Paleo Granola Bars
These paleo granola bars with hemp seeds and coconut are easy to make and taste amazing.
These paleo coconut bars are gluten-free, grain-free, vegan and aside from toasting the coconut, there’s no-baking required. They’re sweetened with pure maple syrup and only contain a handful of other wholesome ingredients.
Enjoy these for an energy boost before a workout, as a mid-morning snack or for a sweet treat anytime of day.
Recipe Features
- Just 4 simple ingredients needed.
- Toasted coconut adds an extra touch.
- Include nutritious hemp seeds for a chewy texture, nutty flavour and source of nutrients.
- Naturally sweetened with maple syrup.
- No-baking required (aside from toasting the coconut, which is optional).
- Vegan, gluten-free, oil-free and suitable for a paleo diet.
- No blending needed.
- Great for hiking, camping and snacking on-the-go.
Ingredient Notes
A complete list of ingredients with amounts and full instructions is located in the printable recipe card below. This section covers ingredient and substitution considerations.
- Nut Butter: You can use cashew butter or almond butter or for nut-free bars, tahini or sunflower seed butter.
- Coconut: Use shredded unsweetened coconut. For extra flavour, try toasting it first!
- Maple Syrup: This can be swapped for soaked, pitted dates.
- Hemp Seeds: Hemp seeds are idea for their fine consistency. If you want to substitute sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds or nuts, I’d recommend pulsing them in a food processor to break them down a bit before adding them to the bars.
Add-Ins: Try adding things like raisins, unsweetened cranberries or cacao nibs for a treat. You can do chocolate chips too but they would no longer be paleo with the added sugar. For extra flavour, you can add a pinch of cinnamon, sea salt and/or vanilla extract.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Toast the coconut. This step is optional but adds a wonderful flavour to the bars.
To toast coconut, preheat your oven to 325 F. Spread shredded coconut on a baking pan and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes until nice and brown. Make sure you keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn.
Step 2: Mix the ingredients. While the coconut is toasting, you can mix up the dough for the bars.
You can mix everything up in a bowl or make easier work of it and toss everything in food processor and blend into a thick, sticky dough.
Step 3: After you’ve mixed up the dough, press it into a parchment paper-lined 7 or 8-inch square baking pan. Take a few minutes to really work the dough in and press it into all the corners.
Step 3: Freeze then slice.
Place the bars in the freezer for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight. After they firm up, lift them out of the pan and cut into squares or bars.
Notes
Serving Size: I would recommend cutting these into 16 bars to keep the serving size on the smaller size however you can also cut them into 8 larger bars. If I was heading out on a long hike for example, I’d go for a large bar but for a daily snack or dessert, a smaller portion works well so you can grab 1 or 2.
Nut-Free Bars: Use sunflower seed butter or tahini instead of nut butter.
Add-Ins: Try up to 1/2 cup add-ins such as cacao nibs, raisins, chocolate chips or cranberries.
More Energy Bar Recipes
Loving these no-bake bars? You might like these too:
- No-Bake Granola Bars
- Raw Hemp Seed Brownies
- Sesame Energy Bars
- No-Bake Oatmeal Bars
- Paleo Energy Bars with Cashew and Coconut
Did you try this recipe?
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I’d love to hear about it! Click here to leave a review and be sure to tag me @runningonrealfood if you post it on social media.
No-Bake Paleo Granola Bars
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 16
- Category: Snack
- Method: No-Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Enjoy these homemade paleo granola bars with toasted coconut for a nutritious and delicious snack or dessert.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted (95 g)
- 1 cup cashew butter or almond butter (240 g)
- 1 cup hemp seeds (160 g)
- 1/3 cup maple syrup or raw honey (75 g)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 325°F.
- Spread the coconut on a baking pan and bake for approximately 5-10 minutes or until thoroughly browned and toasted. Watch carefully after 5 minutes as it can burn quickly.
- While the coconut is toasting, mix the other ingredients together in a bowl or food processor until it forms a thick dough.
- Add the toasted coconut and mix well.
- Press the mixture into an 8 x 8 inch baking dish lined with parchment paper. Make sure you spend some time really pressing it down into the pan.
- Freeze the bars for 1 hour or refridgerate overnight. Lift the bars out of the pan using the parchment paper and slice into 16 squares or 8 large bars.
- Store in a container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Optional Add-Ins: 1/4 cup raisins and/or chopped dark chocolate or cacao nibs.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 204
- Sugar: 4.5 g
- Fat: 17 g
- Carbohydrates: 11 g
- Fiber: 1.5 g
- Protein: 6 g
Keywords: paleo bars, paleo protein bars
These are aaaaaaamazing-so easy -so tasty and healthy fats to boot!😋 I added 1/4 c craisins, sprinkle of sea salt and honey in place of maple syrup-& definitely toast the coconut 🙌🏼thank you !
Made these this afternoon! So super good! I wanted to eat the mixture all up before refrigerating!! What I like about this recipe already is how versatile it is. I’m allergic to coconut so I used part sunflower seeds, golden flax seeds and puffed rice cereal…puffed rice cereal! I also used sunflower butter, and I added some dried apple juice sweetened cranberries. I look forward to making this again with a different seed combination like pumpkin seeds. The best ingredient of this recipe is the hemp seeds. Thank you for posting this recipe, a motivating factor for my trying a protein-boosting bar with those little hemp seed wonders! 🙂
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Sounds amazing, Sheryl! So glad you enjoyed them.
Can I use sunflower butter instead of nut butter?
Yes. Enjoy!
Toasted coconut on everything! I could eat all these bars in one sitting.
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Thankyou! These are awesome! So tasty. I’ve shared this recipe with 4 people already who all love it.
Absolutely delicious! And so easy.
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Glad you enjoyed them!
Are they supposed to get hard? Mine did not come out very structured.
Yes, they should be quite firm when they’re done. Did you follow everything exactly?
Hi
I just come across this super recipe!!!! Yummy cant wait to do this super bars, but I have a question: the coconut to be toasted is already the one shredded sold in the supermarket or it is the fresh one that I have to slice and then toast ? Sorry to ask! thank you
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Just the unsweetened shredded coconut you can find in the supermarket. Enjoy!
I know this was started years ago, but I just stumbled upon it looking for a recipe with my new found love of Hemp Hearts, and something to replace the, unhealthy, chocolate chip, cookie at night.
I FOUND IT! These are perfect!
Love the toasted coconut. I actually bought it toasted but toasted it some more for that extra crunch.
I had a jar of coconut and almond butter mix already and combined with the cashew butter to make a cup, it’s absolutely wonderful.
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Amazing! Thanks so much for sharing that with me.