I came up with these homemade protein bars without protein powder because I couldn't get what I was looking for in stores.
My homemade protein bar recipe has a smooth non-chunky consistency, is made from scratch without protein powder and includes whole real ingredients.
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Ingredients
I aimed for the protein bars to have a smooth texture, not chunky. It's important to prevent the bars from crumbling when you bite into them.
I chose ingredients that work well together. As a result, the taste is great, and the texture is just right.
Most importantly, I didn't want to include protein powder in my homemade protein bars.
That way, you can make these without having to purchase artificial protein powder. In fact, most ingredients are natural and shouldn't be all too difficult to find in stores.
Here is an overview of what you will need, US and metric measurements are in the recipe card below.
- Oats — Instant, quick cooking rolled oats.
- Flax Seeds — can be skipped if you can't get this ingredient, or you can use chia seeds instead.
- Walnuts
- Peanuts — Unsalted
- Coconut — Shredded fresh or dried coconut, whichever you can get.
- Coconut Oil — or as an alternative a neutral flavored oil such as vegetable oil or sunflower oil.
- Almond Flour — brown (unpeeled) or white (peeled) almond flour.
- Milk Powder — if you want to make this vegan, get vegan “milk” powder.
- Raisins or Sultanas
- Dates — semi sticky and not too dry
- Honey — to make this vegan, use sugar syrup as an alternative.
- Warm Water
📖 Recipe
Homemade Protein Bars without Protein Powder Recipe
Ingredients
For the Protein Bar Mass
- 8.8 ounces Oats quick cooking
- 1.4 ounces Flax Seeds
- 1.8 ounces Walnuts
- 2.5 ounces Roasted Peanuts
- 1.8 ounces Coconut Raw Freshly Shredded OR dried shredded
- 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil or other neutral vegetable oil
- 2.5 ounces Almond Flour brown or white
- 1 Tablespoon Milk Powder or Vegan Milk Powder
- 1.8 ounces Raisins
- 2.1 ounces Dates
- 5 Tablespoons Honey organic
- ¾ cup + 1 Tbsp Lukewarm Water
To Grease
- 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil for greasing the mold
Instructions
- Grind your oats, flax seeds, walnuts, and peanuts to a fine consistence.8.8 ounces Oats, 1.4 ounces Flax Seeds, 1.8 ounces Walnuts, 2.5 ounces Roasted Peanuts
- Place the ground ingredients together into a mixing bowl.
- Grind the shredded coconut with the coconut oil and add it to the dried ingredients.1.8 ounces Coconut Raw Freshly Shredded, 1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil
- Add the almond flour and milk powder to the mixture.2.5 ounces Almond Flour, 1 Tablespoon Milk Powder
- Grind the raisins. It will turn into a sticky mass. Keep aside.1.8 ounces Raisins
- Remove the seed core from the dates and grind those as well.2.1 ounces Dates
- Add the ground raisin and dates to the other mixed ingredients, and crumble the dried fruits with your hands into the other dry ingredients so that they get properly incorporated.
- To finish the mass, mix your honey into the warm water and pour it all over the whole mass. Mix it properly!5 Tablespoons Honey, ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon Lukewarm Water
- Preheat your oven to 320 Fahrenheit/ 160 Celsius.
- Now grab your baking dish, preferably a square or rectangular one (I didn't have a square one at the time as you can see) to make your life easier, and grease it with the Coconut Oil.1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil
- Spread your mass equally into the mold and flatten it at the top by pressing down. The mass should be pressed down and without any air pockets.
- Bake at 320 Fahrenheit/ 160 Celsius for about 20 minutes uncovered. The protein bar mass is done when it is still soft and not too dry. *see Notes
- Keep it to cool and then cut your bars into your desired size. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Equipment
- Blender
- 9 x 9 Baking Dish or 23x15 cm
Nutrition
Tips
Use a powerful blender to blend whole ingredients small and smooth.
The dates, raisins, and honey help in sticking the other ground ingredients together. That way, your protein bars hold better together.
Milk powder in this recipe was my solution to not having to use protein powder and still adding a considerable quantity of protein to the bars.
The protein bars are better digested in smaller sizes, and that is why I am making mine smaller.
The weight of my homemade protein bars is 2.5 ounces/70 grams, which is a nice smaller portion for anyone.
However, you can cut them up as you like and then store them in an airtight container, away from humidity.
FAQs
Left in room temperature and stored in an airtight container, your homemade protein bars will be good for at least 7 days. If you live in a humid, warm climate, store them in your fridge in an airtight container.
Yes, you can freeze a batch of cut up and prepped protein bars in a suitable freezer-friendly container. Keep them 2 months at most in your freezer (just to be safe). Thaw them overnight in your fridge.
More like this
Honey is not vegan.
Correct! Thanks for pointing this out, I fixed the info!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. Since I don't have peanuts at home, I substituted it with a mix of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and almonds. Also, since I don't have raisins, I doubled the amount of dates. And another thing, since my oven doesn't work, I steamed it. Still I liked how it turned out and the taste.
Cool. 🙂 Thanks for sharing Carolyn!
Love that you made these without the addition of protein powder! I need to try these!
I have a few relatives who I know are going to absolutely LOVE these! Can't wait to make a batch for them 😀
I'm a big fan of protein bars (especially at this time of the year!), so I’m thrilled to find your recipe! They look really good!
We are trying to eat a more plant-based diet in 2018, not eliminating meat, just reducing significantly. These protein bars look great, just the type of motivation needed to stick to a program.
