I promise this one comes together super fast. They keep fresh in the fridge a good week or so OR freeze up great individually. I love them straight out of the freezer. Or pull them out frozen and into the cooler for a day at the zoo, beach, or park!
Energy Bars :: Gluten & Dairy Free with Nut and Egg Free Options
When your family is on the go for adventure, take these along. The healthy energy bars will keep them going without using prepackaged goods.
Ingredients
- 6 ripe bananas pureed
- 1 cup tapioca flour
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ½ cup blanched almond flour If nut free use ½ cup rice flour. They will get too dry if you use more coconut flour IMO but it does work – just use ¼ cup though.
- ½ cup sorghum flour
- 2 cups coconut shreds
- 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- 1 cup natural peanut butter I get the big tubs of natural peanut butter at Costco. If you are nut free use sunflower seed butter
- 2 eggs If you are egg free use ½ cup fruit puree to bind, OR 2 flax eggs, OR 2 egg replacer eggs.
- ½ cup melted coconut oil or butter
- 1 cup organic raisins I get the big bags of organic raisins at Costco. Could leave out if you want!
Instructions
- Everything into a large mixing bowl and combine.
- Spread out onto a coconut oiled (or buttered if you can do dairy) jelly roll pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. After cooling a good 15 minutes cut them into bars.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Tips:
- Double batch and store in the freezer!
- I packed one of these up for my preschooler’s school snack every once and a while.
- Change out the raisins for other dried fruit if you want! This summer as we begin our berry picking I will be dehydrating some to use in baking like this!
- You could use THESE
better choice chocolate chips if you want! It would make the bars not refined sugar free but it’s a fun addition every once and a while. - HERE is a safe sunbutter without added rancid oils if you are nut free.
- I get my tapioca flour, coconut flour, almond flour, and sorghum flour either on Amazon or local health food store depending on what is priced best – this does change at least for me so I always price check.
- Be sure your baking powder is aluminum free – we don’t need to be filling our babes with metals!
better choice chocolate chips if you want! It would make the bars not refined sugar free but it’s a fun addition every once and a while.
is a safe sunbutter without added rancid oils if you are nut free.
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either on Amazon or local health food store depending on what is priced best – this does change at least for me so I always price check.
This post was shared at Fat Tuesday, Real Food Wednesday, and Allergy Free Wednesday!
Okay – I think I”m gonna try these out. Any substitute suggestions for the sorgum flour? I have millet or brown rice flour on hand…….I’ve done swaps before for sorgum, just wondering if you have already with this. Thanks for the recipe -hoping my boys like it! I also may try coconut butter instead of nut or seed butter 🙂
Oh – and my kids don’t love coconut – I’m wondering if I can sub something for the coconut shreds……thoughts? 🙂
Hey Lydia! Ok so for the sorghum flour I would go with an equal 1/2 cup swap with the brown rice flour – sorghum and BR flour work pretty much the same in baking I have found. And on those coconut shreds…hmmm…is it the texture or the taste of them? When you get those really tiny shreds you can’t really taste the coconut and the texture isn’t horrible. Anyway! Let’s do something else dry with the same sort of texture – maybe some pulsed sunflower seeds or chia or flax seed?? Does that help? If I think of anything else for that I will let you know – my wheels will be turning all day most likely! 🙂
I was thinking flax seeds might work too -it’s a taste thing. I’m still warming them up to the coconut taste even after all of these years. Slowly, ever so slowly -they are embracing the coconut flavor! 🙂
Oh good! Let me know how they turn out! You are such a good momma – sometimes I take it for granted that the girls have just sorta grown up on this stuff and it takes a little finesse to train older taste buds 😉 I hope the kids love them – this is an easy one to keep in the freezer individually wrapped and pop into the lunchbox for your busy mornings 🙂
Oats would possibly work to replace the coconut
Any shortcuts to purchasing so many flours? I’m new to going dairy/gluten free, and quite honestly I find it really hard to bake anything based on the sheer amount of different ingredients! I want to make my kids these yummy types of treats though, so I may just have to make it happen. These look great! Off to pin it now. 🙂
Hi Heather 🙂 What a really really great question! I remember thinking the same thing! I use the same base gluten free flours for most of my baking so I just get Amazon bulk – and it feels like you are buying a lot, and it feels like you are using a lot of ingredients in this kind of baking – but really you aren’t using a lot as far as amount goes – a half cup here a quarter cup there. So it really lasts a long time. If you add up how many “cups” of flour you are using all together in this kind of recipe and compare it to how many cups of flour you would use in a regular wheat/gluten/all purpose flour type recipe it is about the same. I use multiple flours in my GF baking because it gives the texture closes to gluten-y baking – and you are also getting to rotate your grains a bit. I keep my flours stored in ziploc bags in the fridge to keep them fresh – the bags also make it easiest for scooping out of 🙂 Let me know if that helps!
