Make Your Own Chewy Granola Bars

 

Granola bars are one of my favorite  morning snacks, especially on work days.  They’re a quick and easy little bite I can eat at my desk, they don’t make a mess, they’re not too sweet, and they help tide me over until my lunch hour rolls around.

I { heart} granola bars!

Even though it’s easy to just grab a box of Quaker chewy granola bars at the store, it’s almost just as easy to Make Your Own granola bars.  I have a recipe for homemade granola bars that bake in the oven, but I like this recipe too that needs no baking at all and is perfect in the hot weather when you don’t want to heat up your oven.

Homemade granola bars are also a good way to use up odds and ends of ingredients you bought for other baking recipes. This recipe uses one cup of “add-ins” of your choice so you can combine nuts, chocolate chips, white chips, coconut, raisins, or other dried fruits to suit your taste or to use up what you have around.

Chewy Granola Bars

You Will Need:

• 2 cups quick oats

• 2 cups Rice Krispie cereal

• 1/4 cup sunflower seed kernels

• 1/2 cup honey or light corn syrup (or 1/4 cup of each)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup peanut butter

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 cup total of add-ins (chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, etc.)

1.  Combine the quick oats, Rick Krispies, and the sunflower seed kernels in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

2.  In a small saucepan, combine the honey and/or corn syrup with the brown sugar.  Heat on the stove over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly.

3.  Remove from the heat and stir in the peanut butter and the vanilla.

4.  Pour the honey mixture over the oat mixture, mixing well to make sure everything is moistened.

5.  Finally, fold in the cup of add-ins.  If you’re using some kind of chips (like chocolate chips) as one of our add-ins, you’ll want to just stir them in briefly because the mixture is warm and if you stir the chips in too long, they will start to melt.

6.  Press the mixture into a greased 9×13 pan and let cool either at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

7.  Cut into bars  and enjoy.

And remember . . . just because the store bought granola bars are sold in long rectangular shapes, doesn’t mean you have to cut yours the same way.  Most of the time I just cut mine up into plain old squares.