Granola Bars

So I like to make sure my daughter has a healthy lunch every day, including lots of fresh fruit and whole grains.  My daughter inherited my sweet tooth, and would quite happily have her lunch box filled with fudge and Snickers.  As a part of the recent food revolution in our house, I have been making lots of the "snacky" things that we eat from scratch.  I can control the amount of salt and fat and sugar and preservatives - and importantly, I have at least expended effort and time for the junk food rather than just grabbing something from the cupboard.  It's instilled an appreciation in our family for the "treats" versus healthier food. 

In my quest to make healthier lunches for Claire, I researched what goes in to granola bars (muesli bars).  There is an unholy amount of crap in most of the supermarket brands - and it seemed a fairly simple thing that I could make fresh myself on a more regular basis.  Costco sells oatmeal in 5 kilo boxes (and huge bags and large tubs of everything else required), so they are really incredibly cheap to make. 

As per my philosophy on brownies, I prefer a chewy granola bar.  These aren't as chewy as some of the commercial bars, as they don't have the emulsifiers and guar gums etc in them.

Chewy Granola Bars:

Ingredients

½ cup packed brown sugar
½  cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy works)
¼ cup golden syrup/honey
¼ cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ - 2 cups cups oats (start with 1 ½ and add more as needed to get to the right consistency)
½ cup raisins/craisins/dried blueberries
½  cup chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 175C. Combine 1st five ingredients, stir well.  Add oats and whatever "extras" you are putting in.  Mix well to ensure everything is evenly coated.

Press into 8 inch square pan coated with baking spray.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

Cool in pan (important - they will fall apart if you don't let them cool in the pan), then cut and wrap up individually in cling wrap.