I edited the post to add it...it's 18x13.
sorry to say the text still has it wrong 18x13 not 18 x 30. FYI my commercial pans are 16 X 12.
Gah! I don't know why I typed 30! Thanks...I fixed it.
I love walnuts so I'm going to have to try this recipe, perhaps with some dried cranberries added as orange cranberry is one of my favorite combinations. I'm also imagining these made with lemon marmalade and chopped almonds, yummy!
Definitely going to try these with apricot jam. Mmmm!
Apricot is a good idea!
I think a half sheet pan is 18 x 30, but Kristen may want to chime in to confirm the size.
I think since the dry ingredients are fairly calm in flavor (with the exception of the coconut) that any flavor jam could be used.
I am leaning towards cherry, apricot, other marmalade flavors or even lemon curd. This recipe could certainly use up the remainder of a jar of jam and help clear out the refrigerator.
Hi Kristen
To bost the orange flavour you could had some essentiel oil of orange or pomelo. I make soap and cosmetics with essential oil but i also cook with them,its great easy flavour boosters.
This is genius! I have a jar of ginger-orange marmalade that is begging to be used this way!
These look amazing! My son has a nut allergy. What would you suggest as a nut alternative?
I'm not sure, as I'm not very well versed in nut substitutions. I like JDs idea of using seeds, though!
Try chocolate chips. Or nothing at all. If the "batter" seems too loose after mixing, a bit more oats.
Oh yes! Chocolate chips are great idea. Or white chocolate chips, if you like them (I personally don't feel like they're worth eating. Ha.)
My son has a nut allergy and I substitute shelled roasted unsalted sunflower seeds for almost any recipe calling for nuts. They can be ground up easily in a food processor or left whole for a bit more crunch. Peanuts would probably work too but would lend a more stand out flavor than the sunflower seeds.
I love oatmeal in just about anything. Those bars sound delicious. Adrienne, could you use seeds, such as quinoa, flax or something like that? We don't have any nut allergies, so I'm not used to substituting for them. I feel for anyone who does have a nut allergy -- I love pecans, cashews, black walnuts, almonds....
And Annie's idea of dried cranberries... yum!
nutella. would that be something that would work instead of orange? the ingredients look like they would go well with chocolate.
Substitutions for the coconut? Maybe sliced almonds? Otherwise these look amazing.
I think you could actually just leave the coconut out, and the bars wouldn't be negatively affected.
I can imagine substituting peach preserves would make these pretty good too, but I will try them with orange first.
I just made your granola recipe last night but I'm definitely going to try this next! Yum.
Speaking of substitutions, I wonder if the brown sugar is really necessary, given how much sugar is in the jam to begin with? DH is allergic to walnuts, so I'm thinking of trying almonds. I have plenty of homemade apricot jam on hand, so I think I'll try that instead. Will report back with results when available.
I wondered about that when I made this batch. I think that the brown sugar contributes some to the chewy texture, but I wonder if you could reduce it and still keep some of the chewiness.
I used a natural kind of orange marmalade, which was not incredibly sweet, so, I think the reduction of brown sugar would have to be relative to the sweetness of your orange marmalade.
I made them last night with Strawberry jam and then added 1 cup of chocolate chips. They are amazing! They should really be called "Oatmeal Granola Cookie Bars!" 🙂
I just made these with the following substitutions:
I had a scant 3/4 of marmalade so I added some corn syrup
I used canola oil instead of butter [butter is ridiculously expensive here]
The results are delicious! I had that marmalade for a long time so it a great food waste win!!
These taste just like those expensive packaged granola bars and they were very, very easy to make!! I would note that I don't think all jams would work well. I think the "stickier" jams could all be substituted but the ones with less sugar might not.
So glad yours turned out well!
I'm so glad you posted this! I just realized our consumption of last winter's orange marmalade needed to speed up, so I was going to look for some recipes to use up some of the overage. These are perfect!
This is great! My daughter has a honey allergy but loves granola-this is the best recipe I have found for her. I didnt have any marmalade at all but I did have cranberry relish in the freezer. Being southern, I used pecans instead and this was so good. To me, the coconut wasn't overpowering and the cranberry gave just a touch of sweet. Thank you-"!
Yay! So glad this recipe worked for you.
I replaced the butter with coconut oil and added some chopped dark chocolate to make a vegan version that was way cheaper than store bought muesli bars. They were soooooooo good and I was able to use stuff that I already had in my pantry, I didn't have to buy a thing 🙂
What's the remedy if these turn out too crumbly? They're soft and delicious, but I'm cutting them when they're still a bit warm and finding that they fall apart like granola instead of bars. I tried letting them cool a bit and that didn't help. I'm popping the other held back in the oven for a few minutes hoping that'll help.? They're delicious, but not portable.
That can be caused by underbaking. Did the ones you put back into the oven firm up at all?
Also, letting them cool before you cut them helps a lot.
Yes! I put them back in the oven for another 4 minutes or so and they held together much better. Those baked longer ended up a bit crunchy, but that's ok! They're very yummy and now portable. Kids bringing them to school for snacks today. 🙂
Yay!
Hmmmm? I don't have a half sheet pan, so could I half the recipe for a 9 X 13 pan?
Yep, you sure could!
Kristen, Have you ever thought of doing a post about how you stage your photographs? I agree the bars in the new photos look much more appealing than to old one.
Hi Kristen, can I reduce the amount of butter (3/4 cup is quite a lot hehe)? Please let me know asap as I'm trying these out tomorrow! Thank you!
Hey Kristen I ended up making these with the exact recipe and they were SO GOOD! I've been trying to find a granola bar recipe that doesn't not use any honey or maple syrup (since it's expensive) and I can't thank you enough for posting this recipe!! It costs me only a few cents to make these because my marmalade is technically free so this is a super frugal & delicious recipe! They were also really chewy. I love that this is the first recipe that doesn't use honey at all!! Thank you so much xoxo
Yay! I'm so happy yours were delicious.