Coming up with healthy back to school snacks seems to be getting trickier with each passing year. Celiac disease, food allergies, and intolerance have become widely recognized issues, leading schools to instigate peanut-free, nut-free, and even dairy-free zones and policies. Fortunately, recipes like these baked granola bar bites can fit a variety of special diet needs.
Baked Granola Bar Bites for Dairy-Free, Allergy-Friendly Snacking
When I’m looking for kid-friendly snack ideas (particularly for school safe zones) I usually open up my old-school copy of Cookies for Everyone. It’s a food allergy-friendly cookbook created by Enjoy Life Foods. One of my go-to recipes from that collection is these baked granola bar bites.
Though it still qualifies as a sweet treat, this recipe is nutritious enough for lunchboxes and healthy after-school (or work!) snacks. But best of all, it’s extremely versatile. The recipes in Cookies for Everyone were tested to be dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free, and soy-free, making each of them easy to customize if your free-from needs aren’t quite so restrictive.
For example, you can make these granola bar bites egg-free or baked with an egg, gluten-free or with wheat flour, and nut-free or with a nutty trail mix. But if you do want to keep them top allergen-free, use Enjoy Life Trail Mix and an allergy-friendly granola like Gerb’s, Made Good, and Safe + Fair.
Special Diet Notes: Baked Granola Bar Bites
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, top allergen-free, optionally vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian. Just be sure to select the granola and/or trail mix that suit your dietary needs.
- ½ cup brown rice flour or sorghum flour
- 2 tablespoons tapioca starch
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ripe banana
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey (can sub agave nectar for strictly vegan)
- 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (ground flaxseed)
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1⅓ cups granola (certified gluten-free and nut-free, if needed), crushed into small pieces
- 1 cup trail mix (nut-free, if needed) or more granola
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a 9-inch baking dish or mini muffin pan.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, starch, and cinnamon.
- Add the banana, oil, sugar, honey, flaxseed, water, and vanilla to a mixing bowl. Beat with a hand mixer until smooth and “creamed.” Add the flour blend and mix just until combined. Fold in the granola and trail mix.
- Spoon the mixture into your prepared dish or pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes if using the 9-inch baking dish or 20 minutes if using the mini muffin pan.
- Cool and cut into small bars or remove the mini muffins from the pan.
Not Egg-Free? You can use 1 large egg in place of the flaxseed and water.
2 Comments
These both look so good! But it appears that the first recipe is incomplete – the directions call for cinnamon and granola, neither of which are included in the ingredient list. Could you please revise when you get a chance? Thanks!!
It was actually a technical glitch. All fixed now with full recipes showing!