Granola Bars
Everyone loves granola bars, adults and kids alike. My Aunt Jane gave me the original recipe, she got it from my cousin Jack. I substituted natural peanut butter for the butter and the girls wanted chocolate chips included. Even my husband said this is a super recipe!
Ingredients
2 cups oatmeal
¾ cup wheat germ
¾ cup sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts, crushed
2/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup honey
4 T. peanut butter
2 t. vanilla extract
½ t. Kosher salt
8 oz. dried cherries
1/3 cup Enjoy Life Brand chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Crush the peanuts by placing in Ziploc bag and roll with rolling pin. This is a step the kids will enjoy helping with.
Cover a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Mix the peanuts, oatmeal, wheat germ and sunflower seeds in a medium size bowl. Pour mixture on cookie sheet and toast for 10 to 12 minutes. Stir every few minutes to prevent burning.
Place brown sugar, honey, peanut butter, vanilla and salt into a saucepan. Basically you just want to heat this mixture until everything is melted and brown sugar dissolves. You do not need to bring this to a boil.
Line a large baking dish 11” X 13” with wax paper.
In the same bowl you used earlier for the oats and nuts pour the toasted grains back into the bowl and pour the liquid mixture along with the dried fruit and chocolate chips and mix well. Pour this mixture on top of the wax paper lined dish. Place another sheet of wax paper on top of granola and press down firmly so bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.
Let cool for 2 to 3 hours and serve.
