Mini chocolate chips are cute. If using regular chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate, blitz them for a few seconds in the food processor to break them into smaller pieces. Since chocolate is sweet, limit it to 3/4 cup or less.
Coconut: Shredded or flaked coconut will work here. Unsweetened is best, since these are bars are sweet enough as is.
Dried fruit: Dried cranberries, cherries, raisins, apricots, etc. Since these are sweet, limit them to 3/4 cup or less. Any fruit larger than a raisin will need to be broken up a bit more—either in the food processor or chopped by hand.
Granola Bar Variations
Here are some variations on this granola bar recipe that I’ve come up with over the years. I love them all!
All Pecans: You can use use 2 cups pecans as your mix-ins, and you could even make pecan nut butter to match (here’s my recipe for pecan butter). Nut lovers, this would work with walnuts (presumably) or almonds, too.
Almond Chocolate Chip: Use sliced almonds and mini chocolate chips, or blitz whole almonds and chocolate chips in the food processor before using.
Almond Coconut: Use equal parts almonds and coconut flakes or shredded coconut.
Cranberry Orange: Use a combination of dried cranberries, pecans, pepitas and fresh orange zest. Since this variation contains a lot of dried fruit, it’s the sweetest of them all.
