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4/14/10

Homemade Granola Bars

I recently made some homemade granola bars - something I've never attempted before. I have to say, in general, they were pretty successful. I definitely need to tweak it just a little bit but for the most part I was pleased.
Here is the recipe that I started with, kindly borrowed from the blog Kitchen Stewardship.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour, or spelt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter, softened*
1 cup honey
Add-ins: 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped walnuts
other options include dried fruits, sunflower seeds, coconut, nuts…
*If you have hard butter, you can roll it under wax paper with a rolling pin.

As I have mentioned before, I am not great at sticking to the recipe. I tend to try and make things a little healthier or less caloric. Naturally, this was no exception. I substituted one of the sticks of butter (1/2 cup) for 1/2 cup applesauce. I also didn't use quite a whole cup of whole wheat flour.

Here's what it looked like in my mixing bowl. At this point, if you are a person that is fond of eating dough (not sayin' I am....but I TOTALLY AM!) I would definitely recommend taking a bite or ten of this granola. As much as I think the granola bars were successful, they are nothing compared to how wonderful this tasted when it was all mixed up. I think the baking part kind of dulls the honey taste, but when it is just the batter - yuuuuuuuuum.


Moving on...once the batter is all mixed up, put it in a 9x13 pan. The original recipe says to butter the pan. I didn't find that necessary, and mine didn't stick.



Bake them for 15-20 at 325, and voila!



I didn't add anything to mine, but I would recommend it. My husband said they taste like oatmeal without any add ins. I tried them last night with a bit of granola bar, a chocolate chip, and a dried cherry all at one time (a party in my mouth, if you will), and they were divine, so next time I am going to try to just mix stuff in to make their deliciousness even better. All that being said, they do taste much more oatmeal-y than normal granola bars. I eat oatmeal every morning, so that is not an issue for me, but might be for people who aren't so into that.
I'm reading this: Homemade Granola BarsTweet this! Posted by Lauren on Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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1 comment:

  1. JoyJune 1, 2010 at 9:41 AM

    Thanks so much for this recipe! I made some last week. They turned out pretty good. I added peanut butter to mine. I put 1/4 cup peanut butter, 1/4 cup butter, and 1/2 cup applesauce as a substitute for the 1 cup butter. I thought they turned out pretty well. I'm definitely going to add a little salt (the peanut butter I used was salt free), and maybe add a tiny bit of organic whole cane sugar. Also, do you have any suggestions for substitions for chocolate chips...I want something real. Again, thanks for the recipe.

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