Eve and I made some delicious granola bars this afternoon from Smitten Kitchen, a blog Rosy sent me. You can pretty much add any “dry” stuff you want (dried fruits, nuts, etc.) and choose your “wet” ingredients (honey, syrup, etc.) I’ve tried several other granola bar recipes in the past and none came out quite right. A trick I learned here though, that I didn’t know before, is that if the granola bars are crumbly when you try to cut the, stick them in the fridge for awhile to let the “glue” harden. I have been trying to bake bars longer and longer to get them to harden. Oops. We cut these pretty quickly (we have no patience for baked goods around here!) and they crumbled a bit, so I put the rest in the fridge and finished cutting them later. Perfect! And oh-so-yummy!

Read the Smitten Kitchen post for the whole details, but here is the basic recipe:

Granola Bars

• 1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used 2/3c.)
• 1/3 cup oat flour (I don’t have oat flour so I used whole wheat flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 to 3 cups fruits and nuts (I raided the cabinet and found 1c. dried cranberries, 1/4c sesame seeds, 1/4c crushed hazelnuts, 1/2c cinnamon bits and 2/3c. shredded coconut)
• 1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (I used sunflower seed butter) (optional)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/4 cup honey, maple syrup or corn syrup (I used maple syrup)
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8″ x 8″ x 2″ pan in one direction with parchment paper, allowing it to go up the opposing sides. Lightly grease the parchment paper and the exposed pan, or coat with a non-stick spray.

Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter or oil, liquid sweeteners and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the dry (and peanut butter, if you’re using it) until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread in the prepared pan, pressing them in firmly to ensure they are molded to the shape of the pan. (A piece of plastic wrap can help with this, as you press down on the back of it.)

Bake the bars for 30 to 40 minutes, until they’re brown around the edges — don’t be afraid to get a little color on the tops too. They’ll still seem soft and almost underbaked when you press into the center of the pan but do not worry, they’ll set completely once completely cool.

Cool the bars in their pan completely on a cooling rack. (Alternately, after about 20 minutes you can use your parchment “sling” to lift and remove the bars, and place them in their paper on the rack to cool the rest of the way. This can speed the process up.)

Once cool, a serrated knife (or bench knife) to cut the bars into squares. [Updating to note, as many had crumbling issues:] If bars seem crumbly, chill the pan of them further in the fridge for 30 minutes which will fully set the “glue”, then cut them cold. To store, wrap the bars individually in plastic or stack them in an airtight container. In humid weather, it’s best to store bars in the refrigerator. They also freeze well.