Friday, June 19, 2015

dark chocolate granola bars


Despite living 10 minutes from a big grocery store, my father insists we buy our oatmeal in bulk from Walmart's website. Yes, we go that far to save on oats. The only problem is, every time, our oatmeal arrives smashed. Why? Because brown crumpled paper is, and never was, sufficient package cushioning. Now if only someone would let Walmart know.



Anywho. Now that we have a year's worth of oatmeal in the kitchen, I figured the logical next step was to make granola bars. Specifically - chewy, dense dark chocolate granola bars. They're packed with delicious energy-rich ingredients ingredients. You will need a glass of milk with these.





Yum!
chocolate granola bars
2 cups oats, toasted
2 cups dates, pitted
6 Tbs cocoa powder
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup honey
3 Tbs peanut butter
3 Tbs chocolate hazelnut spread
Optional: 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp ginger, chocolate chips/carob nibs

Yields approx. 12 medium bars

1. Pour the oats onto a baking tray or piece of parchment paper, and toast the oats at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.
2. In a food processor, process the cocoa powder, dates and walnuts into small pieces. I recommend mixing the cocoa powder with a tiny bit of water, so the powder doesn't go flying everywhere (lesson learned); no one wants to inhale that stuff.

3. In a bowl, mix the processed mixture with the oats.
4. Heat the honey, chocolate hazelnut and peanut butter in a microwave at 10 second intervals, until warm and less viscous.
5. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry mixture. Mix well until ingredients are dispersed throughout and come together into a sticky clump. It may take a bit of arm power to thoroughly incorporate everything.












6. Pour the granola bar mixture into a 9x9 pan lined with parchment or wax paper (I re-used the parchment paper used to toast the oats), and flatten the granola evenly. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours until firmed up.
7. Cut into bars, and enjoy! :)


Thursday, June 4, 2015

peanut butter honey-nut granola bars


In middle school, we weren't allowed to eat food during class. But every day around mid-morning, my stomach would start howling to the moon, and more important, I couldn't concentrate. I started sneaking granola bars under the table, and sometimes, I shared them with my friends or people around me who looked or, well, sounded hungry.

For a few days, I started noticing that my granola bars were disappearing. At first, I thought that I had forgotten to bring one that day, but then, they would start disappearing after I left my desk. One day, I heard a familiar crinkling underneath the table. That's when I realized, at first confused and then mad, that a classmate beside me had been stealing my granola bars, and at this moment, quite literally, was eating it right under my nose. I was sad because I often shared food with this girl, and yet she still felt inclined to take from me. But then I realized that I didn't know anything about her background and maybe she went hungry at home; maybe her parents never taught her; maybe she disliked me - who knows? In the end, it didn't really matter.


At around $2 per bar, granola bars are admittedly not the cheapest snack to eat on a daily basis. After I said good riddance to the meal plan, I also shed my granola bar-a-day habit and now rarely eat them (unless I come across free ones during school events, during which I make sure to pocket a few). Instead, making granola bars from scratch is a fun alternative because it allows you to control the sweetness and play with the flavors, at a lower unit cost.


Making granola bars turned out to be amazingly simple. Unlike in baking, there's really not much chemistry involved, and therefore, there's little room to screw up! If you can mix ingredients, you can make granola bars. Serious.


Do you prefer chewy or crunchy granola bars? These peanut butter honey-nut granola bars are chewy and hearty, sweet and peanut buttery. They are composed on energy-rich ingredients like dates and walnuts, so they make a great power breakfast and snack food.

They're really delicious - in my opinion, even better than a lot of the store-bought kind, and hey, I've consumed a ridiculous array of granola bars in my life. So, if you're looking for something yummy and/or healthier to chew on, you should definitely give these a go. 


peanut butter honey-nut granola bars
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cereal (I used cheerios! But you can also use crispy rice)
1 cup dates, pitted
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup peanut butter
optional: banana chips

yields approx. 10 bars

1. Pour the oats onto a baking tray or piece of parchment paper, and toast the oats at 350 F for 10-15 minutes.
2. In a food processor, process the dates and walnuts until the dates form into clumps and the walnuts are crushed into small pieces.
3. In a bowl, combine the oats, cereal, dates and walnuts.

4. Heat the honey and peanut butter in the microwave at 10 second intervals, until warm and less viscous.
5. Pour the honey and peanut butter mixture over the oats, cereal, dates and walnuts mixture. Mix well until ingredients are dispersed throughout and come together into a sticky clump.
6. Pour the granola bar mixture into a 9x9 pan lined with parchment or wax paper (I re-used the parchment paper used to toast the oats), and flatten the granola evenly. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours until firmed up.
7. Cut into bars, and noms away!

Note: Depending on what size pan you use or how you cut them, your granola bars will be different thicknesses and shapes. I "marked" my bars with banana chips before cutting them into 11 awkward rectangles.