Yes, it’s true! We can’t seem to get enough of these “KIND” of bars around here. So this week, I’m sharing a few of our favorite flavor combinations – like this incredible Cherry Chocolate Chip version.
The great thing about these healthy little bars is their versatility, which makes it easy to change out ingredients to fit your own personal taste preferences and food sensitivities. Speaking of which, if you’re nut-free, there’s no need to miss out on these bars, simply pop over to check out my amazing Nut-Free “KIND” Bar.
Looking for more great bars? Check out these:
• Original Everything Fruit & Nut Bar – the original bar that started my obsession
• Nut-Free “KIND” Bar – perfect for those with nut-allergies
• Apricot-Almond Crunch Bar – mildly sweet, tangy & delicious!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup pure honey (I prefer sage honey due to its mild flavor)
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 1 tbsp *all-natural almond butter
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- (not finely shredded coconut)
- 1 cup coarse-chopped unsalted cashews
- 1/3 cup coarse-chopped unsalted almonds
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup chopped dried organic cherries or cranberries (see **note below)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Trim parchment paper to line an 8×8-inch baking dish, leaving parchment paper to hang over two sides of the dish.
- In a large bowl, add the honey, coconut flour, all-natural almond butter and salt. Use a spoon to stir until well combined.
- On a large cutting board, coarse-chop a couple of large handfuls of whole cashews and measure out 1 cup. Then, coarse chop a handful or two of whole almonds and measure out 1/3 cup. Add the chopped nuts to the honey mixture.
- Next, chop the dried cherries (or cranberries) and measure out 1/4 cup; add to the honey mixture.
- Then add 1/4 cup of mini-chocolate chips.
- Finally, measure 1 cup of coconut flakes (not shredded coconut). Place coconut flakes on the cutting board and coarse-chop. Add chopped coconut flakes to honey mixture.
- Using a spoon, mix ingredients together making sure they are thoroughly combined.
- Place the bar mixture into the parchment-lined baking dish. Fold overlapping flaps down and evenly press the top of the bar mixture firmly to pack-in the ingredients so they hold together better after baking. Then, peel back the parchments flaps from top of bars. (Do not trim, as the flaps make it easier to remove the bars after baking.)
- Bake for 20 minutes. Then remove from oven and allow to completely cool on stovetop for approximately one hour (or until bottom of baking dish is room temp).
- Place in fridge to continue cooling. (Do not freeze as it makes it impossible to cut the bars without them crumbling.) Once cold, remove dish from refrigerator. Then, run a knife along the two edges without parchment. Using the parchment paper ends, lift the bars from the baking dish and place on a cutting board.
- Cut into 8 bars and individually wrap and store in the fridge or freezer. Then you can easily take out what you need and place directly into your child’s lunchbox (or yours) – no need to thaw. However, for best results, bars should be kept cold so they do not become over-sticky. Simply include an ice pack, if placing them in a lunchbox, or taking them on the go.
Notes
*You can use any all-natural nut butter you choose, just be sure it’s simply ground nuts without additives for best results and nutrition.
**Most dried fruits are treated with sulfur dioxide, so if you wish to avoid this preservative, be sure to purchase unsulfured organic dried fruits, or conventional dried fruits specifically labeled as sulfur dioxide free.
I love cherry and chocolate larabars and kashi bars! I will definitely be making these soon! Thanks for posting.
You’re so welcome! 🙂
What could I use as a substitute for coconut flour?
Hi, Jen. Ground flaxseed also works nicely as a binder in this recipe. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
These were great! I’m going to make the apricot next! Thank you! Love being able to send snacks to school that didn’t come out of a package/box!
You are so welcome, Jen! So glad your family is enjoying these too. This version is definitely one of our favorites. But then again, who can resist chocolate. LOL! 🙂
Hi Kelly,
I want to first thank you for your website. I truly enjoy reading it and I appreciate that you take your time in answering our emails.
I would like to try the chocolate chip bar, however I would like to leave out the nuts as my kids are not fans of it, and wanted to go on the more chewy side, like the ones made out of rice puffs. I stopped buying all cereals so I don’t want to go buy rice krisps. Do you know if the recipe will work without the nuts, or could you suggest an alternative?
