I have never been a big fan of any packaged granola bars. For the most part, my experience with them has been tearing one open in an emergency to correct my falling blood sugar! Coming out of the package they are not at all tasty and not at all worth the calories. And who knows how long that bar has been sitting in that plastic wrapper along with all those odd-sounding ingredients that are trying to keep it “fresh”.
I had never tried to make my own granola bars before I saw this recipe. It’s fun to make these for yourself rather than pulling a box of the shelf! These are super simple to put together and I think they taste great. Everything gets caramelized together in the oven, and they come out crunchy and chewy at the same time. The toasted almonds and oats are the base notes to the flavor and the cherries give a nice bit of tang.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
- 3/4 cup whole raw almonds
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, plus a bit more for greasing pans
- 3/4 cup coarsely chopped dried tart cherries
- 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoons flax seeds, toasted
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix oats and almonds on a large heavy rimmed baking sheet. Bake for about ten minutes, stirring once, until golden. Allow to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Lightly brush a 13x9x2 inch pan with some of the extra coconut oil, line with baking parchment, and then lightly brush the paper with a bit more of the coconut oil.
- Brush a large bowl with some of the extra coconut oil. Add the oat mixture, cherries, coconut, sunflower seeds and flax seeds into the bowl.
- Bring the 1/4 cup of coconut oil, honey, brown sugar, and salt to boil in a medium sauce pan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for one minute without stirring. immediately pour over the oat mixture in the bowl. Using a heat proof spatula, stir until evenly coated. transfer the granola into the prepared pan. lightly press into the pan, smoothing the top with a metal spatula.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan in the oven, and continue to bake until golden brown with slightly darker edges, about 15 minutes longer.
- Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely in pan. Pull out of pan using the edges of the baking parchment. Cut into 20 bars.
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