Crunchy Granola Bars

Posted by Jill on February 27, 2013 in Cookies, Food, Snacks | 6 comments

So, yesterday on Facebook, someone asked me for a granola bar recipe. Apparently, I don’t have one. I do, however, have these awesome Crunchy Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter Oatmeal Squares. Wow, I forgot about those. They are so awesome!

So, I went on a quest. I wanted granola bars that were made with honey, instead of white sugar. I wanted them somewhat “healthy.” What I found were a lot of recipes with butter (which I was out of), and Rice Krispies (which we rarely have), so I continued to look. And then I found a recipe from Smitten Kitchen (love her!) that was perfect.

I tweaked her recipe a bit, using the ingredients I had on hand (and I bet you have these ingredients on hand, too!). What came out was wonderful chocolatel-y, crispy, healthy goodness.

The mini chocolate chips and craisins make these granola bars slightly sweet, but not overly sweet. These are much better than the store bought bars and my kids loved them. They ate them up, and I had no problem with that.

Make these and you will love them!

Crunchy Granola Bars

recipe slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 & 1/2 cups oats (quick-cooking or instant work best)
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup flaxseed meal or wheat germ
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup mix-ins (I did mini chocolate chips and craisins, but you can use whatever you want.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir the oats and almonds together in a 8×11″ baking dish and bake for 10-12 minutes or until slightly brown and smelling good.
2. While still warm, put the oats and almonds in a large bowl. Mix in the flaxseed. Then stir in the honey, salt, and vanilla extract. Mix until everything is coated in honey goodness.
3. Stir in your chocolate chips and craisins, or whatever mix-ins you want. Press the mixture back into the 8×11″ baking dish that has been lined with parchment paper. You want to press it down really hard to pack it in as tightly as possible. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until slightly brown.
4. Let cool in baking dish for 1-2 hours and then cut into squares using a serrated knife. (Hmmm… I probably should have used a serrated knife. I forgot. Oops!).
5. If you want to keep your granola bars crunchy, keep them in the freezer. If you keep them at room temp., they’ll soften.
6. Enjoy!

– Jill

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