Homemade healthier chocolate chip Kudos Granola Bars a.k.a. the EASIEST snack recipe ever! Just 5 ingredients and endless yummy variations!
Chewy, chocolate-drizzled snack trip back to the 90s, you in? Either you read that title and were instantly jolted with sticky cereal bar nostalgia, or you’ve never heard of such a snack and you only kept reading because you like idea of easy oat-y granola bars dipped in dark chocolate. Whichever group you fall into, I’m excited you’re here and I am excited to share this ultra easy snack recipe with you.
How To: Homemade Kudos Bars
You may remember the original store-bought bars came in a few flavors – m&m, peanut butter, snickers, and chocolate chip. I wasn’t much of a nuts-in-my-desserts kinda kid so m&m or chocolate chip were the only ones I cared about. I opted for chocolate chip for this DIY version, but you could easily adapt with other mix-ins or even freestyle with dried fruit or other nuts/seeds etc.
Easy 5 Ingredient Granola Bars
Nostalgia aside, this recipe really can be a template for any kind of baked granola bar your heart desires. Vegan and gluten-free, made with just five simple ingredients:
- Crispy rice cereal. Toasted not puffed, don’t sub it unless you want soggy bars. I personally use this brown rice cereal, but good ol’ Rice Krispies will work too.
- Quick oats. Rolled oats would be okay too, but the slightly smaller size of quick oats is the perfect texture for this recipe.
- Sweetened condensed coconut milk. This is the only “weird” ingredient on the list, but its also the key ingredient that makes these bars so easy and sticky and good. The dairy-free version of sweetened condensed milk, this acts as the sweetener and binder in this recipe so you don’t need any nut butter or maple syrup or coconut oil etc.
- Salt. Any sweet snack bar needs a heavy pinch of salt.
- Chocolate chips. I recommend minis for folding into the bars, but any kind will work for the melting and dipping/drizzling.
Tips for the Perfect Bars
- Heat the coconut milk until just boiling, mix with the cereal, and then LET IT COOL. Emphasis on the cooling step, otherwise all the chocolate chips will melt. Since this milk is coconut based, there will be some chunks in the can, so heating and whisking works best to get it smooth. You could try blending the milk instead of heating if you are in a hurry, but heating will mix and hold best.
- Bake low and slow. Unlike your traditional granola bar recipe, this one bakes for an hour but at 250°F instead of 350°F. The low and slow method results in the perfect chewy golden bar.
- Chill the bars before cutting and dipping. The bars will be fragile when warm, so for the easiest chocolate dipping I really recommend freezing them before slicing and dipping. After they are dipped you can store the in the fridge they will hold just fine.
More Easy Snack Recipes You’ll Love
- Easy No-Bake Muesli Bars
- Almond Pulp Cookie Dough Bites
- Toasted Coconut Snack Bars
- Funfetti Cake Batter Bites
Copycat Kudos Granola Bars
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 bars 1x
- Category: snacks
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: american
Description
Homemade healthier chocolate chip Kudos Granola Bars a.k.a. the EASIEST snack recipe ever! Just 5 ingredients and endless yummy variations!
Ingredients
- 4 cups (120g) crispy rice cereal
- 2 cups (160g) quick oats
- 2 14oz cans Edward & Son’s Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (120g) mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup (80g) chocolate chips, melted
Instructions
- Combine cereal, oats, and salt in a large bowl.
- In a small saucepan, heat the sweetened condensed coconut milk to a simmer. Simmer and whisk until smooth and visibly thickened (8-10 minutes).
- Pour on top of the dry ingredients and mix until evenly coated.
- Set aside to cool about 10-15 minutes (IMPORTANT so you don’t melt the chocolate chips!)
- Preheat the oven to 250°F.
- Fold in mini chocolate chips.
- Transfer mixture to a square baking dish (8×8”) lined with parchment paper, place a piece of wax paper on top, and use your hands or another pan to press in VERY firmly.
- Bake 1 hour at 250°F.
- Cool, then chill 4 hours (makes them easier to slice/coat).
- Lift out of the pan, slice into 10 bars
- Dip the bottom of each bar in melted chocolate, then place on wax paper to set. Drizzle the tops with more melted chocolate. Chill until chocolate is set.
Keywords: gluten free, healthy, snacks, oatmeal, rice crispy, chocolate chip, sweetened condensed milk, easy
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is there anything i can use instead of the sweetened condensed coconut milk?
thanks,
elio
There is really no great sub for that ingredient, you’d be better off trying a different recipe like this maybe: https://feastingonfruit.com/vanilla-tahini-rice-crispy-treats/
alright, thanks!
