Homemade Granola Bars

Share your favorite granola bar recipe, please.

Last night, Lorelei (my sister) and I were both, independently, thinking of making homemade granola. While I was pulling out ingredients for my favorite granola recipe here in Victoria, Lorelei was thinking about making The Kitchen Sink's granola bar recipe in Vancouver. After a few excited text messages back and forth, we decide to make granola bars using The Kitchen Sink's recipe and compare notes. And so the adventure begins...

The ingredients look delicious, the instructions read clear. But, scrolling through the comments you can see that some people have difficulties replicating Kristin's success. Comments such as you need to let the baked granola mixture cool completely before cutting with a very sharp knife and people having difficulties with the amount of honey and peanut butter to add (both with less and more) and crumbling clusters of granola.

So, putting our culinary skills to a test we set out to make these inspiring granola bars.

Melody's Side

I followed the recipe exactly, well nearly exactly. After combining the wet and dry ingredients and packing into a baking dish lined with parchment paper- I could tell that the mixture wasn't going to stick together. So, as a last minute effort to help the bars along, I drizzled maple syrup over the top.

Once baked, I let it cool overnight to ensure that it had indeed cooled completely before pulling out my best knife
to cut the mass into one by two inch bars.

Although I did get a few jagged-shaped bars out of my effort, I mostly got granola. Albeit, tasty peanut butter infused granola.

Lorelei's Side

I finished my granola bars and they are very tasty. I added some wheat germ and ground flax seed as well. I too started to panic that the mixture wouldn't stick together, so, at the last minute I added about 1/4 cup of unsalted butter.

I waited for the tray to cool before cutting the squares,
but I have to say that it was very crumbly. I'll be able to eat some of it as granola bars, but the rest of it will be used as granola.

I'd like to perfect this recipe because I like the idea of eating a healthy granola bar as a mid-morning snack.

In Summary

We'd love to hear about your favorite granola bar recipe. I think it's agreed that we need all the help we can get.

Also, I think adding more honey and peanut butter mixture will help stick the oats, nuts and dried fruit together.