If you are craving all the sweet stuff from the winter holiday season but need to watch your processed food intake, these Cranberry White Chocolate Macadamia Energy Bars are a welcome swap. You won’t even miss the marshmallows that are traditionally used to hold these cereal treat bars together.
This recipe satisfies that craving for those cranberry bars you can get at the coffee shops without being coyingly sweet. While it’s not a blondie texture, it has a chewy texture from the oats. If you can find cream cheese-flavored chips, all the better and swap them in for the white chocolate chips. I will take cranberry bliss bar-adjacent dessert that is cheaper and less sugary for the original and more expensive version any day.
What makes these bars so great?
These are great for picnics, camping, and sharing. Wrap them in wax paper place the entire bunch in a Ziploc-type bag and pop them into the freezer. Then you can eat them straight out of the freezer for a cold and crunchy treat.
This recipe also helps you to use up whatever dried fruit, nuts, and cereal you have in your pantry that you bought for a single recipe a while ago. Take a look at the Hawaii Energy Bar (no marshmallows) that was the inspiration for these bars. I often find that cereal doesn’t get eaten after the first few breakfasts after opening the bag, so you can easily swap the rice cereal for other types of plain cereal that doesn’t have much sugar in it.
Tips for a Successful Energy Bar
Make sure to keep the honey, macadamia nut butter, and butter on low heat. If you’re in a rush and heat it on medium heat, it will be too warm and will melt your white chocolate chips when you top the bars.
Press the bars very firmly into the baking pan with parchment paper. Use your muscle and your whole body to press the mixture down so it stays together.
With energy bars that don’t have any type of chocolate chip, you don’t have to worry about things melting and you can let the bars cool on a cooling rack on the counter. For these bars, the freezer is going to help cool the mixture faster to minimize the white chocolate chips melting.
Don’t forget to check out these other snack recipes to help you get through the busy day.
Cranberry White Chocolate Macadamia Energy Bars
Equipment
- 1 9" x 13" baking pan
- parchment paper
- 1 medium saucepan
- 1 large saute pan
- 1 large cutting board
- 1 chef's knife
Ingredients
- canola oil spray
- ½ cup unsweetened macadamia nut butter
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (½ stick)
- 2 cups crisp rice cereal
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ¾ cup sesame seeds (or pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)
- ¼ cup macadamia nuts chopped
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- ⅓ cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line baking pan with parchment paper and lightly grease with canola spray. You will have a hard time getting the bars out of the pan without it.
- In a medium pot, add macadamia nut butter, honey, and butter and melt on low heat. Stir until well combined. Keep warm on low heat, stirring occasionally.
- In a large saute pan or fryer pan, combine rice cereal, oats, sesame seeds, and macadamia nuts and toast over medium high heat for about 5 minutes.
- Pour the macadamia nut butter mixture onto the cereal mixture and add the cranberries. Stir until well combined and everything is coated with the macadamia nut butter mixture.
- Press everything firmly into the prepared baking pan using parchment paper so your hands don’t get sticky. Top it with the white chocolate chips and press them into the bars with parchment paper.
- Coolin the freezer for 30 minutes. Cut into bars. Wrap in wax paper for sharing (optional).
