Keto Granola Bars
This No Bake Homemade Keto Granola Bars Recipe has just 6 ingredients and takes 10 minutes to make. My delicious and healthy granola bars are perfect to keep in your purse for emergencies or send in your child’s lunchbox to school.
I grew up taking lunch to school, and Quaker Chewy Granola Bars were always a staple. I liked all the flavors, but my favorite was the classic chocolate chip.
When I decided to make my own keto granola bars recipe, I knew that I wanted simple flavors, simple ingredients, and chocolate chips. This combination of classic flavors and textures reminds me of those traditional granola bars with oats and chocolate chips that I grew up on. But with wholesome ingredients.
This easy low carb granola bars recipe is also dairy-free, gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, and Trim Healthy Mama friendly.
Love granola? Try my Low Carb Granola or Keto Granola Recipe next!
Ingredients in Low Carb Keto Granola Bars
- Xylitol or Allulose – You NEED 1:1 sweeteners for this recipe. You cannot use a more concentrated sweetener. If you have pets, avoid xylitol.
- Erythritol or Allulose – Using a combination of two sweeteners minimizes an aftertaste.
- Coconut Cream – Heavy Cream can be used instead if you do not need these to be dairy free.
That’s right. There are only 3 necessary ingredients to make the sugar free syrup that binds these together. After that, you can choose what you put into your granola bars that suit a low carb keto diet.
Plus YOUR CHOICE of 3 cups of Mix-Ins:
- Nuts – Almonds, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, etc.
- Coconut flakes – Choose unsweetened toasted flakes for the best flavor.
- Seeds – Another way to add healthy fats. You can use sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax, etc.
- Nut butter – Peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter – don’t count these within the 3 cups, but you can add 2 tablespoons of your choice to the syrup
- Sugar Free Dried Cranberries
- Chocolate – Any variety of sugar-free chocolate chips – think white chocolate, mint chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, butterscotch – whatever you enjoy!
- Salt – even a pinch of coarse sea salt or kosher salt adds a great flavor.
- Flavoring – Try adding pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract, cinnamon, or ginger to change the taste.
- Protein powder – I have not tested adding protein powder to these, but I think adding a small amount would work.
See quantities in the recipe card.
How to Make Keto Granola Bars
1️⃣ Make the Syrup
Make the syrup by cooking the sweeteners and coconut cream. Making the syrup for this recipe is similar to making caramel, but you don’t need to cook it as long. You just want the syrup to start to thicken and turn a deep golden color.
2️⃣ Add the Mix-Ins
Once the syrup thickens, just mix in the dry ingredients.
3️⃣ Form the Bars
Spread the granola mixture in your baking pan.
👉 Tip – Make sure to line the pan with greased parchment paper or waxed paper, or you will have a hard time removing the bars when they firm up.
4️⃣ Add the Topping
Next, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the still-hot nut and coconut mixture. The heat will make the chocolate chips melt just enough to stick to the tops of the bars. Alternatively, you can drizzle on some melted dark chocolate.
5️⃣ Chill & Cut
After that, you just have to briefly chill the granola bars in the fridge and then cut them. You want them a little cooler than room temperature before cutting. They cut easily with a large, sharp knife.
👉 Tip – If you are having trouble cutting the granola bars, please carefully sharpen your knife and try again.
Storage
These homemade granola bars have a chewy texture for a few days, but do get firmer and crunchier with longer storage or when stored in the refrigerator. I store these at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
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Keto Granola Bars Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw almonds
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 7 tbsp xylitol or allulose ***
- 7 tbsp erythritol or allulose ***
- 1/4 cup coconut cream
- 1 cup sugar-free chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line a 9 x 9 square baking pan with parchment paper. Grease with coconut oil. Coarsely chop the almonds and coconut flakes by pulsing in a food processor.
- Combine the sweeteners and coconut cream over medium-high heat. Simmer rapidly, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens and turns golden.
- Stir the almonds and coconut flakes into the syrup. Pour into the prepared pan. Press flat with a spatula or wooden spoon. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on the hot nut mixture. It should be hot enough that they melt a little and stick.
- Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Lift the parchment paper out of the pan. Cut the granola bars using a sharp knife.
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally Published January 17, 2019. Revised and Republished March 13, 2026.
I just made 2 batches of these. I added walnuts to one batch and caramel extract to the syrup mixture and then sprinkled coarse sea salt on top of the melted chocolate chips. It’s my favourite.
These look so good..I want to try them. I cannot do Sugar Alcohols. Could Allulose or Stevia be used in this recipe? I am desperately looking for a recipe without sugar alcohols.
