Homemade Granola Bar recipe!

Alrighty then. The Silver Fox prides himself on being a decent cook and is going to start sharing some of my trail foods and organic/homemade/homegrownish stuff with you guys! First up is a batch of homemade Peanuty Raisiny Chocolatey Granola Bars. We're technically no-bake here as the only oven time required is toasting of the granola.

These are scrumdiddlyumptious, easy (and quick) to make, and infinitely adjustable. If you like coconut, swap in coconut. If you don't like raisins, swap them for dried cranberry or pineapple. If you don't dig peanut butter or peanuts in general, swap for cashews and snozzberries! The overall theme is to keep the ratio of sticky to crunchy close and they'll come out fine every time! Just so everyone knows, I borrowed from a couple different recipes to make my own including Alton Brown (FoodNetwork.Com ) and the wonderful blog over at Joyful Abode.



Ingredients:

• 4       Cups of Oats (old fashioned, not the microwave style)
• 1 1/2 Cups Wheat germ
• 1 1/2 Cup Slivered Almonds (or Crushed)
• 2       Cups Peanuts
• 1 1/3 Cups Brown Sugar
• 3/4    Cup Honey
• 1/2    Cup Peanut Butter
• 6       Tbsp veg oil (I used Canola)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1       Tsp Salt
• 1       Pound (or more.. or less!) dried fruit. I used Raisins here.

First off, Crank the big knob on the hot box thingie in your wife's kitchen to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the 4 Cups of oats out on a big baking sheet or two (keep it pretty thin as you want to toast everything evenly). Toast on a middle oven rack for 10 minutes or so, just until the oats start smelling delicious and take on a bit of a golden color. Remember to stir occasionally so they don't burn or you have to start over. At this point, you can toss in the Wheat Germ and Almonds and Peanuts for a light crisping (the nuts will get kindof soft and brown quickly as they likely have salt and oils on them, so be careful to pull them out before they get too dark).

While the toasting is happening, or after if you don't multi-task well in the kitchen, grab a decent sized pot from the cabinet and slap that puppy on a burner. Start adding the Brown Sugar, Honey, Peanut Butter, Veg oil, Vanilla and salt to the pot. Scrape your measuring cup out well and go wash your hands, you filthy animal!

Cut your burner on low and stir occasionally until everything starts to take on a syrupy thickish pasty consistency. If you get impatient and crank the heat up, you'll scorch the bottom of your stuff and it'll taste nasty. Don't rush it. Open a beverage of your choice and take a sip or six while you wait. Then get off your lazy butt and lay a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil down in a cookie sheet with edges. Pick one with edges high enough to make a decent granola bar or you'll be eating granola paper. Spray the inside of the paper well with PAM, olive oil, canola oil, hot butter, lard, whatever greasy stuff you have around. I use a spritzer of EVOO but it doesn't really matter too much.

By now your glue (all the sweet stuff in the pot) ought to be good and squishy and soft. Cut the heat off and pour it into a big mixing bowl along with your toasted oat and nut mix. Add your dried fruit and mix well. Mix really well. Mix again. Stir some more. Shake your wrist because it's kind of sore and then mix again.

Once everything is really good and coated with no fist sized lumps of lazy, pour it all onto your prepped baking sheet. Using your hands (You did wash them when I told you too, right?) or a rolling pin, smooth it out flat and even and sprinkle any toppings on. 

Fold the remaining parchment paper over the top and stack a bunch of stuff on top so it's well weighted. This step ensures the glue sets up with all of the toasted goodies and forms a nice bond.

(Anyone who makes fun of the Country Home crock gets a punch in the mouth. I'm just sayin)

Now, LEAVE IT ALONE! Don't touch it. Don't let anyone else touch it. Don't let your dogs touch it. Just leave it be for a few hours. You want the entire pan nice and cool before you mess with this stuff or it'll crumble squish mash and make granola cereal instead of granola bars.

If you did like we did here, your sprinkled chocolate will still be warm and slightly molten after 3 hours unless you pop it into the fridge for about 20-30 minutes. Once it's solidified well, geeeently ease the parchment paper off the top and lay it out flat. Lift up and slide the solidified granola sheet and parchment out of the pan and onto the counter top. 

Using a long knife, press down firmly (DO NOT SAW) all the way through in whatever pattern suits you. We went with a granola barish pattern as you can see.

Then, either stack them with the parchment paper between them or individually wrap them in plastic wrap. Since there's nothing in them to spoil or go bad, I imagine these will keep for a week at least in the fridge, but don't expect to have any left after 4 days!

Last things last, mix this thing up. Swap out some of the ideas above or check the interwebs for more ideas. Use what you have around the kitchen. Dry fruit (Upcoming Post) and mix it in, swap out oils, mix up the grains.  These granola bars are a little on the dry side as I need them to keep well unrefrigerated. Add more peanut butter or honey if you like a chewier, goopier bar. Post any miraculous discoveries here so the rest of us can check them out!