Chocolate Granola Bars

There's nothing in this world that beats a chocolate granola bar! Okay, that sounds like an exaggeration but biting into a really good chocolate granola bar is highly satisfying.  

And nothing beats home made ones - loving mixed and baked in the oven with the best ingredients...

 ... and coated with a thick layer of good quality chocolate. 

The final product!

It's typically gets eaten up by the family in a matter of days!

Chocolate Granola Bars 

Pioneer Woman's recipe

Ingredients

• 6 cups Rolled Oats (not Quick Oats)
• 4 tbsp Butter, Melted, Plus More For Greasing (I substituted with 4 tbsp olive oil)
• ¼ cups Vegetable Or Canola Oil
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• ½ cups Honey
• ¼ cups Apple Juice
• ¼ cups Molasses (I substituted with 1/4 cup maple syrup)
• 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1-½ cup Rice Krispies (I substituted with 1-1/2 cup Buckwheat Puffs)
• 1 cup Wheat Germ (I substituted with 1 cup grounded flax seeds)
• ½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
• ¼ cups Roughly Chopped Almonds
• 8 ounces, weight Milk Chocolate Or Chocolate Almond Bark, Melted (optional) 

Method 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• 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 (160 degrees C).
• 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.
• Toss together the toasted oats, rice cereal, wheat germ, pecans and almonds. 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, or line pan with foil and grease foil) and bake until golden, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Cut pieces with a sharp knife and remove from the pan.
• Dip the cooled granola bars straight into the melted chocolate so that the top is plain and the bottom is chocolate-covered. Set on parchment until set, sticking in the fridge to hasten this along if necessary.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen from My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Vivian of Vivian Pang’s Kitchen.