With only a few exceptions, granola bars have steadily gotten worse over the past few years. This probably has to do with the fact that more time is being spent developing energy bars, nutrition bars, cereal bars and snack bars, all of which have been growing in popularity. I happen to like granola bars and think of them not necessarily as health food, though they certainly do have healthy aspects, but as a healthy alternative to a candy bar. I like my granola bars to be chewy, slightly soft (as opposed to dry and hard) and with a little bit of crunch.
These perfectly fit the bill.
These are no-cook granola bars, meaning you simply melt together the "wet" ingredients, pour them into the "dry" ingredients and stir together. If you can make a rice krispy treat, you can make these.
They start with a mixture of sugar, corn syrup and peanut butter, which is poured over puffed cereal, oats, wheat bran and chocolate chips. The chocolate starts to melt when the peanut butter mix is poured on top, which allows it to be distributed throughout the bar, even though a few chunks will probably remain. It sets up in a few hours and then the bars can be kept, wrapped, at room temperature for about a week.
I wouldn't recommend natural peanut butter, as it might make the resulting bars a bit greasy; I'd stick with one of the national brands (I used Jif extra crunchy).
Easy Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars
2 1/2 cups puffed rice cereal*
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (whole or quick-cooking, not instant)
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Lightly grease a 9x9-inch square pan.
In a very large bowl, stir together the cereal, oats, wheat bran and chocolate chips.
In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar and corn syrup and bring just to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla extract until mixture is smooth. Quickly pour over the cereal mixture and stir well with a big spoon, making sure to coat every bit.
Pour into the prepared pan and press down with the back of a spoon (or your fingers) to evenly distribute.
Allow to cool before cutting into bars.
Makes 12.
*Note: Plain Cheerios can be substituted for puffed rice cereal. I used a combination of the two in my bars, pictured at the top of the post.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-13-2006 @ 3:17PM
Howard Fore said...
I'll try these, but the Kashi TLC bars rock!
Reply
7-17-2006 @ 4:54AM
Tayla Henry said...
Doing a project on Health Bars and got lots of info from here so THANKS! Tayla Henry Durban South Africa
Reply
7-24-2006 @ 4:37PM
Frank Randall said...
Sounds tasty but what is a "bit" spoon??
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