Granola bars

 

Last night after Ben went to bed I decided to make granola bars.  I'm not normally drawn to granola, but the kicker with these is the wordy "chewy."  I am not tempted by crunchy granola, but anything chewy with oats sends me to seventh heaven.  I wanted to make the granola bars at night so they'd be cool by breakfast time.  I have a tendency to get too excited to try my cooking experiments and cut into them before they're cool.  This happened with the chocolate peanut butter fudge, which led to a crumbly mess.  By making the granola the night before, when I was still full from dinner, they had a good 8 hours to cool before I attacked them with a knife.  And, as a bonus, I went to sleep with the smell of cinnamon and toasted oatmeal wafting through the air.

This morning I was lazing in bed, trying to convince myself to get up, when I remembered the granola bars waiting downstairs.  I could barely convince myself to wait the two minutes it takes to brush my teeth before diving in.  The granola bars lived up to their awesome aroma and taste fantastic.  I used almond butter, maple syrup, almonds, hazelnuts, dried cherries, dried apricots, and just a small handful of raisins.  I find that too many raisins can overpower the other flavors, but with just a handful they played nicely with the other ingredients, and the apricots added a pleasant sour counterpoint.  Despite the double dose of almonds, the dominant flavor is of hazelnuts, which almost makes me wish I'd added their perfect partner: chocolate chips.  But if I had, I couldn't pretend these were a breakfast food - they would be relegated to dessert.  Which, come to think of it, is a great use for these granola bars.  With different flavors, or even as is, they'd make a great and semi-healthy bar cookie.

I like that these granola bars are so flexible - I just threw in what I could find in my cupboard.  I also like that with small tweaks (gluten free oats, oil instead of butter) they become gluten and dairy free.  I am keeping them in an airtight container, and whatever I don't eat today will go into the freezer.  Then I can throw them in my lunch, and, if the stars are aligned, they will be defrosted and back to their chewy selves by the time I'm ready to eat.