Homemade Granola Bars

Homemade granola bars are a great snack all throughout the year, but they are especially great for summer road trips or for packing on hikes, trips to the swimming pool or any other outing. Make a batch or two of these up and they will keep your fueled up for all of your summer fun!

Making homemade granola bars has been on my foodie bucket list for quite a while. It’s not that I thought they were hard, but I just hadn’t gotten around to make them. Every time I picked up a box at the store I thought to myself “one of these days, I need to try making them myself”….and then I would forget about it until the next time I bought a box of them.

When blogger friend, Carolina, and I started talking about doing a weekly summer series with a craft and recipe, I knew that time had finally come for me to make homemade granola bars.

Each week during this summer, Carolina and I will be sharing what we call Cook & Craft. It will be a weekly themed event where she shares a craft idea and I share a recipe. This week, our theme is School’s Out and Carolina shares a fun idea for taking a school backpack and changing it into a Summer Pack. You can get her fun idea here: School Backpack turned Summer Pack

For my part of Cook & Craft, I’m of course sharing the homemade granola bars. In our house, they are a must for everything from summer road trips to a fun night at the drive-in movie theater.

This homemade granola bar recipe is very versatile. I’ve made numerous batches using this recipe and almost every batch has been slightly different. What we really like about this recipe is the nuts, which I like to have chopped, but not so tiny that you can’t see them. We are also big coconut fans in our house, so coconut flakes are a plus for us too.

The oats and nuts are toasted in the oven and then combined with a mixture of honey and brown sugar, as well as a few other ingredients. In this batch, I added peanut butter. After everything is well combined, it is pressed into a baking dish that has been lined with parchment paper. The granola bars are baked in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

Once the granola bars come out from the oven, they must cool completely. They can then be cut into rectangles and either placed in a plastic storage container or zipper-style bag…or you can wrap them in wax paper or parchment paper to give them a cute look.

Homemade Granola Bars

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• Author: Brandie Valenzuela

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Description

trips to the swimming pool or any other outing. Make a batch or two of these up and they will keep your fuel up for all of your summer fun!

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Ingredients

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• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup chopped nuts (peanuts, almonds, etc)
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extra
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• cup Optional: 1 chopped dried fruit (such as raisins, cranberries, cherries, etc.)

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 8×12″ baking dish with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper.
2. On a large baking sheet, mix together oats, nuts, and coconut. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally throughout baking. Remove from oven and place in large bowl.
3. In a small saucepan, heat together the butter, honey, peanut butter, brown sugar, and vanilla over medium heat. Cook and stir for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and pour mixture over oats. Stir to combine thoroughly with the oats. Mix in optional dried fruits, if using.
4. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. With wet fingers, gently press down the mixture into the pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. When completely cool, cut into squares or rectangles.

• Category: Breakfast
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: American

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Adapted from Homemade Granola Bars by Ina Garten

I hope you enjoyed our first Cook & Craft Summer Series post! Be sure to head on over to 30 Minute Crafts to see her post and find out how to make the fun summer pack craft and then check back with both of us on Thursday to see our next collaboration!