I love granola bars. More as an in between healthy snack alternative. We usually carry these during our travels and the whole family loves them. But I am not talking of the store-bought varieties, but the home-made ones. The possibilities of ingredients that you can add to make these granola bars are up to what you like. Alternatives to honey and brown sugar could be dates and date syrup, though I have not tried making this recipe using these ingredients.
When I first made these granola bars, I had used only a couple of nuts like cashews, almonds and pistachios. But slowly I started introducing other nuts followed by different varieties of seeds as well. So the options are endless actually.
Few things to keep in mind
- Seeds: I have used sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds in this recipe. Sesame seeds, flax seeds and chia seeds are other options that you can use, depending on the flavours you like.
- Oats: I have used the regular Quaker oats for this. If you are able to get rolled oats, then that can be very well substituted as well.
- Chocolate Chips: I add chocolate chips as it just makes it a little more interesting for the kids. However, you can skip it if you don’t want.
Recipe
Ingredient List
- Oats – 250 gms
- Chopped dry fruits (cashews, almonds, pistachios, walnuts) – 50 gms
- Dried seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds) – 50 gms
- Raisins and Dried Cranberries – 25 gms
- Butter – 75 gms
- Brown Sugar – 75 gms
- Honey – 75 gms
- Salt – a pinch
- Chocolate Chips – 2 tbsp
Step by Step Process
- Dry roast the oats in a pan. Keep it aside once roasted.
- Dry roast the dry fruits and dried seeds separately and keep them aside along with the oats.
- In a small sauce pan, add the butter. Once melted, add the brown sugar. Keep stirring till the sugar is melted and well combined.
- Add the honey and salt to the butter and sugar mix and stir continuously.
- Add the raisins and cranberries to this mix and stir it well. Take off heat and keep it aside
- Add the roasted oats, dry fruits and dried seeds into a pan and stir to combine well.
- To this, add the butter and sugar mix and combine well.
- Finally, mix in the chocolate chips
- Grease a tray or a baking tin with baking paper.
- Spoon in the oats mix to the tray and press it well all across
- Let it cool down a little at room temperature and cut it to desired sizes before putting it into the refrigerator to cool and set completely.
- Cutting it before putting in the refrigerator else it might be a little difficult to cut it later.
