I mentioned to John and his dad that I was going to make granola bars similar to the granola I’d made last week and John looked at me with the most quizzical look. He said, “Did you check my browser history?”
I gave him the same look right back and said something elegant like, “Huh?”
He said he’d searched the net last night for a low GI granola bar he could make to snack on but hadn’t found anything that didn’t look like straw or worse. He’d found one that didn’t have any sugar, honey, agave or maple syrup and I asked how it would stick together. “You add egg white,” he said.
To remain in keeping with my previous comment, I said, “Ugh!”
Have you priced granola bars at the store? After you did that did you check the ingredients? Held together with high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, they are bars I’d rather not consume.
However, these granola bars are full of nicely roasted macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, toasted coconut and oats, some sultanas and dried cranberries and they’re all held together with honey, maple syrup, a little bit of brown sugar and some butter. John might make something that looks like it’s fit for a horse but I’m going to eat these. Yellow box honey has a lower GI than normal honey or sugar and next time I’ll substitute some low GI sugar for the brown sugar and see how it works.
I’d rather pay more for quality ingredients and know that every bite will leave me groaning with pleasure – mumbling, ‘SOOooo good.’
This batch won’t last long.
We took J’s parents to lunch today after a visit to the optometrist and the hearing aid shop. I brought along a few granola bars so Joan could have a taste and her eyes lit up and asked if she could take them back to the nursing home. Win! If an 89-year old woman thinks these are good, I’ll stop here and not try for a better granola bar recipe.
- 3 cups rolled oats (not the instant kind)
- ½ cup macadamia nuts (cut in half)
- ½ cup walnuts (roughly chopped)
- ½ cup pecans (roughly chopped)
- ½ cup peanuts (whatever sort you like)
- ¼ cup coconut flakes
- ⅔ cup sultanas or raisins
- ¼ cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup flaked almonds (or any almonds you have on hand)
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup maple syrup (you can reduce this if you wish but add more honey)
- ⅓ cup butter (unsalted or reduce the amount of salt you ad if you use salted butter)
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven top 180C/350F and line a baking sheet with baking paper
- Add all the nuts and roast for 5 minutes, stir and roast for another 3-4 minutes until lightly browned. (and try not to eat any - I couldn't stop myself)
- Line another baking sheet with baking paper and add the oats, sunflower seeds, pepitas and coconut and roast for 5-7 minutes, stirring once.
- While the ingredients are roasting, add the butter, brownsugar, honey and maple syrup in a large saucepan and cook on medium heat until the mixture boils. Reduce heat so the mixture simmers and cook for 4 minutes to thicken.
- When the nuts and oats are roasted, place them in a large bowl and pour over the honey mixture when done.
- Mix well with a spatula and pour into a baking tray with sides that's been lined with baking paper.
- Smooth the mixture with the spatula and place a sheet of baking paper on top. I used the bottom of a pan to press down the mixture as hard as I could. The more compressed the mixture is, the better it will stick together in bars.
- Leave the top baking paper on and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Remove from the baking tray and place on a cutting board.
- Cut to the size you want and wrap in cling film.
- The bars will last a week. (probably not at my house)