5 Ingredient Nut Bars Recipe – Homemade KIND Bars! (2024)

FAQs

What makes nut bars stick together? ›

Chia seeds are often praised for their binding powers. In fact, they secure ingredients so well that they can even be used as an egg replacer. Adding just a spoonful of chia seeds to your favorite granola bar recipe will make a huge difference in its texture.

Honey or maple syrup

These natural sweeteners also help bind the bars together, and make these bars deliciously sweet (though not too sweet). Or, make date paste from fresh Medjool dates. Dates offer additional fiber, while honey or maple syrup do not.

Kind bars may look natural but, in addition to sugar, some contain a variety of artificial sweeteners, flavors and preservatives, which according to Dr. Mark Hyman, “can disrupt our gut microbiome and lead to inflammation and weight gain.” Not exactly the kind of gut feelings we're looking for in a snack.

Technically, you could include some of these Kind bars in your daily macro goals, even on keto — but they're by no means healthy. They don't belong in your diet if you don't want to consume more than half of your carbs and sugar for the day in a tiny bar without real nutritional substance.

Not only are they healthy snacks, but they are specialty snacks for a specialty market, so that adds to the price. With the lowest priced bar ringing in at $1.00, KIND bars are on the low end for most energy bars. To produce a gold-standard nutritious snack using just 6 simple ingredients, it cost $1.23 per bar.

When dampened, chia seeds gel and swell to several times their original size, plus they get very sticky. Since they're already used as egg alternatives in baking, it's not surprising that chia seeds act as the ideal granola binder, but it is strange that they do it better than eggs.

If your granola bars are falling apart or seem too crumbly, here are a few tips. Make sure you use honey or another sticky sweetener such as maple syrup in the liquid part of the recipe; this recipe calls for honey. This will help bind together the ingredients and keep that signature bar shape.

Because these bars are made from dried fruit and nuts they are more nutritious than biscuits, chocolate or sweets. They are also high in fibre and the fats are usually from nuts, which contain healthier unsaturated fats, unlike the saturated fats found in chocolate, cakes and biscuits.

They save well (wrap and freeze them for up to two months), are more affordable than store-bought bars, and don't contain the long list of unpronounceable ingredients. Plus, your kitchen will smell like a bakery while these granola bars bake. Ahhhh.

Add an egg white.

The whites act as a kind of glue that binds the ingredients together. To ensure that the egg whites coat all the ingredients, I beat them with a whisk until foamy and increased in volume, which makes it much easier to fold into the granola.

What helps granola stick together? ›

Clumpy Granola Method: Add Egg White

The idea is that the egg's protein will help the oats bind to each other and create delicate clusters. Results: Not only does the egg white work as a glue to hold the oats together, but it also gives the granola an incredibly crispy bite.

5 Best granola bars for diabetes

These bars all have a great balance of carbs, protein, and fiber with low amounts of added sugar. KIND Nuts and Spices Bars: KIND bars are a classic and have always been one of my go-to blood sugar friendly bar options. For lower carbohydrates, stick to the nuts and spices flavors.

Daniel Lubetzky, founder of KIND, is on a mission to make the world a little kinder one snack and act at a time. Maker of delicious and nutritious foods, KIND created a new healthy snacking category with the introduction of its first fruit & nut bars in 2004.

While most KIND bars will give you an energy and fiber boost, they're too low in protein to make a satisfying and filling snack. Most varieties of bars have just 4 to 8 grams of protein.

Almonds are frequently used as a main ingredient in KIND bars, while peanuts, cashews and pecans are other popular additions. These nuts are particularly high in monounsaturated fats, which qualify as a “healthy fat.” Monounsaturated fats help reduce blood pressure and protect against heart disease.

We don't use high fructose corn syrup and you'll never find artificial sweeteners or added sugar alcohols in our snacks, since they go against our philosophy of using premium, better-for-you ingredients that are KIND® to your body.

The story has been corrected to state KIND does not have glyphosate in its products. The previous version also didn't make it clear that the Environmental Working Group is an advocacy group and its findings have been challenged by scientists. This has been corrected.

Sugar -- 5-10 grams per bar, or less than 10 grams per 100 grams. Fibre -- more.