Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

For the past couple of days I’ve been itching to bake something, anything, as long as it wasn’t anything cake or cookie related…which does limit my options by a lot I know. Well I had seen Giada, from Everyday Italian, on the cooking channel last weekend and she had made these granola bars for these kids and I realized that’s what I was craving! I’ve never made homemade oat/granola bars whatever you want to call them so they were a first for me. I was a little confused when it was baking because it didn't seem to firm up, even after 25 minutes in the oven. Well, i decided that 25 minutes was long enough because I'd rather eat something under baked than over baked and waited for an hour for the bars to cool and once they did, the granola bars got firmer and didn't seem as squishy. In all these were pretty good, maybe a little too much butter so maybe I would cut that down by a tablespoon or two if I ever decided to make these again. Also, it was really chewy, which I liked, but I think it was missing a little crunch, despite the chunky peanut butter I used, so maybe I shouldn't have done half creamy half chunky.

This batter seemed like it would also form a nice oatmeal cookie

 this was the second pan, I thought I could fit it in a 9x13-inch pan but i was wrooooong xD 

 the worst part was having to wait an hour, I like trying things straight out of the oven.

 this really was yummy, I had too servings back-to-back

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

makes 24 (I got 16 because of the pan I used)

IngredientsVegetable spray
1 egg white
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (1/4 cup chunky, 1/4 cup crunchy)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

2 cups old fashioned oats (Quaker quick oats)

1/4 cup slivered almonds (omitted)

1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (regular chocolate chips)

Directions

1. Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray a 7 by 10 3/4-inch nonstick baking pan with vegetable cooking spray.The closest thing I had was an 8x8-inch pan, so I used that. Lay a 6 by 18-inch piece of parchment paper in the pan, allowing the excess paper to hang over the sides. Spray the parchment paper lightly with cooking spray.
3. In a medium bowl, using a hand beater, beat the egg white until frothy. Stir in the peanut butter, brown sugar, and honey. Add the melted butter, oats and almonds. Stir to combine, then add the chocolate chips.
4. Using a rubber spatula, spread mixture into the prepared baking pan, pressing lightly to form an even layer. Bake until the edge of the mixture begins to brown, about 15 minutes. It took about 25 minutes more mine to cook, even then it was still a little mooshy, but after cooling it became a little firmer. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 1 hour. Cut into 1 1/2-inch squares and serve.

Nutrition Facts

serving size: 1 bar (1/16)

Calories 189.0 Total Fat 11.6 g Saturated Fat 1.7 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g Cholesterol 15.0 mg Sodium 42.4 mg Potassium 3.4 mg Total Carbohydrate 19.7 g Dietary Fiber 1.8 g Sugars 11.9 g Protein 3.8 g