Thank you for the recipe looks absolutely AMAZING! Im making these this weekend! #bookmarked
I'm not a fan of protein bars in general, but if I must have them then home made ones are the way to go. You can be safe from all the unnecessary stuff that the store bought ones have usually.
This is one recipe that I tried making once upon a time as the bars that you get in the market use sugar and they are pathetically costly. However, I could never get the consistency of the bar - it became very fluid and I had no idea how to bind it, Maybe I got the quantities all wrong or missed some key step in the process.
Protein bars are great to carry as a snack for traveling. Easy to carry and source of instant energy.
Healthy and delicious...I need one right now!
These sound so good and I love this sort of healthy, sweet on-the-go snack!
What a great idea to make protein bars from scratch! I am in the habit of buying them at the grocery store- but these look so much better.
Those sound so good! I eat a lot of protein bars so I love making my own at home. Definitely a good way to save a few bucks!
I love homemade protein bars!! These would be perfect after going to gym! YUM!
Love making my own protein snack bars at home. So much more healthier than store bought plus a lot more cheaper too! I love the combination of flavors you have here really packed with nutrition
Sorry Helene I spelled your name wrongly before.
oh no problem. 😉
Yes sure try it out and let us know here how you liked it. Others will definitely appreciate your input.
Dear Helena. Thank you for the tip. I am trying out your recipe tonight.
Dear Helena please advice me on what to replace the milk powder with while retaining it's consistency. I have been having problems with protein bars that crumble.
Hi Yee,
You can keep out the milk powder if you want, it shouldn't change the consistency. Have you tried this protein bar recipe before?
Out of my experience protein bars crumble when there are big bits of ingredients in it. That means nuts, raisins etc. So that is why in this recipe the ingredients are reduced to small bits/flours. You know I feel the same way about protein bars, I don't like when they crumble. 🙂
can you please share the amount of protien in one bar and what will be the size of one bar?
Hi Fatima!
The size depends on you, you can cut them into your preferred size. I cut them into 5 cm x 3,5 cm cubes. The protein amount should be around 8-10 grams per cube/square. Of course it depends on how you cut them up at the end.
I love these homemade protein bars! I've been looking up recipes for Lara bars, fruit leather, and granola bars but I haven't seen any for protein bars yet. I'm glad you didn't use protein powder (it freaks me out!). Everything in here is natural, delicious and healthy!
I love protein bars. I think I need to start making my own instead of buying them! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I will be making these bars very soon!
Hi Helene, These look good. A question - I am not a fan of dried fruit in bars like this. Any suggestions of what I can replace them with?
hm... you don't really recognize the taste of the fruits in the bars, the whole mixture is quite a fine blend. You can keep them out but the dried fruits give the bar a nice texture and the bars hold better together. Further they keep the bars always a bit softer. Maybe you would like to use some other dried fruits such as cranberries or blueberries instead, otherwise just leave them out but then be prepared for a different result. Hope that helps. =)
Oh my goodness, these look so yummy!
Love making my own snack bars at home. So much healthier than the store bought ones. These look great!
These look marvelous, Helene! I love having control over what goes into my snacks 🙂
I love that you made protein bars. They are way over priced in the store and I have yet to find one that tastes good so I am excited to give it a try at home
awesome idea to make your own protein bar. I bet my husband would love this. I have to try it
These bars sound really good. I especially love every single ingredient in them.
Well, these don't look too hard to make. Love all of those rich, high protein ingredients!! Lots of good stuff. Love the little wrappers you made. So clever!!!!
These look delicious, much better the store-bought stuff. I'll have to check out Shannon's recipe as well. I love the texture of these bars. Great images Helene!
Very cool recipe! We spend a fortune on protein bars and powder. This is a very handy recipe!
Love that you used whole foods rather than isolates in these
These are gorgeous Helene. My sis makes granola bars and they are super yummy. It's just something that tastes so much better fresh. You take such beautiful photos.
I love homemade bars they taste so much better! Thank you for your kind compliment, I appreciate it Kim! =)
This would be perfect for school 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I've really been wanting to make my own protein bars/granola bars/etc....yours look pretty spectacular!
These are probably the healthiest bars I´ve come across and a recipe I might actually make very soon! Store-bought granola and protein bars are unreasonably expensive, I totally agree with that.
Every morning during the week I eat a protein bar before my workout. They have been store-bought but I would much rather have homemade. I must make these soon.
Oh I love how you grind all the ingredients and bake them! They look solid after cutting, loves recipe that doesn't crumble. must try your recipe soon. and your photos are amazing!
Thanks for mentioning my blog & linking my recipes.
You are welcome Shannon, your work is amazing. =) Oh and yes they don't crumble at all.
These look really good. As you say, the flavor of most protein bars isn't appetizing, so I rarely eat them. These look exceptional, however. I've never thought of making my own, and as your recipes shows they're not at all hard to make. Terrific idea - thanks.
Yes the recipe is quite easy and hassle free. You can add lightly crushed ingredients if you are in a hurry instead of grinding them all as mentioned above in the recipe. I prefer that the ingredients are properly incorporated and the flavors get better mixed, further the bars don't fall apart so easily, they are more compact.
We go through a lot of protein bars, so I'm thrilled to have a way to make them at home. Your recipe sounds great!
Let me know how you liked them if you get the chance to try the recipe. By the way if you need more details about the protein amounts in each ingredients, I have a list here. I just didn't post it here.