Nutrigrain bars are by far my favorite snack bar. I love the bready coating and sweet gooey jelly on the inside. But they are also not healthy at all! I rarely buy them, but will pass them wistfully in the grocery store.

Instead of perpetually pining for the overly processed snack, I decided to look around the blogging world for a great subsitute. After a little experiementation, I used settled on this recipe from Peas and Thank You. I liked that it included whole wheat flour, lots of oats, and only minimal sugar.

I generally followed the recipe except that I substituted coconut oil for Earth Balance. The crust was a great replication of the nutrigrain taste, and the fruit preserve center was excellent as well. The first time I made the recipe, I thought the crust was actually too thick, and on the second try I found that I could make a 9×13 pan of bars, instead of the 8×8 suggested in the recipe.

The bars are definitely still a treat, because of the high sugar content in the preserves. Although I bet the taste would be maintained if one wanted to use sugar-free preserves instead (I’m looking at you, C.J. ).