Hi Bold Bakers!
A fun fact about me that you might not know, I am an impulse eater, which means when I
get hungry I will eat anything around me.
So I have to have good food choices close by, just like my homemade granola bars.
They are made with ingredients that that are good quality and they're good for you.
As always the recipe can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com and make sure you check out my website for
all of my other recipes.
Okay, let's get started.
So this recipe is an all in one kind of a dealio, we have a nice big saucepan, we're
gonna mix it up in here, and then we're gonna put it into our baking tray.
Very little fuss.
So into my pot, I'm going to put in my butter.
So all of you know I love to use Irish butter, but you can also replace this with a healthy
fat like coconut oil.
Next ingredient is some honey for sweetness.
These guys need to be sticky so that they kinda firm up.
Adding another sugar in here with a little bit of a different flavor, maple syrup.
Followed by a little bit of brown sugar which gives it kind of a caramel flavor.
And then last but not least, some cinnamon.
Not only does the little bit of cinnamon make these taste really good, it's also actually
really good for you too.
Okay so then over a medium-low heat, let all of these ingredients melt together.
So if you want to use just all honey or even all maple syrup in this recipe, feel free
to do that, I just like how the two of them give a little bit of a different flavor.
Okay this is looking good, it's melty.
Smells really good.
This is like a tasty glue that holds your oats together.
One your butter is melted and your mix comes to a simmer, you can turn off the heat.
So let's talk oats, these are rolled oats and they work best for your granola bars.
You don't want to use steel-cut oats and you don't want to use 1-minute quick oats.
These are the best ones.
Now, oats are fantastic because they are full of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and what
I love about them is especially if you have them in the morning, they keep you fuller,
longer.
So they kind of slowly release their energy and they kind of fight that hunger so they're
a really, really great way to start your day.
So this is the fun part, this is where you get to add in whatever you like into your
granola bars.
Well, whatever you like within reason, to your granola bars.
Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, whatever you like.
So here I have some dried coconut, I adore dried coconut, and the best thing about it
is that it's full of healthy fats.
So in you go.
Next up I have some chopped almonds, add in whatever nuts you like, pecans, cashews, what
have you.
These are full of antioxidants so they're really good for you too.
I don't know about you but I'm already feeling even healthier just looking at this.
Next up I have some dried cranberries, I love these little guys, I always have them to hand
to put into salads and different recipes.
These are full of vitamin C, put in raisins, apricots, or leave them out and double up
on the nuts.
That's up to you.
And then last but not least, a little bit of salt, because you know what I'm gonna say,
all baking needs salt.
It just enhances the flavors of everything else.
And then with your spatula just mix these all together until it's really well coated.
Just keep on stirring until you've coated all of your ingredients really well.
This is looking really good, now here I have in front of me a 12x9 tray.
You can use a little bit smaller if you want your granola bars to be that bit thicker,
I like this size.
I've lined it with some parchment, got my big pot of granola, and then into my tray.
Oh my gosh, that smells really good.
So all you want to do is just spread them out with your spatula and press them into
your tray.
When you're making this, if you're thinking you're not a huge cinnamon fan, honestly,
the tiniest bit in there, it adds warmth and kind of a depth to these granola bars, it's
really, really yummy.
So now like I said, get creative, if you don't like dried fruit add in more nuts, add in
different seeds, just follow the quantities that I give on the website, all a cup of each,
because you don't want to add in too much stuff or your granola bars will be kind of
dry.
This is important because it just makes sure that your granola bars are nice and compact.
See honestly how long did that take us?
Like less than 10 minutes, and our granola bars are all ready to go into the oven.
Bake your granola bars off at 350°F/180°C for roughly 25-30 minutes or until they're
a lovely golden brown on top.
So while they're in the oven let me just tell you if you want to make a no-bake style granola
bar, that's totally fine, I've got lots of different recipes on my website, all you have
to do is mix them up and pop them into the fridge.
So here's our granola bars, out of the oven, they smell amazing, and they look perfect,
I can tell that they're done because they're a lovely golden brown on top, and they look
like they're nice and sticky, so we're gonna set these aside and let them cool down for
a few minutes.
Once your granola bars have cooled down you can remove them from the tray.
So my granola bars are nice and firm because they've cooled down, so now I'm just going
to cut them around 1x4, now theirs is totally up to you, you can cut them any size you like.
I just think that it's a good portion size.
So I've got my bars cut up into 18 pieces and here I have a bowl of bittersweet melted
chocolate.
Now, we're not finished here, I've got some really exciting news for you.
Did you know that bittersweet chocolate is actually good for you?
It is.
It's good for you and it's delicious.
It is full of antioxidants and it helps you to release endorphins which makes you happy,
and who doesn't want that?
So we're gonna dip our little granola bars in some chocolate.
Then lay them on a tray and obviously leave their chocolate side facing up.
I like to dip them in chocolate until it's around halfway up the bar.
Lovely.
So once you've dipped all your bars, you want these guys to set nice and fast, so what you
can do is pop them into the fridge or even the freezer, for around 5-10 minutes or so
and let the chocolate firm up.
So I took my bars out of the fridge, as you can see the chocolate is nice and set, so
what you want to do is flip them over, and have his naked side facing up.
Now I've got a little bit of reserved chocolate here and I'm just gonna drizzle it over the
top.
You don't have to be fancy here, this is pretty rustic.
Just drizzle over and create nice little lines.
This is just a little bit of an extra kick of chocolate, you don't have to do this if
you don't want to.
But if you ask me, the reason I like to do is because it makes them look really professional.
Check that out.
Beautiful.
If you want to use a darker chocolate, that's totally fine, if you want to use white chocolate,
that's up to you.
Gorgeous.
So these granola bars will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2
weeks and if you want to freeze them, pop them into the freezer and then you can take
them out whenever you want them.
They are great to go in lunch boxes, to have at your desk, or even to snack on after a
cooking show.
Oh my gosh.
It's one of my New Year's resolutions to eat food that benefits me more.
Not only are these made with good quality ingredients, they're good for you too, and
they make me very happy, so it's a win-win-win.
Right now what I want you to do is head over to my website, I've got 500 more recipes and
tons of videos that you might not have even seen before.
I'll see you back here really soon, for more Bigger Bolder Baking.