Granola Bars

Granola ingredients

Ingredient List

4 cups oats

1 cup wheat germ

½ cup All-Bran

1 bag slivered almonds (2/3 cup)

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 ¼ cups honey

4 tablespoons melted butter

1 ½ cups chocolate chips (optional)

 

We have more than one sweet tooth in our family. In fact, I think my husband and our 12-year-old were blessed with mouths full of “sweet teeth.”

Homemade fudge and chocolate chip cookies are favorites at our house, but I wanted to find a nutritious, satisfying snack that tasted like a treat. When a friend brought me a batch of homemade granola bars, I knew they were what I was looking for. I tweaked her recipe a bit to suit my family’s tastes, and now I’m happy to be able to share it with you.

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Then mix all the dry ingredients together: oatmeal, wheat germ, All-Bran, cinnamon, and almonds.  You can get a little creative here by substituting ingredients. Just make sure to keep the same dry to wet ingredient ratio. Suggested substitutions: raisins, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds…

Granola 2

 

Once the dry ingredients have been well blended, stir in 1 ½ cups peanut butter, 1 ¼ cups honey, and 4 tablespoons of melted butter. This takes some muscle! The granola mixture will be very thick.

Granola 3

 

Now, line a 9×13 pan with foil and press the granola into the pan. I like to spray my wooden spoon or spatula with some cooking spray to keep the mixture from sticking when I’m pressing it into the pan.

Granola 4

 

Bake the granola for 13 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips over the top. Pop the bars back in the oven for 2 minutes to melt the chips and then spread the melted chips evenly over the top with a knife or spatula. (You can skip the chocolate step and just leave the granola in the oven for 15 minutes if you’d prefer it unfrosted.)

Granola 5

 

Refrigerate the bars until firm (about 2 hours). Then cut the bars . Because the pan is lined with foil, you can pull the whole thing out of the pan in one piece and slice it on a cutting board. This makes the slicing easier as the bars are very dense. (As you can see from the next picture, it is possible to cut them in the pan too.

Granola 6

Finally, put them in a storage container and store them in your fridge. Now you have a tasty, nutritious treat that even the sweetest tooth in your family will enjoy.


Kim Harms

 

Kim Harms lives in Huxley, Iowa with her husband and three growing sons who eat a lot of food. She is a freelance writer and co-founder of 500 Dresses, a clothing ministry to Haitian children. You can find her online at kimharms.net and 500dresses.org.

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  1. Devokids: Granola Bars | 26 Letters - A Million Stories - [...] out my latest food post at devokids. I’ll tempt you here with the ingredient list I’d love to know…

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