Chewy Granola Bars

By KimberlyB

These homemade chewy granola bars are easily customized to taste with your own favorite fruits and nuts. Step-by-step photos illustrating how to make these granola bars are available at Bakers' Banter, our King Arthur blog

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons Sticky Bun Sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, optional (see "tips" at right)
• 1/3 cup oat flour (or 1/3 cup quick oats, processed till finely ground in a food processor or blender)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
• 2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup honey, maple syrup or corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon water
• We like 1/2 cup each dried cranberries, chopped dried apricots, chopped pecans, sunflower seeds, and coconut. Walnuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries or apples, or even chocolate chips would all be delicious as well.

Details

Servings 12
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 35mins

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.

1) Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts.

2) In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter or oil, syrup or honey, and water.

3) Toss the wet ingredients with the dry until the mixture is evenly crumbly.

4) Spread in the prepared pan, shaking the pan to evenly cover the bottom and patting down gently

5) Bake the bars for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're golden brown around the edges.

6) Remove them from the oven, loosen the edges, and cool for 5 minutes.

7) Use a knife (or bench knife) to cut the bars while they're still warm in the pan. Carefully remove warm bars from the pan, and cool on a rack. Alternatively, remove from the pan before cutting into bars; it helps to cut in half first, then loosen the bottom of each half with a turner/spatula before turning out onto a sheet of parchment to cut into bars.

8) Wrap bars individually to store; or place in a single layer on a plate, and cover with plastic; or store in layers with parchment in between. In humid weather, it's best to store bars in the refrigerator. They also freeze well.

TIPS FOR BAKERS

◦Sticky bun sugar gives these bars a lovely crisp edge with a chewy center. If you don't want to use sticky bun sugar, you can make bars that come close to that texture by substituting 3/4 cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons light corn syrup + 2 tablespoons melted butter for the sticky bun sugar. And yes, you'll still add the additional granulated sugar (if you want to; see note below) and butter as called for in the recipe.
◦If you add lots of sweet dried fruit to these bars, you'll probably want to leave out the 1/3 cup granulated sugar, as the fruit will help sweeten the bars. If you use only nuts, seeds, and/or tart/tangy dried fruit, you may want to add the sugar; it's up to you.
◦This recipe is a great example of why a scale is such a key baking tool. Simply line up your favorite dried fruits and nuts, set your mixing bowl on the scale, and add a bit of this (or a lot of that) till the scale reads 10 to 15 ounces.
◦Did you know that supermarket ("fake") maple syrup isn't nearly as sweet as 100% ("real") maple syrup? If you want to use maple-flavored cane syrup in this recipe, you may want to increase the amount of granulated sugar by 2 tablespoons.
◦For granola bars with a hint of peanut flavor, add 1/3 cup peanut butter to the dry ingredients along with the other wet ingredients.