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Homemade Granola Bar
I just started to feed my toddler granola bars a couple of weeks ago and I bought these expensive organic bars that cost me $6 bucks for just 4 bars and I kid you not those fuckers where gone in two days! WTF. I wanted to have granola bars accessible for times I needed a quick snack for my little one and yet somehow it still be nutritious and affordable, which was not looking too promising. So I decided to experiment on my own in the kitchen for the perfect granola bar and after many trial and errors I eventually came up with this chewy and soft granola bar that my whole family loves.
Now this recipe is super versatile so you can customize these bars to your liking. The base consists of oats, honey, and coconut oil. Once you have your base ingredients you then can decide on your favorite nut butter to use, the obvious choice is peanut butter but you can use almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, whatever is your preferred choice. Don't be afraid to change out the chocolate chips and coconut flakes for something else you may prefer, for example, you could use craisins, raisins, chopped nuts, pistachios, seeds or dried fruits. Just try and have fun with this recipe and experiment a little on your own. Thats the fun of cooking, coming up with your own concoctions in the kitchen.
I do want to warn you all in advance that these bars will fall apart when left at room temperature, so its best to store these either in your fridge or freezer. The reason these fall apart so easily at room temp. is because of the coconut oil. Coconut oil at room temperature becomes soft and melts. If you want to take these bars with you somewhere, I always make sure to have some stored in my freezer to take with me on my travels, so then by the time I’m ready to eat it they are at the perfect temp. But please never place these granola bars inside of your purse, they could melt and become a huge mess for you to clean up! I will be experimenting more in the future for a granola bar that will stay together at room temperature and once I have come up with one I will make sure to share it with you all. But don't let this scare you! I promise these granola bars are some of the best I have ever had. The softness of them is amazing, its almost as if they have just come straight out of the oven!
~ Homemade Chewy Granola Bars ~
Yields: 15-20 Bars
Prep Time: 30 Mins
Cool Time: 1 Hour
Ingredients:
• 1 Cup Honey
• 1/2 Cup Maple Syrup
• 1/3 Cup Coconut Oil
• 1 Cup Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 2 tsps. Vanilla Extract
• 4 Cups Crisped Rice Cereal
• 2 2/3 Cups Old-Fashioned Oats
• 2/3 Cup Coconut Flakes
• 1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips
Instructions:
1.) In a bowl combine your oats, rice cereal, and coconut flakes; stir together.
2.) Put honey, brown sugar and coconut oil into a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir the mixture the whole time while in the saucepan so it won’t stick to the bottom and burn. Boil for 1 minute until the mixture combines.
3.) Take the mixture off of the heat and add in peanut butter and vanilla extract, stir until you get a smooth consistency and let sit for about 1 to 2 mins.
4.) Pour your peanut butter into your bowl of oats and stir until well combined, let sit and cool for 10 to 15 mins. Or untill cool to the touch (we don't want our chocolate chips to melt)
5.) Grab a cookie sheet and cut out a sheet of parchment paper to fit the cookie sheet and place it on top.
6.) Once your mixture is cool enough, add in half of the coconut flakes and chocolate chips (save the other half for the top of granola)
7.) Pour mixture onto your cookie sheet on top of the parchment paper and spread out evenly.
8.) Take another piece of parchment paper and place it on top of the granola.
9.) Put another cookie pan on top or you can use a rolling pin to press down to get the granola to stay together, once you have pressed hard enough take off the cookie sheet and parchment paper.
10.) Sprinkle the top evenly with the other half of the chocolate chips and coconut flakes then repeat the smooshing process once again till your chocolate chips and coconut flakes are pressed into your granola bars.
11.) Put the cookie sheet into your fridge for 1 to 2 hours and then slide the granola out of the pan and cut into bars with a knife.
12.) Wrap in cling wrap and store in your fridge or freezer.
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