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Take your favorite on the road snack up a notch in these simple, no bake Trail Mix Bars. Prepped in under 20 minutes, easily varied to whatever nuts and seeds you have on hand, date sweetened and the perfect fuel to keep you going!
This recipe was originally published in July 2017 and updated to add new images and tips in January 2025–the original recipe remains the same!
Who doesn’t love a good trail mix? Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, chocolate chunks and easily made to anyone’s liking–like in this roasted trail mix for example. A little sweet, a little salty and everything in between.
So tossing all these goodies into a nice little bar makes for a great, nourishing snack. These Trail Mix Bars are easily varied to your favorite flavors and packed with good fuel to keep you revving.
Wholesome ingredients, no baking–always a win!
Love no bake snacks? Try these favorites as well: No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Oatmeal Bars, Peanut Butter Oatmeal Balls, Greek Yogurt Bark or these Homemade Perfect Bars.
Why You Will Love These No Bake Trail Mix Bars:
- No baking required! Simple, no bake and easily use up whatever is sitting around in the pantry–there are so so many options to add into these bars that you could literally make them every single week and never have the same flavor. No bake recipes are always the best!
- Super simple to customize and vary. There really aren’t a lot of ingredients that are off limits when making these chewy trail mix bars. You can add really any of your favorite trail mix ingredients into the bars, adjust the peanut butter to a different nut or seed butter, make them gluten free and dairy free and simple to make vegan. These can be easily made your way!
- Kid friendly. I like to make these using my little guy’s favorite add-ins to get him snacking as well. He loves when I add some mini-marshmallows since anything you add marshmallows to these days is gold. Now if I could just get him to stop picking out all the marshmallows!
Recipe Ingredients:
- quick oats: I have made these oatmeal bars with rolled oats and quick cooking oats. Both work ok, but I actually prefer the quick oats. Use gluten free if needed.
- peanut butter: creamy peanut butter is ideal. If you have an allergy, feel free to use another nut butter like almond or cashew butter, or you can use sunflower seed butter if needed.
- medjool dates: the dates, when soaked in hot water and then broken down in a food processor add a chewiness to these bars that is not like any other. They naturally sweeten the bars as well, so only a bit of maple syrup or honey is needed!
- vanilla: vanilla extract to round out the flavor
- cinnamon: this is optional–it doesn’t always work well with the trail mix ingredients you may be adding in to the mixture.
- maple syrup: a bit of pure maple syrup or really your favorite liquid sweetener, honey, agave, etc. is great to add that sweetness and provide a bit of moisture.
- trail mix: Any mixture of nuts and seeds and dried fruit is great in these trail mix bars. Chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans, cashews, coconut flakes, chia seeds, marshmallows, M&Ms, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, and MORE. Endless options!
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Unless your medjool dates are really soft, soak them in warm water for about 15 minutes before processing them into a paste. Remove from the pits from the dates and add them to a food processor.
- Process until a paste forms. It doesn’t have to be completely smooth, small date pieces are fine. Add a couple teaspoons at a time if the mixture isn’t breaking down well.
- Transfer the date paste to a bowl with the oats, maple, peanut butter, vanilla and sea salt. Mix to fully combine. If the mixture seems too thick or dry, add in some extra maple syrup or an extra tablespoon of peanut butter.
- Add in all of the nuts/seeds/dried fruit/trail mix ingredients and stir to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to a parchment lined 8 inch square baking pan and press firmly. FIRMLY. You don’t want these to crumble apart, so press, press, press!
- Chill for about 30 minutes before serving.
Recipe Tips
- No dates? You can still make these! The dates add sweetness and help hold these bars together while making them extra chewy. If you don’t have dates, up the amount of peanut butter to 3/4 cup, add 1/3 cup ground flax seeds (also known as flaxseed meal) and use more maple syrup. You should still be able to get a nice bar without them!
- You can form these into energy balls instead of bars. These are great to roll up into bite sized balls instead of bars if desired. You could even press them and form little trail mix cookies if you would like–don’t feel like you have to make them into bars. I am a big fan of energy balls, these Pecan Pie Energy Balls are one of my favorites!
- I keep the cinnamon optional. Sometimes I add it, other times I don’t. It typically depends on what I am adding in and if it makes sense with those flavors.
Storage:
These no bake trail mix granola bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days, or in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.
You can most certainly freeze them as well. I prefer wrapping individual bars and then adding to a freezer bag. Or just add a layer or wax paper or parchment paper between layers of bars when freezing. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Fun flavor variations:
- Blueberry Muffin: dried blueberries, almond butter, sliced almonds or pecans and an extra teaspoon of cinnamon. MMMMM.
- Almond Joy: sliced almonds, shredded coconut, chocolate chips and almond butter
- Cherry Chocolate: dried cherries, dark chocolate chips, chopped cashews
- Chunky Monkey: chocolate chips, chopped peanuts, chocolate chips, dried bananas (these peanut butter banana oatmeal balls are great if you love that option!)
- Tropical: dried mango, dried pineapple, coconut, chocolate chips, macadamia nuts
Try these other No Bake recipes:
- Blueberry Muffin Protein Bars
- No Bake Piña Colada Bites
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bites
- Coconut Lemon Bars
- Homemade Perfect Bars
- Mango Coconut Cashew Bars
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No Bake Trail Mix Bars
Take your favorite on the road snack up a notch in these simple, no bake Trail Mix Bars. Easily varied to whatever nuts and seeds you have on hand, date sweetened and the perfect fuel to keep you going!
Ingredients
- 2 cups quick oats, regular or gluten free
- ½ c plus 2 T peanut butter or nut butter
- 15 pitted medjool dates (soaked in warm water)
- 1 cup chopped nuts or seeds
- 3/4 cup dried fruit and/or chocolate chips (raisins, cranberries, etc.)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
- 3 – 4 T 100% pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Combine dates in food processor until a paste is formed. It typically forms into a ball when it is ready. You want it to be thin enough to mix into the oats, but not so thin that it does not hold together. If it seems to thick, add a teaspoon of water or two.
- Combine dates, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, sea salt and oats in mixing bowl. Have patience, it just takes a bit of time to combine. You can add more maple syrup if the mixture seems too dry.
- Stir in the nuts/seeds, dried fruit and/or chocolate chips, cinnamon and stir to combine evenly.
- Press mixture into an 8x8inch pan lined with parchment paper. Press firmly to help the bars hold together nicely.
- Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before cutting and serving!
Notes
- One serving is a 2 inch by 2 inch piece of this recipe.
- I prefer natural creamy peanut butter that is nice and drippy for this recipe. It stirs much more easily than a typical Jif peanut butter does.
- I keep the cinnamon optional. Sometimes I add it, other times I don’t. It typically depends on what I am adding in and if it makes sense with those flavors.
Nutrition
Calories: 232kcal, Carbohydrates: 36g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Sodium: 111mg, Potassium: 357mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 18g, Vitamin A: 35IU, Vitamin C: 0.4mg, Calcium: 35mg, Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you enjoy this recipe? Have a question?Leave a comment below!
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You are a genius ! This is a recipe sent from the heavens! I added in some coconut and I am in love!! Thank you so much for posting!!
Jessica, Wow! Thanks for bringing me an extra big smile today! I am so glad that you enjoyed them. I will be DEFINITELY adding coconut to mine next time!
These are so good and so versatile. I just made them last week and was hesitant because I didn’t think they would hold together very well. Also, they are not overly sweet like a lot of granola bars. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Thanks so much for posting.
So glad you enjoyed them, Melanie! I use these as a base and then toss in whatever I have around. Thanks!