Granola Bars!

You knew they were coming.

I got this granola bar recipe at Culinary in the Desert (Country?). I adapted it by reducing the amount of maple syrup to 2 tbsp, using PB2 for the peanut butter, eliminating both the oil and brown sugar, adding in 3/4 cup applesauce, and using Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffed Cereal instead of the crisped brown rice cereal. I wasn’t exactly sure what crisped brown rice cereal is and I picked up the Kashi Cereal for my dad a little while ago so I figured I’d use it for these bars (my dad likes cereal but with so many choices, he wasn’t sure which was the best choice nutritionally, so he allowed me to have my fun of going up and down the cereal aisle comparing cereals. While I’m not overly impressed with most Kashi products- I think that they’re raved about to unnecessary levels in terms of their health value, although to be fair I have yet to taste any of their products- this cereal is rather impressive. The ingredients list: whole hard red winter wheat, whole long grain brown rice, whole oats, whole barley, whole triticale, whole rye, whole buckwheat, sesame seeds. No sugar! Not too much fibre and not an extraordinarily high amount of nutrients, but at least all of the ingredients are real. For myself, I just stick with regular puffed wheat cereal if I’m in a cereal mood (one ingredient, plus it’s way cheaper and tastes roughly the same), but this cereal was just about perfect for these granola bars that I was making. I think that regular puffed wheat would not be the right consistency to be baked. Too puffy.

But these bars are so easy to make. Mix ingredients together, pour into pan, bake for 25 minutes. I love recipes that are that simple!

I tried a little taste of the bars after I first brought them out of the oven and I realized that my mistake had been in the sweetness, and here I must admit that I read the recipe wrong. I thought it said 1/4 cup maple syrup, not 1/2 cup! So I really should have reduced the amount to 4 tbsp of maple syrup rather than reducing the amount by a quarter, and if I had taken the time to read the recipe properly I would have done that. Or, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before, I should have instead added in a few chopped dates or some raisins. That would have been perfect.

But the next day I preferred the taste. You could taste more of the peanut butter flavours and the cinnamon, which was nice, but it would still be good if it were a tad bit sweeter. Making some chocolate sauce to spread over the top by combining a few squares of dark chocolate with some sugar might be just what its missing (now that they’re already baked and the extra maple syrup or some dates can’t be added in).

At any rate, if you’re tired of scouring the grocery stores in search of a decent granola bar, I suggest you give these a try. They’re healthy and easy, and if you add in that little bit of extra sweetness then they’ll taste really great too! This is another one of those recipes that I think I might fall in love with for the simple fact of its versatility. I’m sure that if you wanted to add in nuts, coconut flakes, or other dried fruit it would also be really great like that. I considered adding in a tbsp or so of cocoa powder but decided that for this first batch that would just be too many changes from the original recipe so I controlled myself. But maybe next time if I’m feeling daring I’ll attempt to do that too!

Whats your favourite granola bar? Or do you have a recipe that you like to use to make your own? Leave a comment!