Homemade Granola Bars

pic by sume

Being totally boring here, but I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. In my younger days, I’d buy granola bars because I thought they made for a healthy, natural snack for the kids. I couldn’t stand the taste and texture but the kids would gobble them up especially if they had chocolate chips or marshmallows added (so much for healthy). One day it dawned on me to read the ingredients. Example:

Vanilla Ingredients: Rolled Oats, High Maltose Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt, Salt), Wheat Flakes (Whole Wheat, Sugar, Salt, Malt), Palm Kernel Oil, Corn Meal, Fructose, Canola Oil, Yogurt Powder (Cultured Whey Protein Concentrate, Cultured Skim Milk, Yogurt Cultures), Corn Bran, Maltodextrin, Calcium Carbonate, Nonfat Milk, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Honey, Color Added, Natural Flavor, Lactic Acid, Calcium Lactate, Mixed Tocopherols Added to Retain Freshness, Sunflower Meal, Peanut Flour, Almond Flour.

What is all that shit? The recipe that I use:

2-1/2 cups rolled oats (oldfashioned or instant)
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup slivered almonds
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

While your oven is preheating to 300°F, spread the oats, coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, wheat germ, and almonds evenly on a 9″ X 12″ baking sheet. Bake these dry ingredients for 20 minutes, stirring them occasionally.

Meanwhile, heat the butter (or margarine), brown sugar, and honey in a small saucepan, allowing the brew to simmer until the oat mixture is ready to come out of the oven. (If you or yours like really crispy granola, bake the dry ingredients an additional few minutes.) As soon as the oat mixture is out, add the raisins, stirring them into the other ingredients.

Now remove the honey from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract, then pour the hot liquid over the oat mixture and stir until all the dry ingredients are coated.

Next, press the granola firmly into the bottom of a greased 8″ X 8″ pan and place it in the still-warm oven to bake (at the same 300°F as before) for 20 minutes. (An 8″ X 8″ pan makes bars about an inch thick; if you want thinner bars, use a slightly larger pan.)

When you remove the granola from the oven, allow it to cool only slightly before cutting it into squares—but wait until it’s completely cool before removing the bars from the pan.

I fiddle with the recipe experimenting with different nuts, cereals, chocolate chips or dried fruits. I also leave out the wheat germ, coconut and sunflower seeds. What I do is start with what I think are the basic ingredients of oats, butter (margarine? no way!), brown sugar, honey and vanilla. Oh and I also put in a 1/2 tsp of freshly ground cinnamon. As long as you get close to the intended mass, it works out just fine. I also bake mine less because we like our granola chewy. The author also has suggestion for variations. Voila! It’s quick, easy and you know what’s in it.

Hmmm…maybe I shouldn’t have zoomed in so close. It looks kind of gross like that.