Whether the corn syrup can be entirely replaced with honey or maple syrup or the butter can be entirely replaced with a healthier oil is worth auditioning, I just didn’t. It is for this reason that corn syrup is listed within one ingredient but also separately, and I used all butter rather than two different fats. Of note: The original recipe calls for something called “sticky bun sugar” which can be made at home with sugar, butter and corn syrup. In the comments, I’d love to hear what mix you came up with and how you liked it.

You can toss in things like puffed rice cereal or flax seeds. You can use no dried fruit or you can use all dried fruit in your 2 to 3 cup mix. When it comes to granola, what you’re looking for is a basic proportion of chunky (nuts, dried fruit) to sticky (syrups, sugar, butter or oils) and from there, you can really go to town. This is probably the most flexible recipe I’ve posted. Two years ago: Escarole and Orzo Soup with Meatballs One year ago: Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (apparently, mid-February gets thick and chewy on my brain) And I’ll have so much explaining to do.įortunately for Jacob’s remaining cheek, these granola bars have so far exceeded our expectations that the hardest thing will be getting them to last until Monday morning’s breakfast. If these granola bars don’t become part of my morning routine, quickly, the poor kid is only going to have one arm and half a cheek by the time he starts preschool. Time is money, Deb! And by the time she leaves, I am so hungry I am forced to eat the baby. To me, that is! I mean to me! (The only thing the nanny has to suffer through is all of the cooking samples she wants to take home, lingering stenches of bubbling cheese and toasting granola and wiping the drool off this gummy grin.) I cannot bring myself to spend a second of this precious work time to eat breakfast. Ever since we brought in a lovely lady to watch Jacob in the mornings so I could get some of this wild thing called “work” done, I’ve discovered what a mean boss I am. Mostly, however, I’m hoping these will fill a void in my own diet these days: breakfast.

(And seriously, can you imagine a better food gift to bring to new parents? Trust me, few things are more welcome than delicious nutrient-rich food in compact/one-hand-eating-friendly packages.) With a few tweaks - reducing the sugar significantly and putting it in a smaller pan in an attempt to make them as thick as those from Whole Foods - these were exactly what I had been pining for. I’ve been warm to their recipes since they led me to the best whole wheat muffin I’ve ever eaten and this one did not disappoint. So I got back to the drawing board which quickly led me to a recipe on the King Arthur Flour website. Then two weeks ago I bought a house-made granola bar at Whole Foods, sunk my teeth into it’s thicky, chewy, ingredient-laden madness and was consumed with envy why haven’t I made granola bars that taste like that? (Minus about half the sugar they’re crazy sweet. I forgot about the granola bars in my freezer too, until at least December and when I unearthed them they were so crisp I had to crumble them over yogurt. I had a baby two weeks later, which I barely remember either, though that’s probably for the best.

Waxing on about granola bars twice in six months is just weird, right? I can’t help it, I honestly don’t remember last September. I know, I know, I just talked up granola bars last September.

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