These granola bars are going to be a work in progess. I don't enjoy store bought granola bars and I would like to figure out a recipe for a "just right" granola bar - a sort of not too crunchy, nice and chewy, not too sweet, lots of healthy stuff but room for chocolate chips and still sticks together well enough to survive backpacking and biking trips kind of granola bar. I wanted it to be mostly oats but decided to use some flour too so that it would be more likely to stick together and not as quick to crumble. This is what I've come up with so far but would love to hear suggestion to your favourite granola bar recipes. (This recipe has been a long time favourite and is sweetened without any sugar but I'd like to have a couple good recipes on hand)
4 cups oats
1/2 cup chopped almonds
Toast the oats and almonds on a cookie sheet while assembling your other dry ingredients.
1/3 cup ground flax seed
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar
Mix these dry ingredients in bowl. Then add the toasted oats and almonds. In a saucepan melt:
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
Cool! (I didn't have time for that bit so when I added the chocolate chips to my mix they melted because the honey/oil mixture had made the dough so warm). Then add
2 eggs
Mix wet ingredients and then add into dry ingredients. (you may need to add a titch of water, nut milk or applejuice to make it into a "sticky" dough). Add any extras you like. I used
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate chips
I baked them at 350 in a 9 x 13 oiled pan for about 30 minutes. When they were almost done I took them out of the oven and sliced them into bars then put them back in to finish baking.
I'll still be playing with this recipe although I've got the hold-togetherness the way I had hoped for. They travelled well. Would love to hear if you try them and find some ways to improve them
6 comments:
Your granola bars looks SO delicious!! Sadly I became allergic to oats less than a year ago and now I can't eat any of my favourite things, like granola, oatmeal and oatmeal cookies :( If I ever can find a replacement for oats, I'm going to try your recipe... I'm drooling just looking at the pic, lol.
I've had these before and I've found them tasty.
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/playgroup-granola-bars/Detail.aspx
I look forward to trying your finished recipe!
Yum! We love granola bars!
We gave up store bought granola bars as well. I have two recipes that I use. This one - http://debbiedas.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/one-small-change-update-2/
uses no sugar - only apple juice and grated apple to sweeten (along with whatever dried fruit you add to it.) They are a little crumbly but very nice.
And then there is this one -
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/thick-chewy-granola-bars/
which is very good but does use both sugar and honey. But man...are they good.
I so prefer to make them myself. Nothing compares, really. I will try out your recipe. You are right, it's good to have a few on hand. -Debbie
Hi Sunshinemama (great name!)- at our bulk food store we can buy rolled grains of all sorts, not just oats but kamut, spelt, rye and a few more. Maybe you can find something like that to use instead of oats?
Hi Sarah, thanks for the link. Those looks great and it is nice to try several recipes.
Hi Debbiedas, thanks for those links too. We have lots of camping times and beach days so I will get the chance to try out all the recipes.
We make the same recipe that Sarah linked to, and it's what I was going to share! I don't usually use quite as much sugar, and I leave out the cinnamon because I think it makes them taste weird, and I add in whatever I feel like. And they're pretty much always good. Especially when my husband has a say in the matter and they have chocolate chips in them. :)
Post a Comment