Thank you 🙂
Stevia will not work. Allulose would taste good but I’m not sure they will hold together. You might end up with loose granola instead of bars.
Loved these! So yummy !! And good for you!
I will definitely be baking these! Thanks so much!!
I totally goofed! I read all the directions and notes and when it came time to make them (at 9:30 pm) I used your sweetener even though I had read not to earlier in the day 🤣🤣🤣. These bars are amazing! Mine are obviously way to sweet at my own fault, but they are soft and chewy and have a great taste! Will make again definitely! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Is there a substitute for the coconut? I’d like to try this recipe but don’t like coconut. Nuts?dd
Yes, in the blog post I talk about this. You can make it with all nuts or nuts and seeds.
Look so yummy. Since it has coconut cream do they have a coconut flavor to them? I don’t mind coconut but am not a fan of coconut flavor. Sorry if a dumb question, it’s been awhile since I’ve used coconut cream.
I think the coconut flavor is pretty mild.
I used a cup of Monkfruit with erythritol, and my whole family could not eat it. It was so sweet and had an aftertaste. I absolutely love your recipes and know you are a great cook/baker and make a lot of them, but this one needs to be reworked. I noticed you said a cup of either sweetener should work, but you haven’t tried it. Someone suggested coconut sugar with erythritol as well (? maybe). I found someone else’s recipe for granola bars, and they only used 4 tablespoons of monkfruit. That sounds more like it. Don’t give up, but please adjust this recipe so it is edible. It has great ingredients that I did not want to waste, so I put a bar in my protein smoothie to use them and make them more edible.
Did you read the notes on this? In most recipes, other sweeteners can work. Not in this. Erythritol is only 70% the sweetness of sugar. When you add in the monkfruit it is too sweet. In order to have this be no bake you need a good amount of sweetener as a binder. That other recipe was probably a baked bar. Also, you say you love my recipes but this is the first comment you’ve ever left. I don’t mind bad reviews but please also leave some good ones for the recipes you do like. Just leaving bad reviews really hurts my blog.
Clearly you did not read the recipe or the notes. Monkfruit was not recommended as it is too sweet, which you found out the hard way.
Norma. You simply cannot altar a recipe, then give it a bad review if you don’t like it. Sweeteners have different levels of sweet, compared with sugar, and not all can be equally interchangeable!
I used heavy cream and the erythritol/xylitol. Doesn’t get too golden before boiling point so don’t wait too long to use it. I didn’t have enough filler nuts so I used keto cereal I get from Costco to round out the three cups and added 1 scoop of protein powder. They hold together fine and are good for long bike rides. We just find they’re too sweet for our tastes. If I find a way to lessen the sweetness I’ll let you know.
Shawna, I assume the keto cereal you used from Costco was sweetened, correct? Thus making the recipe sweeter than this Blogger made hers & has hers written. If you’d used all nuts as filler, they do not have any sweet taste, so the recipe would’ve come out MUCH less sweet than the way yours did, because you altered the recipe. This is no longer her recipe, so you cannot fault her for changes you made, then leaving a bad review.
You can add my name to the “Substitutions that didn’t work” list! I made the Keto Granola Bars & ran out of one of the sweeteners. Had a little more than 1/8 cup when I needed 1/2 cup. So, instead of using all Swerve, I used Splenda to finish the half cup. I also added 2 Tblsp of Almond Butter to the sweet mix, hoping it would help hold things together….nope! But the flavor was wonderful! I’ve read a couple of past comments from ladies that felt they had wasted the expensive ingredients. The “bars”, while they didn’t hold together, made a great breakfast with a bit of almond milk on it! It also reminded me to check ingredients before I start a recipe! 5 Star recipe!
What can be substituted for the coconut flakes? Would another kind of nut work?
Yes. I explain this in the blog post. You just need the right amount of any mix-in.
Please advise if i can only use erithyol instead of two different sweetners.
Erythritol should be fine.
Hi. Could you make these with honey or maple syrup instead of powdered sweetener?
I have not tested these with those. I’m not sure they’d hold together. If you don’t mind the possibility of loose granola instead of bars you should be able to use either.
Hi, I made these today after getting your email. Such a great idea. Kids loved them. Unfortunately our school here in Australia has a no nuts rule so I can’t use them in their lunchboxes but great to have in the cupboard for picnics or as a snack. Thanks again! Louise
Very delish! Easy to make and tastes great
Aside from them not being chewy, I loved these bars so much. I used 1/2 cup almonds, 1/2 cup toasted flakes(sweetened because they were the only ones I had) and I forgot what else I used with the dry ingredients. I used coconut sugar and monkfruit sweetener and heavy cream. Really nice!