Wednesday 27 November 2013

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 DIYhosted by Vivian of Vivian Pang’s Kitchen.

26 comments:

  1. lovely granola... i love the addition of chocolate in it.... very classic pictures btw... i like the last one

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes me too, love the addition of chocolate in it....just took my breathe away as I love chocolate very much. Your granola was done and cut so nicely. Great as a gift too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HowdyMich! This such delicious looking granola bars. I failed on my first attempt...will try again some day. Hope you're having a lovely evening dear.
    blessings, Kristy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mmm - love the addition of chocolate. It always turns the ordinary into something special.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My kids will very happy seeing granola with chocolate. Love this idea. Thanks for the link up!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The chocolate makes it all the more special..love the use of healthy ingredients

    ReplyDelete
  7. You are so professional in your baking Mich! These must be heaven with the chocolate bottom! Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Granola dipped in chocolate is one of best invention ever lol

    ReplyDelete
  9. These looks just fantastic! With added chocolate, my kids would be grinning!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'd dip this in my cappuccino! Beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Mich, no doubt you & your family love granola so much! How I wish my children will love this too! Very clever to dip them in chocolate sauce!

    ReplyDelete
  12. wow I love how those granola bars look...so golden brown, crisp and chocolatey! Excellent, Mich.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Mich,

    Your cereal bars look chocolicious!!! I wish that your chocolate-dipped version will convince my son to like his cereal bars :p

    Zoe

    ReplyDelete
  14. Mich, what a clever way to make granola even more appealing!! I think I will try this to entice more people to eat granola!! Awesome :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. WOW... your granola bars look so perfect! I must bookmark this for the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Seriously, your granola bars look so delicious with dipped chocolate! I still have oats that I need to use too. This is nice recipe to work with the kids. They will dunk the entire bars in chocolate! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yum!! I would love one of these granola bars.

    ReplyDelete
  18. i hv nvr had choc granola bars before! those look wonderful! the recent muesli bars i made were kind of soft when leave at room temp...but yours really looking solid!

    ReplyDelete
  19. This weblog gives useful facts to us, keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  20. What’s up to every one, the contents existing at this web page are truly remarkable

    ReplyDelete
  21. for people knowledge, well, keep up the good work fellows.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thanks for sharing your info. I truly appreciate your efforts

    ReplyDelete
  23. I will be waiting for your next write ups thank you once again.

    ReplyDelete