I have always loved granola bars. They are easy to throw in your purse or gym bag and are very satisfying. However, many packaged granola bars have tons of corn syrup and other additives in them, even when they claim to be natural. Here is a quick, easy and yummy granola bar that you can make in your own home. It is adapted from Ina Garten’s Homemade Granola Bar recipe. Garten’s are very tasty, but a bit too sweet for my husband and me. After playing around with the amount of brown sugar and honey, this is what I came up with:
Ingredients:
2 cups old fashioned oats (you can also use instant)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
3 TBSP butter (Don’t skimp on this amount. I tried using less and they won’t stick together!)
1/3 cup honey
2 TBSP light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped raisins or chocolate chips (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Toast the oatmeal, pecans and coconut about 6 minutes. Stir and toast another 5-6 minutes.
3. Put toasted mixture in a bowl and add the wheat germ. Mix well.
4. Lower the temperature to 300.
5. In a small saucepan, melt butter, brown sugar, vanilla and salt over low-medium heat.
6. Once it starts to boil, let it go for one minute (no more, no less!)
7. Pour over toasted mixture and combine.
8. Add dried fruit and mix well.
9. Spray a small rectangular baking dish with PAM or butter it.
10. Line dish with parchment paper.
11. Press granola mixture into the dish and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
12. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack for at least 2 hours.
13. Remove from the dish (it will come right out off the parchment paper) and place onto cutting board.
14. Cut into bars and serve.
TIP #1 – Make sure that the dried fruits are cut to the same size and evenly distributed.
TIP #2 – Use the crumbs leftover from cutting the bars to put in your yogurt or over ice cream. MMMMM!
The Cooking Goose 