Our family has a love/hate relationship with our hiking food.
When the mood strikes, we want to shove some sustenance into a bag and hit the trail. On the other hand, when we stop to snack after an exhilarating day in the woods, we want to eat something tasty.
Something that isn’t GORP and will make us love outdoor life even more.
When we first started hiking with kids, we kept the pantry stocked with every type of protein or power bar you can imagine. They were certainly quick and easy, but it didn’t take long before nobody would eat them anymore.
The thrill was gone.
I started playing around with all kinds of recipes for portable trail bars for hiking. Most were too sweet. Many of them fell apart and had to be eaten as crumbs on the trail. And not once did my kids ask me to repeat a recipe—until now.
Finding the Recipe for Trail Bars for Hiking
I found myself with some free time last weekend and decided to give my experimentation with homemade granola bars one more go.
I was going for superior sturdiness, big flavor, and optimum nutrition — a grab-and-go trail bar for day hikes, long hours at school, or a post-aikido treat.
I also really wanted to use maple syrup as the sweetener. We are proud Vermonters, after all!
I finally hit the mark.
These maple granola bars have been so popular that I’ve had to wrap them up and hide them in the freezer.
They are sweet without tasting like dessert, can live in the bottom of your daypack without turning to crumbs, and disappear at an alarming rate, which is a sure sign that my kids approve of them!
These sturdy maple trail bars for hiking are made with peanut butter, but you can substitute sun butter or almond butter if there are allergies in your family. You can also use gluten-free oats to make them gluten-free, and really, any mixture of seeds will work in this recipe.
Don’t have time to make these maple trail bars for hiking? In a pinch, these store-bought bars are the ones that both kids and adults in our family love:
- Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt KIND Bars: These are awesome. The perfect mix of salty and sweet. 5g of sugar, 6g of protein.
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabar : Gluten-free, non-GMO, and Kosher. 6g of protein and 19g of sugar.
- Kate’s Real Food Granola Bars with Chocolate, Cherry, and Almond: These are the priciest of the bunch but quite delicious. They contain 9g of protein and 3g of sugar, and they’re organic and gluten-free.
Sturdy Seeded Maple Granola Bars
These bars are very forgiving! Use any type of seeds you have on hand — sunflower, flax, hemp, and chia all work well. You can also use any type of nut/seed butter, and if you don't have maple syrup, feel free to replace it with an equal amount of honey.
Any type of oil can be used with this recipe, but we love coconut.
Finally, we use oat flour, but you can use any type of flour with this recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup oats
- 3/4 cup oat flour
- 1/2 cup of mixed seeds (we usually use flax and sunflower)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup nut or seed butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup of oil (we used coconut)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix the first four ingredients together in a bowl.
- Combine the nut butter, maple syrup, and coconut oil together in a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 30-45 seconds.
- Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine well. You can use a stand mixer for this.
- Line a 9x13-inch pan with parchment paper.
- Scrape the mixture into the pan, use a spatula to spread it out to the edges, and pat it down firmly into the pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the bars are lightly golden on the surface.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Using a standard 9x13-inch pan will make these nice and crunchy, but you can also spread them into an 8x8-inch pan for a thicker, chewier bar.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
16Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 153Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 82mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 2gSugar: 6gProtein: 3g
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Tara Schatz is a freelance writer and travel blogger with a passion for outdoor adventures. She is the co-author of AMC’s Best Day Hikes in Vermont and currently blogs at Back Road Ramblers and Vermont Explored, where she shares travel tips, adventure destinations, and vacation ideas for the wanderer in everyone.
