Homemade Granola Bars- Recipe

(this isn't my picture, but my granola bars look very similar to these)

Who doesn't love a good granola bar? A convection oven and stovetop are all you need to make your own.

And look at all of the extra and unncessary ingredients you DON'T need to add to your own bars...(these ingredients are pretty common in most packaged granola bars or protein bars).


High Maltose Corn Syrup, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt, Salt), Wheat Flakes (Whole Wheat, Sugar, Salt, Malt), Palm Kernel Oil, Corn Meal, Fructose, Canola Oil, Yogurt Powder (Cultured Whey Protein Concentrate, Cultured Skim Milk, Yogurt Cultures), Corn Bran, Maltodextrin, Calcium Carbonate, Nonfat Milk, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Honey, Color Added, Natural Flavor, Lactic Acid, Calcium Lactate, Mixed Tocopherols Added to Retain Freshness, Sunflower Meal, Peanut Flour, Almond Flour.

No, thanks! We'll leave the high fructose corn syrup out of our granola bars! Now, my best recipes are created through trial and error, so here is what I've come up with after making quite a few batches:

Ingredients:

4 cups rolled oats

1 cup shredded coconut (if you can find it...try Wellman's in Tianmu)

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds (Jason's Marketplace carries these)

1/2 cup wheat germ (optional)

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (go to Wellman's for the good stuff)

1/2 cup honey

1 cup raisins and/or chocolate chips

1 tsp. vanilla extract

First, preheat the oven to 350F, which is 175C.

Then, mix all of the "dry" ingredients in a big bowl---oats, nuts, coconut, wheat germ, raisins, chocolate chips.

After that, melt the butter, brown sugar and honey in a saucepan and bring it to a small boil for about a minute, stirring the entire time. Turn off the burner and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla.

Then, pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and stir until all the dry ingredients are coated. Press the granola firmly into the bottom of a greased 11 x 13" pan and put it in the oven to bake for about 35 minutes. Watch the bars carefully...if your oven gets too hot, they make burn on the bottom. Take the bars out when they look golden brown on top.

When you remove the granola from the oven, allow it to cool only slightly before cutting it into squares—but wait until it’s completely cool before removing the bars from the pan.

Other things you can add into the mix:

Kissables (a big bag is only NT$89 at the Tianmu Carrefour)

Cashews

Cinnamon

Craisins