Homemade KIND Bars (Vegan and Gluten Free)

Melissa King Recipes, Snack Bars

Homemade KIND Bars.  After my Homemade Clif Bars were such a hit, I asked all of you which bar you would like to see next.  The answers were all asking for KIND bars.

I had never even tried one, so I went to the store and bought one to try.  The first flavor I attempted was Peanut Butter Chocolate.  I have plans for more homemade KIND bars in the future. 🙂

 

Homemade KIND Bars

 

These KIND bars, along with my Clean Eating Samoas,  are kind of involved; but I think they turned out pretty good!

I used my Sweet Peanut Butter Spread as inspiration for the ingredient that binds this bar together.  So here is the recipe.  I got about 10 bars out of the recipe, but mine are quite thick.

Homemade KIND Bars

Homemade KIND Bars

print shopping list
Prep Time 10 min Cook Time 20 min

Ingredients

  • 2 cups mixed nuts chopped (I bought mine out of the bulk bin)
  • 2 cups brown rice cereal (I used Nature's Path)
  • 12 medjool dates pitted
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup water

For the chocolate coating

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325.
  2. In a large bowl , mix the nuts and cereal.
  3. In the food processor , pulse the dates and water until a thin paste forms.
  4. Add in the peanut butter. If you store your peanut butter in the fridge, pull it out a few hours ahead of time so it will be soft.
  5. Once all those are combined well, add it to the nuts and cereal.
  6. Mix well until everything is combined.
  7. I used an 8×8 baking dish, but I would suggest using a slightly bigger one because my bars came out a bit on the thick side.
  8. Line your pan with parchment paper leaving enough room for some paper to come out the sides so it’s easy to pull the bars out after baking.
  9. Press batter into the pan so it is coated evenly and then press down hard with the spatula. The batter will be very sticky.
  10. Bake for about 20-30 minutes.
  11. Let the bars cool before pulling them out of the pan.
  12. Once cooled and out, slice into bars, spread out and bake for another 18 minutes.  I cut my bars easily with a pizza cutter .

For the chocolate coating:

  1. Using a double boiler, melt the chips and milk together.
  2. Once a smooth and runny consistency is reached, drizzle over the bars and place in the fridge to set. 
  3. I had some chocolate left over, so if you want, you can dip the bottom of each bar in to coat as well.  That way, they will be a bit more like the real bars.  Hope you enjoy these.

by

Subscribe
Join more than 35,000 subscribers and start gettiing free recipes direct to your inbox!

You may also like

Coconut Truffles (Vegan and Gluten Free)
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies
35 Veggie Burger Recipes
Quinoa with Roasted Vegetables

47 thoughts to “Homemade KIND Bars (Vegan and Gluten Free)”

  1. Any idea on how long these will store? I'd love to make some for my son-in-law in Afghanistan and things take a week and a half or 2 weeks to get there if I'm lucky!
    Reply
    1. They should last a few weeks in the fridge. I am not sure they will travel well unless they can be kept cold. Otherwise the chocolate may melt.
      Reply
  2. I had never tried a kind bar until I started seeing what you were doing on here. The one I tried was the blueberry version. Any chance you could attempt to recreate it?
    Reply
    1. I will add that to my list of things to try! My next attempt will be the Apple Cinnamon Bar. I bought one to try and re create. :)
      Reply
    1. I did a rough calculation of the calories to be about 300 per bar. This is a homemade version of the trail mix line of KIND bars. The fruit and nut KIND bars will most likely have less calories.
      Reply
    1. I have seen it at Target and also Whole Foods. You can sub any puffed cereal if you can't find brown rice cereal.
      Reply
  5. What is your opinion on the kind granola? As far as I have found they are about as clean as I have found without making it yourself. Just wondering if there was any ingredients that we should be staying away from.
    Reply
    1. I have never looked at it. If you tell me the ingredients, I can give you an opinion. I think they fruit and nut kind bars ore decent. Just the trail mix brands that I would not eat.
      Reply
    1. The fruit and nut ones are good. The ones that fall under the trail mix category need to be checked. That is the kind I bought and looked at.
      Reply
  10. Thank you for the recipe! I was tired of spending $1.5 per KIND Bar. I have a question regarding the recipe though, I used rice cereal and when I eat the bar I can feel the rice is hard. Was I suppose to cook the rice first and then use it in the recipe? Thanks!!
    Reply
    1. You are welcome Anna! The rice should be the consistency of a rice crispy treat. Did you use a crispy rice cereal? It should not be hard.
      Reply
      1. Hi again! No it wasn't crispy. It felt more like the rice wasn't cooked or something so I thought I got the recipe wrong. I couldn't find exactly what was in the recipe but I bought something called Gluten-free rice cereal (it doesn't say crispy on it).
        Reply
  11. thanks again for your suggestion on Facebook to try raisins or apricots instead of dates - I think I'm going to try a small batch with almond butter, apricots, and an Atunefoods' organic quinoa & chia cereal. maybe with a glaze made from a vanilla protein powder instead of chocolate! woo, I'm excited to try :)
    Reply
    1. I have not, but I have a recipe coming up on the blog for an apple cinnamon snack bar that is very similar to the KIND bars. :)
      Reply
  13. Hi, I have had the kind bars and like them so was looking at your version of the bars, i am going to give it a try. The kind bars in the store are costly unless you get lucky and get a coupon for them. Also going to check out your cereal bars to.
    Reply
      1. Thanks I love trying new things & am new to eating healthy. Thank you for sharing all of these great recipes! I look forward to trying them!
        Reply
  15. Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I love Kind bars - they are so delicious, but also make me feel like I am eating something that isn't bad for me. But they are SO expensive!!! I am really looking forward to trying this recipe. And thank you also for making the recipes easy to follow…I am not an expert baker (by any means) :) but this seems like something I can do. Do they freeze well? I would love to make a bunch of them, and just take a few out at a time when I wanted them. I would love to see other variations as well when you have the time (but I realize you probably have lots of other projects in the works).. God Bless… ~ Wendy
    Reply
    1. Hi Wendy, I hope you like the recipe! Yes, I think they would freeze just fine. I would love to do more KIND bars. They are on my list for sure.
      Reply
  16. Thank you for this recipe! Most KIND bar recipes I see call about about a hundred ingredients - love how much simpler this is. I don't have dates in the house, can I substitute with agave or coconut oil? If so, how much would you suggest I use? Thanks again so much.
    Reply
    1. You are so welcome. I hope you enjoy the recipe. You may be able to? The dates kind of help bind them together. If I could suggest anything, coconut oil might work? Let me know how it turns out.
      Reply
  17. Pingback: Blueberry Vanilla Cashew Trail Mix | My Whole Food Life
  18. Pingback: Homemade Chocolate Larabars | My Whole Food Life

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *