I found this granola bar recipe over on Smitten Kitchen and decided to give it a go.. and I’m glad I did – they are seriously delicious! They did turn out a little bit crumbly (ok, a lot crumbly) for any number of reasons, but I think storing them in the fridge should do the trick. The recipe below is a slightly different version to that on Smitten Kitchen, because I couldn’t find some of the ingredients.. but this recipe is really flexible, so don’t feel like you have to stick to my recipe either!
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats
1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup oats processed in food processor until finely ground)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 cups (approx.) dried fruit and nuts chopped how you like it (I used: 2 cups mixed nuts (walnuts, pecans, blanched almonds), 1 cup mixed dried berries (cranberries, cherries, blueberries), 1/4 cup dried apple, 1/4 cup dried apricots)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
125 g butter, melted
1/4 cup maple syrup (or honey)
2 tbs honey (the recipe asks for corn syrup, but I don’t know what that is – or where to find it in our local Germany supermarket!)
1 tbs water
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line and grease a tin (the one I used was 23cm x 23cm).
Stir all the dry ingredients together (including fruit and nuts) in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, vanilla, peanut butter, maple syrup, honey and water until it looks like caramel. Combine this with the dry ingredients and stir until it’s all combined.
Put the mixture into the prepared tin and press the mixture into the pan firmly until it’s well compacted (I used the back of a metal spoon to really compact the mixture and make sure it was all even).
Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, or until it’s browned around the edges and browning in the middle. The slice must then be completely cooled in the tin before being cut, and if it’s still too crumbly, put it in the fridge for another 30 minutes and try again.
Miam, looks good!