we aren’t gluten-free, & we use whole wheat, spelt, & coconut flours mostly. care to share what your suggestions for subbing w/ any/of all these would be? thanks!
Hi Joanna! You can do an even swap out with the wheat or spelt with the sorghum and almond flours. I would keep the amount of coconut flour the same – it will get too dry with more. As for the tapioca, I love the texture (chewy) that it gives to baking so you might want to keep it – although swapping it with a glutenous flour may give that same texture too – not sure. Let me know what you try 🙂
When I first looked at these, they looked like they had some shredded carrot in them!
I’m also curious about the sorghum flour; I’ve never used it, trying to figure out if I could just sub something else I have? I have the other ones in the recipe, almond, coconut, and starch (arrowroot).
I’ve made your breakfast cookie and those were great – love all the ways to sub different ingredients!
Hi Renee!
Go ahead and sub another 1/2 cup of almond flour or the starch. Could also do rice flour. The all equally exchange. I wouldn’t do more coconut flour as it will make it drier. I use sorghum flour to mix things up a bit so our tummies aren’t getting the same grains all the time 🙂 It has a lower glycemic index as well and works well with GF baking 🙂
Thanks for letting me know about the breakfast cookies! That is so great!
Could you just use whole wheat flour in place of all the other flours?
Hi Nicole! The almond flour provides a good amount of protein to the energy bar so I would not replace that if you are looking to truly use it as fueling snack or addition to lunch. The tapioca and sorghum flours could be replaced with whole wheat. I would suggest that any wheat flours be soaked or sprouted before consuming however per Nourishing Traditions/Weston Price practice – whole wheat can be rough on the gut to digest over time so consuming it soaked or sprouted is ideal. It is a great idea to rotate flours in our diets as well – so if you already consume a lot of wheat, trying out some different flours might be a good idea! The whole wheat should work in the recipe though. I hope that helps!
I will be making these! We have some GF in the family so we have these flours on hand. Also, I would put in some pea protein…I put it in anywhere i can! thanks for the great looking recipe!
Hi there, I just made these today but they didnt come out as dark as your did. Also they are moist in the middle, is this ok?
Hi Jessica! They may have needed a longer cook time? Sometimes oven temps can vary from oven to oven so when I make recipes from other sources I always plan on a “give or take” 10 minutes depending on how my oven runs compared to others. (Also just because I get this a lot – did you make any ingredient swaps? Sometimes people forget they swap one or two things which is totally fine but it can alter the outcome 🙂 )
Hi , i was wondering if it was possible to substitute banana with apple sauce or something else? My daughter is allergic to bananas. Would love to try this recipe. Thanks.
Hi Sylvia! Yes that would work! Great question!
I just wanted to thank you for getting back with everyone and giving such great advice. I found you from Super Healthy Kids and really like all of the experience you share. I have 2 sensory kiddos who hate texture and anything new. We generally eat really well but I’m beginning to substitute homemade baked goods for the store bought ones but it’s like making changes one week (or month) at a time with them. Anyway, just wanted to say kudos. I’ll be following your recipes and blog.
Hi Jessica! Welcome! You have 2 super blessed kiddos to have a momma that cares so much about what they are eating 🙂 It will be so worth it!
Do you think I could sub cassava flour in place of the almond and sorghum flours? And might I also be able to substitute something for eggs for a little one who can’t eat them right now? Would a “chia egg” work, for instance, or would that be too many changes along with the flour changes? I know theoretically egg subs like that could be used, but I don’t know if it would still turn out okay if also subbing the flours.
I make these all the time and have always just used rolled oats. I’ve done them soaked and unsoaked (drain extra water off by pouring the oats into a fine mesh strainer; the bars will need a few extra minutes to cook too). So for those worrying about the cost, you can’t get much cheaper than oats! 🙂
So glad to hear that Jessica! I agree!