I’m excited to share this recipe for homemade granola bars. I tried making granola bars once before using an Ina Garten recipe, but my family didn’t like them very much. The recipe I had tried before had honey as a main binding ingredient and the flavor was just too overpowering.
I searched the internet for granola bar recipes to get a feel for them. The method that looked best to me was from Food Network, by Alton Brown. I adapted my recipe from his, changing several ingredients the most important of which was the honey. I opted to use corn syrup (white Kayro) to give my granola bars a light flavor and make them very crisp. No problem with these bars falling apart!
Toasting the oat mix.
Adding the sugar to the oats.
Finished bars – crunchy and sweet!
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 light brown sugar
2 TBSP butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries
Directions:
- Spray a 9×13″ pan with non-stick spray, set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread oats, coconut and almonds on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, stirring frequently to achieve even browning. Remove from oven and reduce heat to 300°F.
- As the oat mix is baking combine corn syrup, brown sugar, butter, salt and vanilla in a large pot. Cook until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat.
- Remove toasted oat mix from oven and pour into pot of sugar syrup, add cranberries and stir well until mix it coated.
- Pour granola into prepared pan and press down. Bake for 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Allow to cool, then cut into squares or rectangles.
Tips:
- This recipe will create very crunchy granola bars. I made the first batch in a 9×9″ pan and they turned out a little too thick and hard to bite through. Keeping the bars at 1/2 inch thickness will create a better end product.
- To make cutting easier score the bars when the pan is mostly cooled, but not completely cold.
- Coconut can be left out for those who don’t like it. I’d suggest using 1/2 cup sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds in it’s place; or 1 cup of Rice Krispies cereal.
- Store granola bars in an air-tight container.