Homemade Granola Bars

Photo credit: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/

Did you know you could make your granola bars at home ? Yh, me either. I am an advocate for homemade meals because you are in control of the ingredients and processing that goes into your food. Granola bars are great to-go snacks, which i try to avoid (for the most part) cause i am not comfortable with the amount of sugar and sodium that goes into it. So imagine my joy when i found out that you can make these delicious treats at home. Here goes !

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Yield: 6 bars

You'll need:

2 cups oat flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats or granola
1/4 tbs baking soda (optional)
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/2 tbs salt
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup nuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup greek yoghurt baking chips
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries
2 tbs butter (optional)

Directions

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your baking pan with parchment or foil paper, grease the pan.
2) In a large mixing bowl mix all the dry ingredients except your sugar and salt (you get oat flour simply by blending the oats and you can pick up granola from bulk barn). Be sure to measure the oats before blending not after.
3) Toss the dry mixture onto the baking pan and bake for 10-12 mins, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. When this is done, bring out the pan and reduce the oven to 300 degrees.
4) In a small sauce pan place the butter, honey, brown sugar, salt and vanilla extract over medium heat. Cook and stir for about one min.
5) Pour the liquid mixture into the baking pan over dry ingredients and mix. Make sure to form a rectangular or square shape to facilitate cutting into bars. Bake for about 25-30mins at 300 degrees or until light golden brown.
6) Let it cool, cut into squares and serve.

Store in a cool dry place. I store mine in the fridge in ziploc bags. You can substitute the ingredients in this recipe to suit your diet. Some people use regular flour rather than oats, but i prefer oats cause it is a healthier option than flour. Please go crazy with this recipe. Let me know what you think and what your substitutions were.

XOXO !

Follow the links to watch tutorial videos

Chewy granola bars recipe
Homemade granola bars recipe
Quaker style chewy granola bars (Not a video)