Granola bars are a staple. Let's face it. Who doesn't like to wing a few of these bad boys to the back seat of the mini-van as it whizzes down the street trailing clouds of pixie dust behind it. We certainly have had our share of those mornings. Not for lack of planning, but complete lack of participation on the part of my children when it comes to getting out of bed. I should plan for those 2 hour mornings right? Geesh. If however I am good enough to share my chewy granola bar tutorial with you, does that help? I know we sure love them around here. These are loaded with flax seed and homemade organic goodness so I don't even feel guilty passing them to the back seat. Mind you, they do have some sugar, but...don't get me started on the store bought bars. Most of them are way loaded.Kicker price too. I spent 4$ on the ingredients (some of which I had on hand) and I was still able to get almost 45 granola bars out of this recipe. Yes. You read it right. 45.
You will need:4 cups granola, preferably in smaller pieces or my granola: Home-Spun Breakfast Cereal
4 cups rolled oats
4 cups rolled oats
4 cups crispy rice cereal
1 cup flax seed (optional)
1T cinnamon
2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp double strength vanilla
2/3 cup honey or molasses
Combine the dry ingredients in a large 2 gallon bowl. Lightly oil 2 9 by 13 inch casserole pans and set them aside. In a 2 quart heavy pot, combine the sugar, butter, water, vanilla and honey or molasses.
Combine the dry ingredients in a large 2 gallon bowl. Lightly oil 2 9 by 13 inch casserole pans and set them aside. In a 2 quart heavy pot, combine the sugar, butter, water, vanilla and honey or molasses.
It will be a nice rolling boil the full 5 minutes starting the timer when it comes to a boil. I have found if I just use honey and no sugar, it does help the bars to hold together if I add one cup of soy or whey protein powder to the dry ingredients. This also works using one cup of dry milk powder. Boil the syrup over medium heat stirring well, until a drop placed in cold water holds it's shape, about 5 minutes (soft ball stage). It helps to have one piece of ice in the water so it is a true test of when it is ready. Not ready yet...
Getting closer...
Ready! Pour immediately over the dry ingredients and combine well.
It will not be too gooey. Just right.
Scrape all the way to the bottom of the bowl.
Divide the mixture between the two pans. Lightly spray the top of the bars with non-stick spray or oil. Press down firmly, being careful not to burn your hands. Transfer pans to the fridge and chill 10-15 minutes. Cut with a sharp knife into bars of desired size. Standard granola bar size yielded about 45 bars.
Place in snack size bags or keep in an airtight container. Ours rarely last more than a few days, so I can't really say how long they will keep fresh.
There you go. Granola bars. You can do it!
8 comments:
Oh my yummy! I have been looking for an energy bar/granol bar recipe for a LONG time now...who knew that all alon all I needed to do was ask my favorite chefster! Woo hoo! Thanks for sharing!
Perfect! I've been looking for a recipe like this. Thanks!
I'm wondering if you could just substitute the sugar with more honey, brown rice syrup, or maple syrup? would that work?
Yes you can just use honey, but in order for it to hold well you need to boil it about 3 minutes more. It will seem pretty stiff.
Those look delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I make my own granola once or twice a month and this will be a wonderful use for some of it.
So I made my first (1/2) batch today, right after making a batch of my homemade granola. I have a question about the syrup stage, however. I simmered it for 5-7 minutes, but when I poured it in the cold water it never looked like your photo. The best it did was to sink to the bottom and stick to the bowl.
I didn't want it to go too long on the burner, so I went for it and poured it on the granola mix. I tried cutting after it cooled, and it tastes DELICIOUS, but it crumbled something bad. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Tara
Tara, that is my bad. I said simmer in the post but it will be a nice rolling boil the full 5 minutes starting the timer when it comes to a boil. I have found if I just use honey and no sugar, it does help the bars to hold together if I add one cup of soy or whey protein powder to the dry ingredients. This also works using one cup of dry milk powder. I will go back and fix it in the recipe. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
:) Thanks for the reply! That should do the trick. They are so tasty that I plan to make another batch as soon as these are gone. I bet these will find their way to the school lunch bags often this fall.
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