Thank you,
Sam
Hi, Sam. Thanks for your kind words. I do have a nut free KIND bar: http://thenourishinghome.com/2013/09/nut-free-kind-bars-gf/ but it’s more crunchy side, although slightly chewy as well. Perhaps that will work? Otherwise, I’d recommend doing a google search for “healthy chewy no nut bar” and search to see what you can find. Blessings, Kelly
Ok, I just made these today and was very reluctant about how good they would actually taste and let me just say this recipe blew me away!!! So, so, so yummy!!! I substituted almond flour for the coconut flour because I had it on hand and added raisins instead of cherries (family preference) and they came out great! I have made much more complicated recipe’s for granola bars and such that have been not nearly as delicious. I also made the homemade apple sauce this week and my boys devoured it in 2 days (so much for it lasting the week!). We are new at eating more natural and healthier foods and at the beginning my family was scrunching up their noses but 2 successful recipe’s in 1 week sure did change their attitude! Thanks a million!
Faith, your kind words of encouragement just blessed my heart more than you know! I am so thankful to God for how He brings us together as encouragers of one another. What an honor that this site is helping you and your family to enjoy healthier foods. I truly appreciate you taking the time to leave a sweet note of encouragement. Many blessings to you and your precious family, Kelly 🙂
can you explain to me why you should not use shredded coconut?
Hi, Kim. Happy to clarify. One cup of shredded coconut is a much greater volume than a cup of rough-chopped flaked coconut and so the bars will be much drier as a result if you simply swap the two. Also, I prefer flaked coconut for this bar because it yields a nice chewy texture that works well with the crunchy nuts.
However, if you cannot locate shredded coconut or simply prefer shredded, then I would recommend using less, perhaps sub with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the fine shredded.
Hope this helps to clarify. Many blessings, Kelly 🙂
I made these yesterday and took them to the zoo today as part of our lunch and they were AMAZING!! All I can say is WOW!!! I will definitely make these again and again. At first because there are a lot of steps I thought they would be difficult or time consuming to make but really they are quite simple to make. Plus, making them at home is so much cheaper than the KIND bars at the store. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe. All of the hard work you do to make feeding my family healthy snacks and meals is greatly appreciated! Have a great night 🙂
Thanks as always for your super kind words of encouragement, Nicole! You are a blessing. So glad you and your family enjoyed these. Have a wonderfully blessed weekend! 🙂 Kelly
Made these tonight and these are soooooooo good!! Thank you so much for this recipe!
I didn’t know if there was a substitute for the coconut flakes? My husband absolutely hates coconut and it is so hard to find any healthy sweet snacks without coconut somewhere in there.
I appreciate your input either way!
Hi, Alyssa. Yes, you can omit the coconut flakes and just increase the nuts and/or dried fruit. However, instead of replacing the coconut with 1 cup of chopped dried fruit and/or nuts, you will want to only replace with just 1/2 to 3/4 cups. Otherwise, the mixture will be too dry.
Personally, I recommend replacing the 1 cup of coconut flakes with 1/4 cup of additional chopped nuts and 1/4 cup of additional chopped dried fruit, or just use 1/2 cup chopped nuts, if you don’t want to add extra fruit. Hopefully this makes sense.
With regard to coconut flour, if your hubby doesn’t care for the flavor of coconut it would be best to sub-out that as well, because it does have a faint coconut flavor that those who dislike coconut can often pick up on. So instead, use the same amount of ground flax seed, as ground flax will work just fine as the binder for this recipe. 🙂
Fabulous bars!! Looking forward to trying more of your recipes and receiving encouragement from a fellow believer at the same time! Thank you!
Thanks, Rebecca! I appreciate your encouragement! Thanks for taking the time to leave a kind note! 🙂
As a vegan, I was wondering if anyone’s ever tried substituting agave for the honey? Would that work??
Hi, Julie. Others here have asked about subbing with maple syrup and my concern with maple syrup and with agave is the viscosity – the purpose of the honey in this bar is to provide a glue-like effect. If you opt for agave or maple syrup, I would recommend using less and adding an extra tablespoon of nut butter. I haven’t tried subbing with either of these myself, so please keep in mind you will be embarking on an experiment. 🙂
I just made your recipe. Delicious! Since I didn’t have flaked coconut on hand, I substituted with shredded coconut and used about 2/3 – 3/4 of a cup instead of a whole cup. My other change was to use my regular sized chocolate chips since that is what I had on hand. Great recipe, I look forward to trying out some of your other Kind bar combinations.
Do you happen to have the nutritional information? For some reason MyFitnessPal isn’t allowing me to login and I cannot find another online calculator to use. Thanks!
Hi, Julie. So glad you’re enjoying this recipe. I don’t have the nutritional profile but hopefully you were able to long on toe myfitnesspal, or if you google nutritional profile apps, you’re certain to find many! 🙂