Wednesday Recipe - Granola Bars

Hello my amazing readers. Welcome to another yummy Wednesday recipe. I thought I would share with you the recipe I use to make granola bars for Aaron for work instead of buying the kind of expensive boxes of them at the store. It is so easy to make and it makes the house smell so good! The recipe is actually kind of from The Pioneer Woman on Food Network but I took some stuff out and added some other stuff.  

The ingredients I use are these:

6 cups rolled oats 

1/4 cup canola oil

4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for greasing

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 cup molasses

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

chopped almonds

chopped peanuts

Crasins

Dried blueberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, toss the oats with the canola oil, melted butter and salt. Spread the mixture out on 2 baking sheets and toast in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, shaking the pan twice and making sure they don't burn. Remove from the oven and set aside. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, honey, apple juice and molasses. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring until all combined. Stir in the vanilla and remove from the heat.

Toss together the toasted oats, as much almonds, peanuts, craisens, and dried blueberries as desired. Pour in the sugar mixture, stirring as you pour. Toss to combine; it will be sticky.

Press into 1 baking sheet (thoroughly greased with butter) and bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut pieces with a sharp knife and remove from the pan. You can cut them while they're still warm if that's easier.

I let mine rest overnight then cut them the next day and bag them up for Aaron to take.

 So here is some pictures of me making it, first are the toasted oats, middle picture is the sticky mixture when it is done mixing and the last photo is the buttered up pan :-)

 I use almonds and peanuts chopped up, you can always use whatever nuts you want or none. The second picture is the nuts, toasted oats, and crasins mixed together before the sticky mixture.

 This is everything mixed and put onto the pan, and the picture below is all spread out to one thickness.

Here is the finished product all toasted and the house smelled soooooo good!!! I usually let it rest for a day then cut it into squares and put them in sandwich baggies for Aaron. :-) My pan makes usually 16 good sized bars, it lasts Aaron about a week and a half to two weeks. Until next time Loves!!