Make your own granola bars

Let's face it - granola (muesli) bars are a great afternoon snack when your mind is repeating the word "chocolate" every 1.5 minutes.  However, if you look at the ingredient list of 80% of the brands on the supermarket shelf, they contain a lot of extra sugar - most sinister is "high fructose corn syrup" - no thanks.

Making your own snackies are SO EASY and you can put whatever you want in them - blueberries, apricots, cherries, yes, even dark chocolate chips!  The best thing is - you know exactly what went into them and can adjust things like sweetness to your preference.  I used Alton Brown's recipe and it's baking right now!

Dry ingredients toasted nicely

Oatmeal, nuts, fruit and honey in sweet sweet harmony

All pressed into the pan and ready for the oven! Ps - wet your fingers, it makes it soo much easier

I made a few changes, though.  I have a 9X13 pan, so I multiplied everything by 1.5 to fit my bigger pan.  I also nixed the brown sugar, figuring that honey was enough - and it was.  When I tasted the mix, I still thought it was too sweet, so I'll use less honey next time.   Nevertheless - DELICIOUSNESS!  It's really important to let the bars stand after baking (overnight is good) to set properly...otherwise you'll have granola blobs.

I chose dried blueberries, almonds, hazelnuts and cashews for my granola bars - what will you choose?

Enjoy!
Kat