Granola Bars

On baking day, which was this past Wednesday, one of the things that I made was Granola Bars. I looked at a lot of granola bar recipes and was interested in the different things used to bind the bars together. A lot of recipes I found used peanut butter as a binder. While I like peanut butter I prefer it in small doses so I stayed away from those recipes. In the end, I used Alton Brown's recipe and I am pretty pleased with the results. Of course I did make a few changes and I have a few suggestions as well.

I ran out of honey so I ended up substituting maple syrup and molasses for about half of the honey. I think the maple syrup added a nice flavor and the molasses cut down some of the sweetness. Some of the criticisms of the original recipe are that it is too sweet. I didn't find it to be so with my substitutions. For dried fruit I used apricots, prunes, dried blueberries and craisins. One of the reviewers also mentioned that these were expensive bars to make. I didn't do a financial analysis of the recipe but considering that you pay anywhere from $3-$6 for 6 commercially made granola bars I think that these were pretty cost effective.

One problem with homemade granola bars can be that they do not stick together well. It was true that some of mine crumbled but I just put those into an airtight container and have been eating them with yogurt for breakfast. It is really yummy granola. To help with the sticking I pressed the granola bars down with a fondant roller (any smaller roller would work) before, during and just after cooking. I also let them cool off for a long time before cutting. In the end I individually placed them in snack bags and they've been a great on-the-go treat.