Ok....so I made the granola bars again (I've been on a long lost search for a really perfect granola bar for a long time) and they are perfect for us now! I love them and so do my kids! Yay! Win/win is always good. :)
So I thought I would share the changes I made to the recipe to make them super good! (or at least to our liking)
The original recipe is below....
The first 5 ingredients are perfect. {you can use peanut butter instead of almond butter or sunflower butter or whatever you want there} I did all of that the same, but I added 3/4 cup of honey and completely eliminated the brown sugar. I also added a generous amount of peanut butter. Maybe closer to 4 T. It was TOO sweet for me the last time I made them with the brown sugar and honey is better for you anyway. The less processed and refined ingredients the better, right? :)
Moving on.....I also eliminated the cinnamon and ginger (I love cinnamon and ginger a LOT, but it was too distracting for me for some reason. I feel it didn't fit here.), but did keep the vanilla and salt the same. I added the 2 cups cereal (our fav is Special K....rice crispies would be good too!)
{sigh}.....
My kids do not enjoy dried fruit that much. (although 2 out of the 3 will eat them) I decided since I eliminated the refined sugar, that I could add in a few dark chocolate chips (per their request). The dark chocolate really isn't that sugary anyway, but SO yummy! And....because I put chocolate chips in the bars, I skipped putting it on top.
They were perfect!!!
They didn't taste overly sugary at all and had a nice peanut butter/chocolate flavor.
If it were just ME eating them.....I'd take out as much sweetness as I could (only use some honey) and add in a bunch of nuts, seeds and dried fruit! I love them that way. However, I also can't be eating a whole batch of granola bars by myself, so I need to listen to the opinions of my littles. I feel like we had a good compromise between the chocolate and the sugar. I hope you enjoy them as well....however you may like them! ;)
Granola Bars
1 3/4 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons almond butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups crushed cereal (whatever you have on hand)
3/4 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Line an 11x8-inch baking dish (you could probably sub an 8x8-inch dish) with foil; coat foil with cooking spray.
Place oats, coconut and almonds on a large cookie sheet. Bake 5 minutes or until light golden brown and fragrant.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together butter, almond butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and ginger until well combined; stir in oat-coconut-almond mixture, cereal and apricot until well combined. Press mixture into prepared dish. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant.
Cool completely before lifting foil out of pan and slicing into bars. (I would recommend refrigerating them a while for easier slicing.) Melt chocolate chips in a small ziploc bag, in the microwave, for about 1 minute, or until melted and smooth. Pipe melted chocolate onto bars and allow to dry.
Makes 12 large bars (you could cut them smaller and get more)
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons almond butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups crushed cereal (whatever you have on hand)
3/4 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Line an 11x8-inch baking dish (you could probably sub an 8x8-inch dish) with foil; coat foil with cooking spray.
Place oats, coconut and almonds on a large cookie sheet. Bake 5 minutes or until light golden brown and fragrant.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together butter, almond butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and ginger until well combined; stir in oat-coconut-almond mixture, cereal and apricot until well combined. Press mixture into prepared dish. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant.
Cool completely before lifting foil out of pan and slicing into bars. (I would recommend refrigerating them a while for easier slicing.) Melt chocolate chips in a small ziploc bag, in the microwave, for about 1 minute, or until melted and smooth. Pipe melted chocolate onto bars and allow to dry.
Makes 12 large bars (you could cut them smaller and get more)
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