Granola Bars

These can be either crunchy or not so crunchy depending on your baking time, with my oven just 1-2 minutes is the difference between soft like a chewy oatmeal cookie and crunchy like those Nature Valley ones - either way it's been a hit here in our house.

Ingredients:

--3 cups oats, toasted (I've use both gluten-free oats or the cheapo Great Value ones, both worked equally well for this recipe. I have not tried steel cut oats because I think they would be too hard, but one day I'm sure I'll try tossing some in just to see.)
--1 to 1.5 cups nuts/seeds (I use a mix of sunflower seed kernels, almonds and walnuts)
--1 cup dried fruit (I use dried cherries and dried cranberries - next batch I'm planning on using blueberries, I bet Crasins would be awesome)
--1/2 cup dark brown sugar
--1/3 cup peanut butter, melted
--1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
--1/3 cup honey (local honey is always better IMO)
--1 egg
--1 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon (you can use regular, I'm just partial to the Saigon cinnamon)
--1/2 teaspoon PURE vanilla or almond extract (yes, it costs more but ALWAYS use pure extracts! Imitations are just icky)
--1/2 teaspoon sea salt (they're trendy and a touch pretentious but if I'm going to use salt in something I prefer my "hoity-toity" sea salt, Black Lava Salt or Alaea Sea Salt are my favorites for this)

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  Directions:

  1. 1
     To toast oats spread them on an ungreased cookie sheet or jelly roll pan and bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes or until just golden.
  2. 2
     While oats are toasting mix peanut butter, butter and honey in small pot and melt together on low. While waiting for that to heat mix dry ingredients in large bowl (only metal or glass, never use plastic for food prep).  When oats finish toasting add oats to dry ingredients then pour melted ingredients over top, add egg and mix together.  DON'T FORGET THE EGG!!  I've had to take it out of the pan just before I put it in the oven more than once because I forgot the egg!
  3. 3
     Firmly press into a cookie sheet or jellyroll pan lined with parchment paper. Don't forger the paper or you'll have one hell of a mess to try and get out of your pan!
  4. 4
     Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. 16 minutes gives us a nice chewy treat that doesn't cut easily into bars but still tastes amazing, 18 makes a crunchy, easily cut bar.
  5. 5
     Cool completely and cut. Good luck on the waiting part, we're all picking at it the instant it's out of the oven and it makes the house smell amazing while it's baking!

This recipe has a lot of wiggle room. Alternate crunchy for creamy peanut butter or try different nut butter such as cashew, almond or sunflower butter. Adding a bit of PB2 to the dry mix will really enhance the peanut butter flavor, too, and I absolutely love the hint of peanut butter flavor in this recipe. Add some coconut or you could leave the fruits out completely. Substitute some of the oats or nuts for crunchy chow mein noodles, rice crispies, pretzels, grape nuts, chex or cheerios for something different - just remember to keep the amounts even or the binding sauce won't be enough. If using something salted, like pretzels, you may need to adjust the amount of salt in the mixture. It's very easy to over salt something and can be difficult to get rid of the salt once it's there. Personally I don't like salt much and never use the full amount called for in a recipe anyway. Whatever combination you go with just make sure you've enough ingredients to make another batch on hand because if your're anything like us the first batch will go FAST and you'll be wanting more!