It smells of granola bars!

I have decided that I really like the granola bar recipe that I found. If I do not like it then I am glutton for punishment for making four double batches of it now. I loved the first batch. My husband said they “tasted almost like a cookie.”

That was where the mistake for the second batch began. I decided I was going to make a batch of cinnamon and raisin granola bars instead of the miniature chocolate chip variety the recipe made. The recipe clearly states that substitutions can be made. It should not be too hard, right?

Of course, the statement that it was “almost like a cookie” was just hanging there and I decided to make it more like a granola bar. I do not want my kids addicted to cookie-like granola bars after all. I decided that in this batch I was going to half the sugar. I should have just listened to the notion in my head that my husband is crazy because he has been dieting for so long and does not know what he is talking about anymore. Of course, it tastes like a cookie to him, anything sweet would taste like a cookie to him, he has not had a cookie in that long. I did not listen to my mind filled with warnings to not do it and I cut the sugar in half anyway.

The recipe (doubled) calls for one cup of brown sugar. That is all. Okay so it also has a half cup of honey too, but that is all that is in it that is sweet outside of whatever mix-in you choose. In the case of the miniature chocolate chip granola bars, it is one cup of miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips. We are not talking about a lot of refined sugar here – one cup. When compared to the five cups of oats and one cup of puffed rice cereal, it is not a lot of sugar at all.

Alas, I decided it could not be all that important as it was the honey and butter that make everything stick together and bind together…trust me, do not half the sugar!

The second batch of granola bars was a crumbly mess. They tasted just fine. They were even still a bit soft and chewy, but they were a crumbly mess. There was nothing really to bind them together.

I have also decided that the softer your butter, the better. The butter needs to be über soft. Not melted, but really soft. That I have found works the best.

I have had people ask me for the recipe. I will put it here, using the amounts and ingredients I used, but I will give full credit and link back to Carole over at mykitchenescapades.com. She is really who should get all the credit for this. I believe she got it from somewhere else, but I found it on her website. You can find the original credit on her website.

You can find the original recipe here: http://www.mykitchenescapades.com/2008/10/chewy-granola-bars.html

The thing that I really like about the recipe is that it is simple and quick. I made up both double batches, complete and out of the oven, cooling in less than an hour. They are scored, they just need to finish cooling so that I can cut them and then individually bag them. I made the second batch today while the first one was in the oven. I had the second pan ready to go into the oven as soon as the second one came out of the oven. They really are that quick and easy to make.

The kids love them and I love that.

I am going to try the with some other dried fruits and even nuts in the future. I will just have to mark the bags with what is in each one so an unsuspecting child (or myself) does not grab one with nuts. Any small fruit would work from what I have seen this far. Large fruits would need to be chopped up before adding to the mix. Nuts would also need to be chopped.

The size of these bars is about the size of the average Quaker or store-brand chewy granola bar you can buy.