Toasted Oats & Browned Butter Granola Bars

If I don’t accomplish anything else today, at least I can go to bed knowing I used up the rest of yesterday’s condensed milk.

Today’s cookie was a granola bar. Eagle brand has a recipe on their site, but I didn’t want to use peanuts and I wanted a much smaller batch, so I made some changes.

First off, I used a 9 inch square pan. It worked out fine, but an 8 inch pan would work just as well if that’s all you have. I also toasted the oats, seeds and almonds and browned the butter. These are small steps, but they make a noticeable difference in the end product.

The only sweetness in these comes from the dried fruit and the condensed milk. These were plenty sweet, but not candy-like sweet.

Here are the ingredients. You could make whatever you want just by varying the brand/variety of mixed fruits. If you’ve been to Target lately, Archer Farms now makes about 300 gazillion varieties. I used a mix of cherries, blueberries, raisins, and other things.

Here’s a picture of the batter. It looked kind of grayish for some reason. Maybe stain from the dried blueberries? Luckily, the bars didn’t take on a gray/purple hue.

And here are the bars. They were chewy/crispy right out of the oven and will no doubt, harden up quite a bit after being chilled. I’ll definitely make them again. I’d like to try a no-fruit, chocolate chip & peanut butter version next…..or maybe a mocha chip version. Since these aren’t particularly sweet, I think they would take well to a handful of flavored chips being thrown in at the end – maybe cappuccino, cinnamon, butterscotch?

Toasted Oats & Browned Butter Granola Bars

1 1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup almonds (I used a mixture of whole almonds and sliced)
4 tablespoons salted butter
1/2 of a 14 oz can of condensed milk
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2-3/4 cup mixed dried fruit

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Spread oats, sunflower seeds and almonds over sheet and toast for 8-10 minutes or until the mixture starts to smell good.

Meanwhile, line a 9 inch square pan with parchment paper.

Place butter in a small saucepan and melt over medium heat. Cook melted butter for another minute or just until you start to see bits of brown around the edges. Swirl butter a bit in pan and remove from heat.

Dump toasted oat mixture into a large bowl. Stir in condensed milk, browned butter, cinnamon and vanilla. Press mixture into lined pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until lightly brown around edges