Granola Bars
Granola Bars
This is my own recipe adapted from several others I found on the internet. These are a bit labor intensive but so worth the effort. I give them as gifts to people who are special to me.
I use granola bar pans from Williams-Sonoma; if you don’t have these pans, you can spread the granola bar mix in a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and cut the bars while they are still slightly warm. The Williams-Sonoma pans are definitely a plus here.
Ingredients
4 cups of dry batter total, made up like this but there is a lot of wiggle room:
2 cups extra thick oats (Bob’s brand)
½ cup dark chocolate or semi sweet chips (I prefer Guittard or Ghiradelli)
½ cup slivered almonds
½ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup shredded coconut
¼ cup dried cherries (or any dried fruit)
½ - 1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup brown rice syrup
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 – 3 tablespoons almond butter (depending on how moist you like your bars)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Mix together all dry ingredients in a large bowl
In a small saucepan, heat brown rice syrup, vanilla, and almond butter until dissolved
Pour contents of saucepan into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon (this counts as an upper body workout)
Spoon batter into prepared granola bar pans (spray with coconut oil) and make for 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven. The bars will be soft when you take them out of the oven but will harden as they cool. I use a spatula to pat them down as soon as I take them out of the oven so they are easy to remove from the pans.
If you bake the bars in a cookie sheet, you’ll just have to experiment with when to score them.
After they are completely cooled I put some in the cookie jar but freeze the rest.
Makes about 24 bars.
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