Granola Bars

We love granola bars around here, we go through them like poop through a goose. You don't think poop goes through a goose very fast? Then you don't like in an area with Canada geese I can tell you!

Now back to food

So, we love granola bars and eat them a lot. And because we eat them a lot I decided some time ago that I needed to be able to make them at home because I couldn't keep up with the demand and the cost was killing me. After searching on the old internet and some experimentation I have finally (I hope) gotten the recipe down and thought I would share it with you, my wonderful internet friends.

First you will need this stuff

Look at all those lovely ingredients, yum.

You see this stuff. This stuff is homemade vanilla. Oh yay. And let me tell you it is liquid gold and it smells absolutely divine! I will be telling you how to make this later this week, just because I am nice and I care about your bottom line. It is MUCH cheaper to make this stuff than to buy it.

Now that we have all taken a good whiff of the vanilla lets get cracking shall we. The first thing you do is you get your oatmeal out. It can't be quick oats, it has to be that old fashioned kind.

Dump 2 cups of rolled out onto a large baking sheet

Then chop up 1 cup of pecans and add them to the baking sheet

Then add 3/4 cup of wheat germ, 3/4 cup of sunflower seeds and 3/4 cup sliced almonds.

Mix them all up on the baking sheet. Go on, use those digits. That is why God gave you fingers. Put the baking sheet into the oven at 350F

Set the timer to this many minutes. When the timer goes off, stir the mixture with a wooden spoon and then let it toast for another 5-10 minutes. Then take it out and let it cool down. Please ignore the fact that my timer needs to be cleaned in a BIG way. I will get to it eventually but I am busy at the moment.

While the oatmeal mixture is cooling you can go ahead and roughly chop up whatever dried fruit that you would like. The total amount of dried fruit should be about 1.5 cups. I just eyeball it but that measurement was for my friend Lauren. There you go Lauren.


After you are done chopping the fruit then it is time to make the "glue" that sticks everything together. It is good glue, it doesn't take anything like the library paste that you ate as a kid. Not that I would know anything about that!

Put 8 tablespoons of butter into a small saucepan

Add a scant cup of honey, a 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. I told you these were good.

Turn the burner to medium low and start to melt everything together. At first it is going to look like this, with all the butter on the top. Get out your whisk and keep stirring, don't get discouraged.

Eventually it will look like this. Just keep it warm on the stove until you need it, stirring it occasionally.

When the oat mixture is cooled and the glue is done then it is time to put it all together.
Put the oat mixture, the dried fruit and 1 cup of flaked coconut into a big bowl. Add the glue and mix it all around with a wood spoon. It will be sticky but not too bad.

Then dump it into a 9x13 pan that you have sprayed with cooking spray and lined with wax paper. The wax paper is VERY important because that is going to help you get the granola bars out when they have cooled.

Press the granola mixture down into the pan. It is really sticky so I use a piece of wax paper as a barrier and a spatula to put pressure on the mixture. You want it to be rather well compacted.

Then stick the pan in the refrigerator to cool.

Once it is done cooling (several hours) take it out and gently turn the pan over onto the counter. The wax paper should make this easy. Cut the granola bar brick into manageable pieces. Wrap the pieces up in plastic wrap or small baggies and store them in the frig. They really do taste better if stored in the cold. Ask The Shoe Queen, she agrees with me.

Then feel free to eat them at any time of the day or night. They are delicious.

Mouthwatering Granola Bars

2 C rolled oats
3/4 C wheat germ
3/4 C sunflower seeds
3/4 C sliced almonds
1 1/2 C chopped dried fruit- pineapple, apricots, golden raisins, cranberries
1 C chopped pecans
1 C flaked coconut
8 T. butter
scant 1 C honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 t. vanilla

Mix oats, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds and chopped pecans on a baking sheet. Toast in 350F oven for 15-20 minutes, stirring once. Allow to cool.

Line 9x13 glass dish with waxed paper, spray with non-stick spray and set aside.

Heat brown sugar, butter, honey and vanilla in a small saucepan. Stir until dissolved and incorporated.

Chop dried fruit, add to oat mixture along with coconut. Pour "glue" over all and mix well. Dump into lined pan and compact the mixture down. Cool 2-3 hours in the refrigerator before dumping the "brick" out onto the counter and cutting into smaller bars.

You can also make chocolate peanut butter granola bars. Instead of adding dried fruit add about a cup of mini chocolate chips. Also melt 3 T of peanut butter into the "glue". Then prepare the same way that you do the dried fruit granola bars.