78 Reviews of No-Bake Rice Krispies Peanut Butter Granola Bars (Lower-Fat)

From: Chef #360648

On Feb 21, 2007

These are THE BEST granola bars EVER!!! I will never buy them again! They are just like the expensive store bought kind, but way cheaper and more flexible. I ommitted the raisins since I don't care for them much. For those who've commented that these are too dry...They are delicately balanced if you make them as indicated, so if you add too many extra liquid absorbing ingredients or too many extras in general you'll have to adjust the liquid and rice/oat content to compensate, or the size of the pieces you are adding (like chopping your nuts/fruit pieces, etc). Also, be cautious not to boil your sugars too long or you may lose some needed moisture. The first time I made them I added extra chocolate chips, but found that there were too many (the only time I have found that you can have too much chocolate!)and so the oats couldn't stick like they were supposed to in some places. I used the amount in the recipe the second time, and chopped them, and found it was perfect! I also use crunchy peanut butter to get the extra crunchiness, and use slightly more to compensate. I let the mixture cool slightly (too much and it is impossible to stir!) before I add my chocolate so they don't melt. I also lined my 9x13 pan with wax paper and sprayed with pam so they will pop out of the pan and onto my cutting board with ease. Pressing VERY firmly is also a key to success with these. I cut them while they are still a tiny bit warm and then cool them the rest of the way and store them in a ziplock bag. I passed them onto a friend with Celiac's Disease (allergic to gluten) and she just adjusted the necessary ingredients to make gluten free granola bars!! Fabulous recipe!

From: Cookin'Diva

On Jun 21, 2007

The perfect alternative for store-bought Chewy Granola Bars. If you want them 1" thick, use the 7x11 size pan as directed. They will be thinner if you use a 9x13 pan. One tip...after blending the peanut butter into the boiling sugar mixture, pour over dry ingredients quickly and use your hands to thoroughly incorporate ingredients - then add the chocolate chips last before patting the mixture, firmly, into the greased pan.

From: wax lion

On Jul 3, 2008

I've used this recipe 6 or 8 times so far, with lots of variations, and it's great. I've done honey-pb-dried apple-raisin, honey-almond butter-coconut-pineapple, some with dried apricots or dried plums or sliced almonds or cinnamon....I think I could make a couple batches a week and never be bored. I use regular oats and sub about 3/4 cup of rolled barley flakes - they taste very similar to oats but have much more fiber. I also add about a tablespoon flax seed and some wheat germ, and toast all the grains for about 5 minutes at 350 - this gives a much nicer flavor instead of tasting like raw oats. I found rice krispies made of brown rice and have been using those too. I reduce the brown sugar too, and last time I made them I froze the chocolate chips which did seem to help some with the melting - seems like m&ms would work well here too! everyone in my family likes them, and I love getting whole grains into people who will only eat white bread!

From: nethope

On Mar 22, 2009

I love this recipe! I can't believe I haven't reviewed it yet for as often as I make it. I use 2 cups of puffed rice cereal (not Rice Crispies, but the plain ol' puffed rice with a single ingredient of brown rice), 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and molasses or raw agave nectar instead of corn syrup. Sometimes I use almond butter instead of peanut butter, so it could be made quite allergy-friendly. As recommended, I mix everything except the mini chocolate chips (I tried full-size, and mini are better), let it cool slightly, then add the minis. Oh yum yum yum! It's still quite sweet, so I've been playing with it, and I can replace some of the molasses with water with acceptable results. The trick to good results is to PRESS the bars into the pan. PRESS HARD. The less air, the more likely it is to stay in bar form! I use a piece of waxed paper to keep my hands (or lid) clean while pressing. Next I pop the pan in the freezer to make the bars easier to slice. I usually slice into 12 bars instead of 16 (too yummy to skimp) and wrap each one with press-n-seal (I've been happiest with that for this). Then I store the bars in the freezer until I need a snack. And when I remember I have these in the freezer, I can feel the need to snack building up! At least it's healthier (and cheaper) than so many other snack choices. I'm a huge fan of recipes that are flexible, meaning they can be used as a starting point to make something different. Other dried fruit, nuts, coconut ... just imagine this with chopped almonds and coconut instead of raisins! I'm sure that would be awesome too! This is the best kind of flexible recipe because I only measure the dry ingredients (fewer dishes to wash, and I just rinse after dry stuff), and I get good results eyeballing the sticky stuff.

From: Diane R

On Oct 11, 2006

These are the bomb! I couldn't resist a little tweaking to suit our tastes . We abhor rasins, so I used coconut there and added 1t. cinnamon to the dry ing. Not fond of p'nut butter so I used almond butter instead (yum!). I left out the choc. chips for a mixture of seeds and nuts. Do mix the dry ingredients very well before adding the syrup mixture. Also, press into the pan very firmly, compacting the mixture. I used a loaf pan sprayed with pam. Once they were "set up" I sliced them fairly thinly with my electric knife (but a serrated knife would work fine). This way they resembled the store bought ones my daughter goes ga ga over. Then, I thought hmmm, wonder if you could make them crispy... so I sprayed the cookie sheet with pam and baked up the slices at 300 for 10 min. on each side -careful turning them. Now I'm the granola bar goddess! Thank you a million times over Koechin! I can hardly wait to fiddle with these again!

From: hungry4more

On Mar 30, 2007

They were tasty but did have a tendency to fall apart. I would recommend sticking them in the frezzer because that really gave them the chance to harden up and stick together. Oh-I used dried cranberries instead of raisins and everyone enjoyed them. Overall good to eat!

From: Donut Chef

On Jan 17, 2009

Very good. I cut the brown sugar down to 1/4 cup and used Zante currants, (are smaller than raisins and easier to eat, so the kids don't mind them) and regular (locally ground) peanut butter. No vanilla. YOU HAVE TO PRESS THEM DOWN IN THE PAN like the top reviewer said, or they will be crumbly. You actually have to compress them pretty thoroughly. But they're a wonderful substitute for having to buy them (very overpriced) already made.

From: mums the word

On Apr 29, 2008

Holy moly these are great! Better than store bought and so easy to do. I made a few changes out of necessity but since it might help someone else, I will note them. Used 1 C Rice Krispies and 1 C Reese Puff cereal (which I crushed slightly with my food chopper). Used 1/4C raisins and 1/4 C coconut. I greased my hands and then mixed it all together and pressed into the prepared pan using a greased metal spatula. (Prepared my pan with Kittencal's Pan Release). Another reviewer suggested that you could crisp them more in the oven at 300F for 10 min each side. I tried this with a few of the bars just to see if we would like them. In my oven, they were browning too fast so I would have to reduce the heat to maybe 285F and watch closely then flip when ready. They were good that way too. Thanks so much Kitten, this is a great money saver!

From: lpnsrock

On Sep 19, 2007

Thes fell apart quite easily and had a lot of crumbs that didn't soak into the corn syrup mixture. Maybe next time I will only put one cup of oats and 2 cups rice krispies, otherwise tasted good! I made these again and turned out MUCH better, I just decreased the amount of rice krispies to one cup and added half cup wheat germ and half cup coconut, raisins and craisins...YUMMMMM! Thanks for the great recipe!

From: Tamaretta

On Jul 19, 2007

My son made these and they came out great! We had no raisins and used the 11 X 7 pan. Next time, we will double the ingredients(except for choc chips) and use a 9 X 13 pan, because these didn't last long! Thanks for posting!