Can You Freeze Granola Bars?

3 minutes

Whether you’ve made them super healthy or loaded them with sugar, granola bars are an easy thing to make in bulk. So, what’s the best way to store them for the long term?

How to Freeze Granola Bars

Freezing granola bars can be a little complex if you’ve never done it before. To make sure that you freeze your bars well, follow our steps.

1. Wrap: Wrapping the bars in baking paper individually will help to ensure that as much moisture and air as possible is kept out of the granola bars themselves. This will stop the bars from going stale and soft, which is never ideal!
2. Stack: Stacking the bars up in the freezer bag as efficiently as possible is a great way to ensure that you remove excess air. After all, for each bar you put into the bag, that much air is displaced from the bag. This lack of air also prevents the bars from going stale.
3. Seal: Removing excess air from the bag is vital to prevent any crispy or crunchy parts of your granola bars from going stale. To do this, we would recommend that you press the bag as close to the bars as possible before sealing it.
4. Freeze: Freezing the granola bars in the centre of your freezer will avoid freezer burn for as long as possible. This can help you to maintain the texture of protein-rich ingredients like nuts or pulses.

3 Tips for Freezing Granola Bars

Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing granola bars to have the best results:

Think About the Proteins
Protein-heavy things are the most likely thing to become freezer burned. The reason for this is that if water comes into contact with the protein-rich item, it can freeze, and disrupt the cellular structure of that item. Expect protein-rich ingredients to not freeze too well.

Dust Sticky Bars
If your granola bars are sticky on their outer surface, for instance, from honey, then they can be hard to unwrap and eat. Avoid this by dusting the outside of the bars with a small amount of cornflour. Like with Turkish delight, this will prevent the food from being too sticky to handle. 

Don’t Leave at Room Temp for Long
If your granola bars have added fat (for example, butter or oil), then don’t leave them at room temperature for too long. Most fats will become liquid at room temperature, so using them can lead to an item that falls apart. 

How Long Can You Freeze Granola Bars?

You can freeze granola bars for around 2 months.

They can be frozen for longer than that, but they will start to be affected by the freezing process.

In the case of granola bars, it will typically be oats that absorb moisture in the freezer over time, leading to a softer, less enjoyable bar.

How Do You Defrost Granola Bars?

To defrost granola bars, we recommend removing 1 wrapped bar from the larger freezer bag and then keeping it at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.

This should thaw the bar well without introducing more moisture to it, which fridges often do.

Can You Refreeze Granola Bars?

Yes, you can refreeze granola bars.

Since they have a fairly low water content, you shouldn’t notice a decrease in quality over time with granola bars – they will stay crisp despite repeated freezing.

Do Granola Bars Freeze Well?

Yes, granola bars do freeze well!

The main reason for this is the lack of water content, as we just mentioned. This means that no, or very few, ice crystals tend to form throughout the granola bars.

This lack of ice crystals maintains the texture of granola bars very well, leading to a final bar that isn’t too different from when it was fresh.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing granola bars or granola in general, then these may help: