Vermont Granola Bars (Small Batch)

Makes an 8 inch square pan of chewy granola bars.

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword Granola Bars

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 25

Cooling 2

Total Time 2 40

Servings

Ingredients

1 ⅓ cups oats
⅓ cup sunflower seeds untoasted or toasted**
¼ cup coconut shredded sweetened
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup almonds roasted and coarsely chopped
⅓ cup chopped apricots or other dried fruit
4 tablespoons butter
2 ½ tablespoons corn syrup
⅓ cup maple syrup
¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons white chips or chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 8x8 inch baking pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper.
Lay oats on baking sheet and toast for 5 minutes. Add sunflower seeds to baking sheet and toast for another 3 minutes. Sprinkle coconut onto cookie sheet with oats and seeds; toast all for another 3 minutes or until coconut is aromatic and starts to brown around edges - keep an eye on it so make sure it doesn’t burn. Place toasted oats/seeds/coconut mixture in a large mixing bowl; Stir in salt, almonds and apricots.
Begin melting butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add corn syrup, maple syrup and brown sugar to melted butter. 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. Let cool slightly and add some white chips or chocolate chips.
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. The bars will be hot, crumbly and soft, so don’t try to separate them yet. Let them cool completely. When they are cool, lift parchment and remove from pan. They should be firm at this point, but if you would like them to be even firmer, place them in the refrigerator.

Notes

If your sunflower seeds are already toasted you don't have to toast them with the oats. Just add the coconut after the first 8 minutes and toast it along with the oats until it starts to brown.