Granola Bars
A couple weeks ago, just after DH and I had a conversation about how in general the bulk of our groceries are unprocessed or unprepared foods with the exception of the quantities of granola bars we are going through with his being in grad school I stumbled upon a link to Smitten Kitchen’s granola bar recipe. The recipe haunted me for several days. I had been under the weather when I first saw it, but it spurred just enough energy in me to pick up a few groceries and put it together.
I had a few goals in mind when choosing my 2-3 cups of extras (above and beyond the oats) - fiber and healthy fats. So while creating my oat flour in the food processor I added some flax seed in towards the end. I also choose to use mostly walnuts for the nut portion, but I did add a bit of almonds as well. For fruit I kind of went over board and it made them a bit too sweet for my tastes (my biggest complain of commercial granola bars as well) - craisins, raisins and dried apricots. For a bit more bulk I also add a bit of Kashi Honey Puffs, a lightly sweetened cereal made from puffed grains of several varieties.
I also switched things up a tad and used agave nectar in place of the corn syrup and omitted the water since it is more viscous than the corn syrup. I used raw sugar for the sugar. I also added a touch of nutmeg with the cinnamon. I did still use the butter, but I’m anxious to try a healthier oil option. I stuck with natural peanut butter as I prefer the least processed food as possible and the nutrition numbers are usually better as well.
I did put numbers into a spreadsheet to guide whether I cut the pan into 9 or 16 pieces. The numbers were crazy and definitely required cutting the pan into 16 pieces. So I started playing around with other options to try get the numbers close to the healthy snack range of around 100 calories. Well, I couldn’t get it there, but I could get the numbers to under 200 calories per 1/16th of the pan and the huge advantage over commercially made granola bars - I could keep the carb level near the magic 10% mark (ie. 100 calories and 10 g carb) that mom’s nutritionist wants her at.
The big trick was to limit the fruit portion of those 2-3 cups of stuff to be only 1/2 c. Both craisins and apricots are good choices for the fruit. If you are wanting to watch your carb ratio, skip the raisins. For a touch more protien sub low fat soy flour in place of the oat flour. For a bit lower fat use almond butter in place of the peanut butter. Now, I haven’t tried any of these options yet, that is just looking at numbers on paper. But, these options bring the calories per 1/16th of the 8×8″ pan down to the 180-195 calories rather than the 235 calories of my first batch - yikes!
I’ve been obsessing over flavor combinations I think would be good but are not available in commercial bars. The one I’m really itching to try is a chocolate and ginger one. A few years ago at the then weekly game night someone brought a chocolate and ginger trail mix that had amongst the typical fruit and nuts crystalized ginger and chocolate chips. The flavor combo blew me away! With the sugar of crystalized ginger and chocolate (figuring semi-sweet) the numbers go back up a bit (212 cal, 23 g carbs), but I think it would make a great healthier alternative for dessert some time.
What things would you want to add for your 2-3 cups?
