Granola Bars
We’ve all bought those nicely packaged granola bars from the store. They are touted as a healthy snack option, although some of them actually contain more sugar than a candy bar! They are also full of different flavorings, color additives, and preservatives. And even if they are truly ‘healthy’, they still have not been prepared in a way that gleans the most nutrients from the ingredients.
Granola Bars
2 1/4 cups soaked and dehydrated rolled oats
1 cup soaked and dehydrated sunflower seeds
1 1/4 cups soaked and dehydrated peanuts, crushed
1/2 cup sucanat
2/3 cup raw honey
2 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
6-8 ounces of dried fruit
1. Toast the oats, sunflower seeds, and peanuts in a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until slightly browned. Make sure you check them every few minutes and stir them around or they will burn.
2. Melt brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt over medium heat. It should go from looking like this;
to this;
The length of time you let it simmer will depend on how crunchy you’d like your bars. Personally I like them stiff but somewhat pliable, like the candy hardball stage, so I let it simmer until it hits about 250 degrees.
3. Mix all toasted ingredients and the hot mixture together in a medium to large bowl. Add in dried fruit. Stir well to make sure it is well coated.
4. Press into a well greased, glass 9×13 pan. If you don’t have a glass pan, place waxed paper inside the pan and grease that. Place a piece of greased waxed paper over the mixture and press mixture into the pan. (the mixture will be hot so keep your oven mitts on!)
5. Cut after the bars are cooled, but still slightly warm. You could cut them right in the glass pan, but I flip it over onto a cutting board and cut with a large knife. If you had to use waxed paper in the pan, just pull the whole thing out and cut.
(Now this recipe is a modified version of one I found over at Joyful Abode)
Why I’ve modified it
- Traditionally, nuts and seeds have been soaked as a way to digest them properly. I soak them all beforehand so all I have to do is toast them the day I make these bars.
- The original recipe calls for wheat germ, and while it may have some health benefits, I’m not able to soak these so I added in extra of the other ingredients to make up for it. Plus I’m not quite sold on the idea that the germ is healthy by itself, without the bran, etc.
- I have flip flopped the amounts of the sugar and honey around, and although it does taste better with 2/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup honey, I try and keep sugar out of my diet as much as possible.
- I also lowered the amount of butter, not because of fat and calories, but because I found it just didn’t need that much, and good butter is expensive!
Other notes
- These particular bars did not have soaked oats in them as my hubby doesn’t care for the texture of dehydrated oats in the bars. And since I make these for him to take to lunch, we go around his taste. (by the way you’ll need about 3 cups oats before soaking to get about 2 1/4 oats after dehydrating)
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ks! I hope to try these soon!
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Thanks for sharing the recipe! They look great!
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Cool – I think I can manage this recipe! I especially appreciate the tips and info about soaking/dehydrating.
ICLW
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Yum! Yum! I don’t think we have Granola over here, but that looks like something i might have to give a go!!
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I’m still not sure I get the whole concept of soaking grains, but then I’m not supposed to eat many of them anyway. When I made these, I subbed sucnat for the brown sugar and it worked well, while eliminated all of the refined sugar.
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zebe- good to know sucnat works! I’ve been planning on picking some up next time I hit the health food store, but just haven’t been over that way recently.
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Donielle,
Thanks for your recipes. I have a question: After you soak the oats, do you have to use a dehydrator in order to dry out the oats or can you just toast them in the oven? I’d like to soak my oats for both granola bars and to make plain granola as a cereal substitute but don’t own a dehydrator and was curious if you knew of another way to get around not having one. Thanks!
Lauren
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Lauren – you should be able to dehydrate them in your oven. If you have a gas range with a pilot light, that may be warm enough to dry them out in a few hours. Otherwise, put them in at the lowest temp you can and maybe just turn it on and off occasionally so that they don’t “toast”. Many have done it, so it will work, I was just lucky enough my hubby wanted a dehydrator for jerky!
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Great. Thank you!
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What is the nutritional breakdown for this recipe?!
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donielle Reply:
December 12th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
@Mel, Like with most homemade items, I don’t quite know exactly what the nutritional breakdown is. My main concern is that I use good, wholesome, and properly prepared food items!
Per Sparkpeople.com, this is what comes up with my recipe:
Calories 201.8
Total Fat 9.2 g
Saturated Fat 1.7 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3.7 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.3 g
Cholesterol 3.1 mg
Sodium 60.8 mg
Potassium 202.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 28.9 g
Dietary Fiber 2.3 g
Sugars 14.8 g
Protein 4.3 g
Though I’m sure the ones I make will probably differ from this. I’m not quite able to figure out the exact nutritional guidelines as a lot of my products are found from local farmers, plus I soak and dehydrate the nuts which causes the vitamins and minerals to be better absorbed into the body.
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