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Granola Bars

Hello?? Hello?? Yes, it is me. I’ve been busy – so I’ve been extremely neglectful of my blog and my readers. So much has happened over the last few months, including the arrival of my new baby – yep, I lashed out and got the new TM5. Not that I didn’t love my TM31, but the marketing spin got the better of me and I ordered the day they were announced amongst the tumult and the shouting.

I must admit I think I still love my TM31 better than my TM5. Why? Lots of reasons, which I will detail on a later post. But if I only had a TM31 I would still be the happiest person on the block. They are both truly super appliances, but my gut feel is that the TM31 is more for ‘real’ cooks – the TM5 seems to be focussed on idiot proof cooking.

Anyway, I digress.

As Master 5 only has a month left of kinder, my mind has turned to Christmas presents for his teachers. Last year I concocted a hamper with a bottle of champagne, some barbecue spices, some sea salt scrubs, sugar scrubs, vanilla sugar, bath salts, and quince paste. This year I want to do something similar, with some different components – I’m contemplating pastilla, dukkah, chilli cherry ripe, vanilla essence (already brewing in the cupboard) and a few other bits and pieces. So as I was searching through In The Mix 2, I came across this recipe for Granola Bars. I had a few minutes spare, and everything I needed in the cupboard, so decided to give them a crack.

As it turns out, even if I hadn’t had all the ingredients on hand, this is one of those recipes you can adapt to use what you have on hand. Great for emptying the pantry out! And I love that this is nut free, so it’s perfect for Master 5 to bring to kinder or school. In it’s original form it’s also gluten free.

The original recipe calls for: butter, honey, brown sugar, pitted dates, rolled oats, poppy seeds, white chia seeds, ground cinnamon and salt flakes.

Essentially you caramelise the butter, honey and sugar, then add the dates, blitz, then add everything else. You roll it out to fit a baking tray (mine is about 20 x 25 cm) and bake it for 20 minutes in a 140 degree oven. Cool and cut into pieces.

The mix on this one is extremely sticky, so I turned it out onto baking paper, put another piece of baking paper on top, and rolled it out to the approximate shape of my tray before dropping it back in and filling in the gaps.

Seriously, this is one of those – this is quicker than going to the supermarket to buy a pack of biscuits – recipes, definitely will be on high rotation at our house.

And the taste? Think sophisticated honey joy with lots of hidden goodness!

Enjoy!