I used to be totally obsessed with these as a child- any box of Kudos only had a chance to nap on the kitchen counter in some obscure corner before being pounced upon. These totally call to me, as I’m presently in a phase where after looking though photo albums of the past, find myself wanting to re-create all lost treasures. What chocolate would you suggest using? It’s chocolate chip and chocolate bar mayhem out there and I’d like to stay true to pure style as far as nailing the originals. Should I use milk or dark? Is it important to use the same as far as chips and coating? I want these now!😘
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Hehe I love your vivid childhood Kudos recollections☺️ And I can relate too! I personally used semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips (enjoy life brand) although I do believe the original bars used milk chocolate so that would be most authentic. Personally I liked them with semi-sweet, I think dark might be a bit too intense here. Hope that helps and I hope you LOVE this recreation…keep me updated😋
I decided to stay loyal to your original version Natalie and made these last night! They were extremely good except mine tasted a bit more like a macaroon overall rather than a granola bar, more of a soaked, soft coconut chew than crunch. I’m not sure if they were too drenched in sweetened condensed coconut milk but I did indeed measure it on a scale to be 28 ounces, as all I could find were smaller cans of it. Any tips or do you think I actually pulled these off as they should be? I’m practicing my chocolate drizzle (every passing second and the correct setting if using the microwave to melt the chips matters!) and I recommend keeping the chocolate chips to be stirred into the batch refrigerated to further ensure that they will not melt into the mix. Thank you Natalie!😘
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I’m so happy you tried them! Re: texture, it sounds like possibly you didn’t boil the sweetened condensed milk long enough. The boiling process concentrate the sugar and removes a lot of the water, so if you don’t boil long enough you have too much water in there that will soak through the cereal and oats and make it soggy. I also think the texture is Yummier if you eat them chilled. But I think the boiling longer/hotter part will make a big difference! You want that mixture to really start to thicken on its own before you add it to the rest of the ingredients. Hope that makes sense and helps!
So, being the food-obsessed girl I am, I made these again and they were perfect!! Thank you so much for your specific instruction as far as bringing the sweetened condensed coconut milk to a boil and thickening it up a bit. The first time I tried these I simply warmed it and it was very much a clear, watery liquid instead. These are so addictive and wonderful. I was wondering if this mix could somehow be used for a rice crispy treat base…? I’ve had a lot of issues with melting vegan marshmallows however, and standard ones are absolutely so full of gross ingredients…These bars called me out of bed last night to have more which has a scary amount of power attached to it- I was willing to follow the light (that being the refrigerator appliance bulb beckoning in the dark kitchen) to enter the Kudos abyss and be defeated.
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YAY!! I am so so happy the second batch was a success🤗 And yes you can, I have made rice crispy treats with this sweetened condensed coconut milk before: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCGh9WEBQ4w/ I will say they are still a tad bit more fragile than the marshmallow kind, especially at room temperature. But delicious!
Anywhere else I can reference the rice crispy treat recipe? Sadly I can’t access it via the link since I’m not on Instagram.
★★★★★
Hi Gigi! I do not have that recipe posted on the blog at this time, if you want to email me [email protected] I can send you screen shots from instagram!
I haven’t made these yet but they look insanely good. There is so much cane sugar in Enjoy Life chocolate chips (the only mini chips I could find!), in the cereal, and sweetened condensed milk as well. I have horrible allergic reactions to it and so have been using mostly coconut and maple sugars instead in baking. Any other brands of or subs for ingredients you could suggest to cut down on the cane sugars in this divine recipe? I know HU chocolate is sweetened with coconut sugar but I’ve only found their chunks…I’ve found some unsweetened vegan chocolate chips too browsing the baking aisle. I’d love to make these ASAP but just hate to think of falling ill due to my allergies. Thank you so much!
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Hi Vanessa! Hmm I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a sweetened condensed milk sweetened with anything else unfortunately. You could try to DIY that part with coconut sugar (like this: https://www.eatingbirdfood.com/sweetened-condensed-coconut-milk/#wprm-recipe-container-49046) but I’ve never tried it myself so I can’t say for sure it would work. That’s my best idea to cut down on the sugar, hope that helps!
I was checking out the recipe instructions and comments on these – the instructions say to warm the sweetened condensed coconut milk rather than boil. Maybe edit if it’s a deal breaker with these…? Look yummy for sure!
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Just updated to be more specific!
Any opinion as far as brand/kind of chocolate generally speaking for these? I’ve been into HU lately (no mini chocolate chips from them though…) but also found a Fair Trade ‘milk’ chocolate variety of chocolate featuring coconut milk and coconut sugar as stars. I know Enjoy Life is a keeper, just checking in, or is it free rein for the win in baking? Love these bars by the way- have made them many times and will be again soon- totally delicious and addictive!
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Hu is my hands down favorite for coating/dipping anything and baking with in general, but they are pricey and the Gems would be too big (although you could chop them up or chop up a Hu bar) for mixing into the bars here. I did go with Enjoy Life for this one, or actually Nestle makes a really good dairy-free enjoy life “copycat” now that I use quite often. What is the brand of your “milk” chocolate?! I would love to try that out!