3/2/12

Homemade Chewy Granola Bars




I don't know if you seen the price of those high fiber granola bars at the store, but even the store brand are expensive and there are usually only like 5 -6 bars in a box.  For the same price or less, you can make a 9x13 pan of your own, chewy, warm, nutritious bars.  I've seen several recipes, one that baked them super crispy and one that was no bake.  I preferred something chewy,like the no bake, but they were a little too sticky for my preference.  So I combined what I liked about them both and came up with this recipe.  Since I've combined several recipes I can not tell you the exact fiber content of these bars.

 This recipe was family tested and approved. They love these bars. In fact when I made these bars to blog about, for my son &  d-i-l to take on a ski trip and they dashed out the door with them as I was trying to photograpgh them!

Jan's tip: As long as the wet to dry ingredient ratio is about the same you can substitute different wet or dry ingredients, so you could do all peanut butter instead of the honey and corn syrup,  for example or for the dry ingredients add in wheat germ, dried fruits, or nuts. Play around with it. Use this recipe as a base for jumping off of!


Click here for a printable recipe.

High Fiber Granola Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
4 Tblsp each: honey, corn syrup, peanut butter
1/2 cup (or more to your preference) milled (ground) flax seed. (This is in the flour aisle at your store)
5 cups Regular Whole Oats (Can use quick oats, too!)
1 12 oz. bag of mini chocolate chips. Reserve 1/2 cup for later.

Directions:
In saucepan over medium heat, cook butter, brown sugar, honey, corn syrup and peanut butter till butter is melted and sugars are dissolved and it is smooth.


  • In large mixing bowl combine the oats and milled flax seed. (This is where you'll also add in your additional choices, such as fruit, nuts, wheat germ, etc.)  Slowly stir in the butter/sugar mixture and blend well.
  • Stir in all  chocolate chips except save a 1/2 cup to use later.
  • Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan and press lightly to smooth and even out bars in the pan.
  • Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
  • Remove pan from oven and lightly cut through the bars with a sharp knife, but DO NOT remove the bars from the pan.
  • Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips onto bars.
  • Let bars cool in pan approximately one hour (I know longest hour of your life!) before removing from pan.
  • Gently break apart into bars.