Snackin’ on this

This week I made one of my all-time favorite baked goods – granola bars! I always feel like I am contributing a little bit to my house’s quest for simplicity, and maybe even making the world a tiny bit better by not buying those prepackaged kinds that use up a lot of plastic and cardboard, not to mention the costs of shipping and handling. Baking granola bars for my house also gives us a yummy snack food, something that is often hard-to-come-by.

I started with a recipe from my friend Megan Woods (who is an incredible baker, by the way!) and I’ve been revising it over the past few months. I think I finally have it down. In fact, I’ve committed it to memory!

Without further ado,

Emmaus House Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola Bars

The “gooey” ingredients:
6Tbsp. vegetable oil
1c. crunchy peanut butter
1c. brown sugar
1tsp. salt
1/4c. water
2 egg whites

The dry ingredients:
2c. oatmeal
1c. of your favorite cereal (I like to use Kashi Go Lean or Post Honey Bunches with Oats.)
2/3c. of another add-in – raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips or chopped nuts, or a combination of these.

What you do:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

• In a large sauce pan or wok, add vegetable oil over low heat. Add in peanut butter and brown sugar, salt and water (all gooey ingredients EXCEPT the egg!)and continue to heat slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon.

• As soon as the ingredients are melted, thoroughly mixed and simmering slowly, turn off the heat and continue to mix occasionally as the gooey mixture cools.

• Meanwhile, throw all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Toss them a little with your hands to make sure the different elements are mixed up evenly.

• When the gooey mixture has cooled a bit, whisk in the egg whites. (I like to test the temperature by adding a small drop of egg white first to make sure it doesn’t scramble at first contact, then add the rest in if the goo is sufficiently cooled.)

• Once the egg whites are blended, pour the gooey mixture over the dry ingredients. Stir until even.

• On a baking sheet with an 1″ rim, spread the mixture across one side, flattening with your fingers. Shape it into a long rectangle about 1/4″ tall. You may want to perforate the bars with a knife, slicing them halfway through into 1.5″x4″ pieces.

• Bake for 45-50 minutes, until they are a gleaming, crunchy golden brown.

• Cool, and then slice through with a sharp knife. Store sustainably in a Tupperware container or cookie jar! (No need to refrigerate.)

The only warning about these things is that if several people will be eating them, you might want to put a label on the container you keep them in, with an estimate of how many bars there are per person. Otherwise (if your household is anything like mine), they will be gone in a matter of hours!

That’s it for now. Maybe next week I’ll post a recipe with lentils. : )

Tags: granola bars, homemade, peanut butter granola bars, recipe, sustainable