Coconut Hemp Bars
Pressed granola bars held together with coconut butter and honey. Cold-weather food; they slump in heat.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 150
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Day hike
- Winter / snow
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Coconut butter | 3/4 cup | the whole-flesh kind, not refined oil |
|---|---|---|
| Honey | 1/2 cup | |
| Coconut oil | 2 tbsp | melt it before measuring |
| Fine sea salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Old-fashioned rolled oats | 2 1/4 cups | certified gluten-free oats if that matters to you |
| Hemp seeds | 1/2 cup | |
| Mini chocolate chips | 1 cup | divided |
Method
- At home, line an 8x8 pan with parchment, leaving overhang on two sides.
- Warm the coconut butter, honey, and coconut oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until it comes to a simmer. Give it one more minute of simmering and stirring, then pull it off the burner.
- Stir in the salt, oats, and hemp seeds until every oat is coated. Let the pan sit ten minutes so the oats drink up the syrup.
- Stir in half the chocolate chips. Some will streak through the mix, which is fine.
- Scrape into the pan and pack it down hard with the flat bottom of a measuring cup. Loose packing is why bars crumble.
- Scatter the rest of the chips on top and press them in. Chill until firm, lift out by the parchment, and cut into ten bars.
This is a no-bake bar, which means the binder does all the structural work. Coconut butter and honey cook down to a syrup that sets firm when cold, and the ten-minute rest lets the oats absorb it instead of sitting in it. Pack the pan harder than feels necessary.
There are no peanuts or tree nuts here, which is the point of the hemp seeds: they add protein and fat without the usual allergen. The tradeoff is heat. Coconut oil softens around 76F, so these turn into a pocket of paste on a hot afternoon. Save them for shoulder season, winter, or a bag that lives inside the pack rather than strapped to the outside.
Packing
Wrap each bar in parchment, then bag them together. They keep about a week at room temperature and months in the freezer, so cut and freeze, then pull out what a trip needs the morning you leave.
Variations
- Swap the chocolate chips for chopped dried cherries if you are hiking somewhere warm.
- Sunflower seeds in place of half the hemp seeds cut the cost and keep it nut-free.
https://trailcooking.com/snacks/coconut-granola-bars