Chewy toasted granola bars
I think granola bars are snacks that can either be healthy for you or quite the camouflaged junk food. They are the ones that I usually spend far too much time at the grocery store reading the side of the box; the ingredients, the nutritional content, just to find myself walking away empty handed. To say the least, I don’t trust them…ha!Since totally pulling off a ’10 days of real food’ challenge about a month ago, I’ve really discovered a greater love for unprocessed foods. It was one of the most interesting food challenges that I’ve endeavoured yet and I’ve learned more than I can even write in one post. So, to ease my burden of finding the ‘right‘ granola bar in the shops, I just opted to make my own at home!
Equipment
- 1 oven
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup whole rolled oats
- 1/2 cup whole kamut flakes
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup dried raisins
- 1 1/2 cups Kashi puffed wheat cereal
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup agave nectar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/2 – 1 tbsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, toast the first 4 ingredients.
- Toast them separately as they have different burning points.
- Ovens vary slightly, so just pop them in and watch them.
- They should take about 5-10 minutes each.
- Once all toasted, combine these 4 ingredients in one large bowl.
- Add the cranberries, and puffed wheat cereal and mix well.
- In a small saucepan, combine almond butter with agave nectar.
- Heat slowly over medium-low heat until melted.
- Ensure not to boil the mixture, so this takes only a few minutes.
- Stir in the cinnamon and sea salt and blend well.
- Pour melted mixture over granola and stir until well coated.
- Again, I used 2 bread loaf pans and greased them ever-so-lightly with butter (so they wouldn’t stick).
- Divide the mixture in two and press firmly into pans.
- Use a flat spatula, it seems to work best.
- Chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- Once cooled, remove from pan and slice into bars.
- Here’s where the loaf pans come in handy, since they’re the perfect width to create the length of the bars.
- Since these aren’t baked, they are very chewy and crumbly.
- My favourite!! Store in refrigerator so they don’t get too melty in the hot summer weather.