Toasted Oats & Browned Butter Granola Bars are a great way to use half a can of condensed milk. The Eagle Brand is used as a binder, but it also adds sweetness and flavor.
Sweetness Level
The only sweetness in the bars comes from the dried fruit, chocolate and the condensed milk. If you don’t find them sweet enough you can add a tablespoon of brown sugar, but it’s probably a good idea to test “as-is” before using more sweetener. I use dried cherries and chocolate chips, so again – more sweetness. You really can tailor these to your own personal tastes.
The bars are chewy/crispy right out of the oven and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. If you want to speed up the process, you can score the bars while warm and then chill.
Loaf Pan Browned Butter Granola Bars
I recently made a half batch of the bars using a loaf pan. It worked perfectly! I used a pan that was about 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches wide, halved all the ingredients (so 98 grams condensed milk) and baked for 20 minutes.
Toasted Oats & Browned Butter Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup oats
- 1/2 cup sunflower seed kernels, roasted (or pumpkin, etc)
- 1/2 cup roasted almonds
- 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 cup mixed dried fruit or your choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Spread oats on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes or just until they start to brown and smell toasty.
- Meanwhile, line a 9 inch square pan with parchment paper or foil. If using foil, spray with cooking spray or grease it.
- 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 oats into a large bowl. Stir in condensed milk, browned butter, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir in almonds, sunflower seeds and dried fruit. If mixture is warm, let it cool slightly before adding any chocolate chips.
- Press mixture into lined pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until lightly brown around edges.
- Let cool for about 15 minutes, then lift from the pan and score. Let cool completely, then break apart. Note: If you break them apart before they are completely cool, they may fall apart.
sandra
i just made these and they are great! i used a mixture of apricots, blueberries, cranberries, cherries and raisins for dried fruit. I used a slightly larger rectangular pan because they seemed too think in a 9″ one, probably because i had like a whole cup of fruit. next time i think i would add toasted rice things, like rice krispies and put them in a bigger pan.
thanks for the recipe!!
Terri
Thanks for the info. These will be good pre-run.
Anna
I just put them into Mastercook. I pasted the values below. They came in at 50% fat, but keep in mind a lot of that fat is from almonds and Sunflower seeds — good fat.
Per 1/12 of a 9 inch pan
229 Calories;
14g Fat
(53.1% calories from fat); 6g Protein;
22g Carbohydrate;
3g Dietary Fiber;
16mg Cholesterol;
62mg Sodium.
Terri
Love the doodling! These look really good. Any idea of the nutritional value (calories, fat grams, etc.)? I’m looking forward to making them.
Anna
Janice, Oprah was lots of fun. I especially liked staying at The Omni ;).
Kristin, thanks for throwing out a review. Also, yours were probably chewier than usual because they were right out of the refrigerator.
Steph, thanks for appreciating my highly refined doodling ability.
Steph
I love the photoshop doodles! : ) Your blog is really a day-brightener – and the bars look good too.
Kristin
Ok, here’s my review:
Good nutty/granola texture without being so chewy that it makes my mouth hurt. Sorta like the Powerbar Trail Mix bars, or the Mojo bar without the vitamin-y aftertaste. I am a fan of these!
Janice
Hey Anna!!
I saw you on Oprah too! You really do come up with some amazing ideas! Any more contests coming up? I love looking through your past recipes for sweet ideas… plus the pictures make my mouth water!
Anna
Oh yeah? How funny. Glad I keep the TV on Disney Channel ;).
surcie
Hey, I just saw you on Oprah!
Anna
I got carried away with the little paintbrush tool.
Ms. Chevious
Snort. Love Mr. Quaker’s antennae. Bars look yummy too!