Growing up, I never really realized that granola bars were supposed to be healthy. The ones I usually had in my lunch bag were those old ones that I think were called “Dips”, and let’s be honest, were basically a chocolate bar. I remember my favourite one had caramel inside and was covered in chocolate. (Oh snap! They still make them!)

In high school I went through a Nutri-Grain Bar phase, which lasted into university. Those are the soft bars, with a fruity jam-like filling.  My favourite co-worker of all time (sorry Greg, Jill, Barry, and whoever else is reading this) David Gibbs introduced me to the crunchy All-Bran Bar, which was my bar of choice in the mid-2000s. I mean really, it’s essentially a cookie.

In recent years, it’s been the Fibre One Bars in the yellow box. They must be good for you if they have FIBRE in them, right? Um, no. Before I started my elimination challenge last year, I checked the ingredients to see if they were okay to have. High Maltose Corn Syrup anyone? So I feel like any positive effects of the fibre are negated by all the sugar. If I have to buy granola bars these days, it’ll be Kashi, but I find they go stale very quickly.

I’ve made my own granola bars in the past, always using Brooke’s recipe. These bars have whole-wheat flour in them, which definitely leans them towards the cakey side of things. I also tried a Barefoot Contessa recipe, but they were too crunchy for me. I ended up just crumbling the bars over yogurt. Not ideal for what is supposed to be an on-the-go snack.

Then this recipe for Chewy Granola Bars came up on Dinner with Julie, and let me just say, they are my granola bar nirvana. They are chewy, hearty, just a little bit sweet, and so adaptable, I’ll never get bored of making them. For my first batch I used walnuts, sunflower seeds, raisins and almond butter. For the second it was pecans, pepita (pumpkin seeds), raisins and natural peanut butter. I cut the sugar in half the second time, as the bars are sweet enough with the honey. I think you even leave it out altogether. As a final note, all granola bars (and of course, granola) freeze very well. I would suggest making a double batch, and keeping them in the freezer.

Chewy Granola Bars

Source: Dinner with Julie

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar (the second time I made them, I cut this down to 1/4 cup, and next time might leave it out altogether)

1/3 cup oat flour (just pulse oats in the food processor or blender until finely ground and powdery)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 cups dried fruit, nuts and seeds

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter

1/3 cup honey or maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine oats, sugar, oat flour, salt and cinnamon. Stir in dried fruit, nuts and seeds.
2. In another bowl, whisk together oil, nut butter, honey and vanilla. Pour over dry ingredients and mix until the whole thing is moistened.
3. Pat into a 8×8″ square pan that is lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick spray.
4. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely, then lift out onto a cutting board and slice into bars or squares.