Perusing the aisles of Target and looking at the endless varieties of granola bars inspired me to try making them at home. Using my trusty King Arthur Cookie Companion, I made their “Vermont Granola Bars”. This is a slightly scaled down version of KA’s recipe. King Arthur uses a 15×18 inch pan, but these are made in an 8 inch square pan so that you get about 8 bars.
Here’s a photo. Note the white streaks? Right before I patted them into the pan, I threw in some white chips. The white chips melted into streaks then set up again to make an even richer and more delicious bar.
Vermont Granola Bars
Small batch granola bars
Cooking time (duration): 35
Diet type: Vegetarian
Number of servings (yield): 6
Culinary tradition: USA (General)
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups oats
- 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup coconut, shredded sweetened
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup almonds, roasted and coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup chopped apricots
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 1/2 tablespoons corn syrup
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons white chips
Cooking Directions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with non-stick foil.
- Lay oats and sunflower seeds on a cookie sheet and toast for 5 minutes. Sprinkle coconut onto cookie sheet with oats and seeds; toast all for another 3-5 minutes or until coconut is aromatic and starts to brown around edges – keep an eye on it!. Place toasted oats/seeds/coconut mixture in a large mixing bowl; Stir in salt, almonds and apricots.
- Place butter, corn syrup, maple syrup and brown sugar in a saucepan. Turn heat to medium and stir to mix as butter melts. Place a candy thermometer in the saucepan and allow mixture to come to a gentle boil. Boil without stirring until mixture reaches 245 degrees F. on thermometer – a little over “soft ball” stage. Remove from heat. Stir vanilla into hot syrup, then pour syrup into mixing bowl with oat mixture and stir to combine. At this point, you may want to throw in some white chips. They’ll melt, but just let them do their thing and don’t stir the melted chips into the batter.
- Press tightly into the foil lined pan. Bake for 5 minutes. Without removing from pan, Score into 9 squares or 6 rectangles while still warm. At this point, the bars will be hot, crumbly and soft. Let them cool completely. When they are cool, lift parchment and remove from pan. They should be pretty firm at this point, but if you would like them to be even firmer, place them in the refrigerator.
Holly says
August 5, 2006 at 1:58 pmThose look mighty tasty indeed! They look very moist. Moist is good. 🙂
Annie says
August 2, 2006 at 4:05 pmDisregard my last comment – I just found your version! Thanks
Annie says
August 2, 2006 at 4:02 pmHi Anna – it’s been a while!
Oh my god – have you had a LaraBar? If so, what’s your take? They are my latest obcession. I’m just poking around Cookiemadness to see if you’ve cracked this recipe yet. It seems pretty simple…
Claire N says
July 31, 2006 at 9:10 pmThanks, Anna! That information is great, as I do not own a candy thermometer right now!
Anna says
July 31, 2006 at 8:38 pmtg and Erika, I’m glad you all understand why I love Archer Farms. What a great store brand. Their salsa is good too.
Claire, these are really easy to make. Using the candy thermometer is a bit intimidating, but it’s not big deal. I think the mixture boils for about 3 minutes and reaches firm ball stage. I might try making these again without the candy thermometer.
Claire N says
July 31, 2006 at 5:20 pmI had the same thought as Randi. Although granola has good ingredients, the dried characteristic of most of them make them high in sugar. No matter how healthy the ingredient, having a lot of sugar isn’t great. BUT these don’t have much added sugar and look like they are good. I’ve never made granola but may have to try my hand.
Erika says
July 31, 2006 at 3:32 pmOoh! Thank you for sharing these! Dh will love them!
I love Archer Farms gourmet popcorns…my little Target addiction. 😉
tg says
July 31, 2006 at 2:00 pmluv archer farms (thx for the link!). luv that king arthur book too. i’m just full of luv for cookie madness today
Anna says
July 31, 2006 at 8:54 amRandi, I guess compared to other richer cookies, they are okay.
Maureen, you could do a Hazelnut & Butterscotch chip version!
Judi, sorry to hear about your oat intolerance. That’s a new one to me, but I believe it.
Judi says
July 31, 2006 at 6:47 amYum! This past year I found out I had an oat intolerance, so no more oats or oat filled yummies for me…. They look good though!
Maureen says
July 30, 2006 at 11:20 pmOooh, I can’t wait to make these. For some reason I am obsessed with snacking on the Nature Valley Fruit and Nut Trail Mix bars. I guess it is at least one thing that doesn’t melt entirely in the car while it sits in the sun. I have all the ingredients on hand – so no excuses. 🙂
Randi says
July 30, 2006 at 9:34 pmThose look good and not too bad for you. There isnt much butter or corn syrup.