Granola is great for you. It has fiber, nuts, grains and fruit, and all the things that your body needs for energy. You can find all kinds of granola bars at the grocer's but most have a small bit of protein and lots of sugar and other ingredients that aren't more than a quick boost of energy followed by a big crash. Make your own that will last.
Instructions
1. Decide what ingredients that you want from the categories of nuts, fruits and flavoring. Virtually any combination of nuts will work for your granola bars as long as they are chopped or slivered. Just a few that might start you thinking are pecans, walnuts, almonds, macadamia, cashews, pumpkin seeds, pistachio or peanuts. Fruits that you might want to include are raisins, yellow raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried banana slices, dried apricots, dried apple pieces, dried pineapple, dried blueberries or dried strawberries. The final selection you need to make is if you want to add any flavoring into the basic flavor of the bars, such as vanilla, orange, cinnamon, banana, coconut, almond, butter rum or butterscotch.
2. Gather the ingredients and process them to be ready to add to the bars. Chop the nuts and fruit pieces into bite size nuggets.
3. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Coat a medium sized glass baking dish with a small amount of butter so that the mix doesn't stick. Put in a mixing bowl all of the dry ingredients. These include the rolled oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, coconut, wheat germ and chopped nuts. Mix them well. Pour this mix into the baking dish and place in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Stir the mix occasionally. If you like your granola a bit crispier, then allow the mix to bake for a few extra minutes. Be careful not to scorch or burn the mix though.
4. Mix in a small saucepan a few tablespoons of butter, some brown sugar or maple syrup, a few drops of your chosen flavoring and Splenda. Bring to a boil and then simmer for a few minutes. Place the roasted dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Pour into the dry ingredients the hot liquid ingredients and stir well until you coat all the ingredients.
5. Turn out the coated mixture into a large buttered baking dish. Press the mixture into an even sheet of granola in the baking dish. If you want, thicker bars then use a smaller baking dish. Sprinkle a thin coating of whey protein powder over the top of the bars and put them back in the oven.
6. Bake the bars for another 20 minutes to dry the bars and reduce the stickiness. Once they have finished baking, cut into one inch by two-inch bars. Wrap the bars in wax paper and store in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator.
Tags: baking dish, granola bars, ingredients that, into large, mixing bowl