Peanut Butter Drizzled Granola Bars

You know what I’ll never be able to get enough of? Granola bars. I probably have at least one a day. And if I could, I would probably want to eat them all the time, it’s sad… and probably a little unhealthy, I know, but I can’t help it.

I love the chewy ones because I can slowly pick off the chocolate chips and devour those first. Then I’m able to taste the little rice bubbles coated in some kind of sticky caramel thing that tastes like candy. And don’t get me started on the chewy bars with a bottom that’s been laced with chocolate. Mmmhmmm. That’s good stuff right there.
And the crunchy kind, specifically Nature Valley’s crunchy granola bars. The Oats & Honey is just sweet enough while the Cinnamon one tastes like dessert, only in crunchy snack form, and Peanut Butter. Oh peanut butter has my heart too, especially with that little peanut drizzle on top. It’s the only one (that I know of) with a sweet little drizzle on top of it. I love little drizzles.

Guess what? These granola bars have a little drizzle on them too. It’s peanut butter. It’s a peanut butter drizzle on a granola bar that can be chewy or crunchy.

I tried making chewy granola bars the other day, but they kinda flopped as a bar. Instead I crumbled it up and ate it as granola. Between my dad and I that stuff lasted only a few hours, it was sort of sad. So yesterday I decided to not really follow a recipe, but make my own granola bars instead.

The recipe I used had called for melted butter- something that I don’t think did much to help the oats and rice cereal stick together too well. So I asked myself what is something that would help make the granola bars stick? Peanut butter makes everything stick together! So I used peanut butter to make these little tasty treats for you guys. If you want your bars crunchy, keep them in the fridge to have as a cool snack (it’s supposed to be 100 degrees for the next week here); if you want your bars chewy, keep them in the pantry at room temperature.

Peanut Butter Drizzled Granola Bars
Recipe by me
Makes 9x9 or 8x8 inch square

Ingredients
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup Rice Krispies cereal
Pinch of salt
¼ cup creamy peanut butter
¼ cup honey
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
Directions
In a medium bowl mixt together the oats, cereal, and salt. Set aside.
In a medium sauce pan heat the peanut butter on medium heat until melted. Stir in the honey until completely incorporated. Stir the sugar until melted into the peanut butter-honey mixture. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Add the hot peanut butter mixture to the oats mixture and stir. Once you’ve stirred and can’t stir anymore, use your hands to get the rest of the job done. Press the oat mixture into a lightly greased 9x9 or 8x8 inch pan. Pack the granola in there tightly. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
Remove from the fridge and drizzle the peanut butter glaze (stir together 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar + 1 tbsp. creamy peanut butter, melted + 2-3 tsp. milk) over the uncut granola block. Place back into the fridge for about an hour or until the glaze firms up. Cut into bars (I got 14 and 2 halves granola bars). Wrap in plastic wrap or foil. Keep in the fridge or at room temperature.

Ultra Chewy Pumpkin Granola Bars

I think it was last week (or the week before) where I told you guys that I managed to score the second to last giant can of pumpkin puree. Well, because of it’s enormous stature, I’m having difficulty using it all up. I have managed to get a little dent in how much left-over pumpkin is sitting in the fridge, but it seems like it’s just starring at me, taunting me every time I open the door. So I’ve been searching all over for pumpkin recipes to use it all up. I think I’ve got like three different pumpkin bread recipes, two kinds of cookies and some yeast bread made with pumpkin, but who knows if I’ll have time to make them all. Either way, it’s still fun to see all the things you can do with pumpkin. For instance, these very chewy granola bars.

The other day I was looking on the internet for more pumpkin recipes when the thought passed through my mind: “Can you make pumpkin granola bars?”. The answer is yes. I had to do a lot of searching though. All of the recipes I initially found were just repeats of this one recipe that didn’t strike my fancy. Then, I came across this recipe on Clean Eating Chelsey.

This is a quick and easy granola bar recipe. Putting together all of the ingredients takes no less than 10 minutes, and then all you have to do is wait for it to bake, simple as that. However, I did have a little trouble with the baking process. After the mixture was in the oven, I was worried that it wasn’t cooking. After the timer had gone off, they were still really soft, so I stuck them back in the oven for another couple of minutes and they were still really soft. I threw caution to the wind and took them out anyways, hoping for the best. I can never tell with some things if they are cooked all the way through or not. Some foods are just tricky like that.

After taking a bite of one of the granola bars, I came to the conclusion that they aren’t really granola bars but a version of those oatmeal to go squares by Quaker. They are dense and very chewy. If you’ve ever had those Quaker oatmeal to go bars, and like the texture, then you are surly going to like this.

The pumpkin flavor is very subtle, or at least I thought so. I’m not so sure about my taste buds at the moment since I’m getting a cold, but I thought the amount of pumpkin was quite nice. I could definitely taste the pumpkin pie spice, and that made the bars taste nice and warm. Speaking of warm, these bars probably taste best (in my opinion) when they are slightly warm. I think a couple of these warmed up on a plate sitting next to a glass of cold milk would make a really nice breakfast, or snack, whichever you prefer.

Ultra Chewy Pumpkin Granola Bars

 slightly adapted from Clean Eating Chelsey

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned dry oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup agave syrup
3 tbsp pure maple syrup
½ cup almonds, roughly chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (for slightly crunchier granola bar, go up to 325 degrees F). Grease a 9 by 9 inch square baking tray, set aside. 
2. Place ½ cup of oats into a food processor and process until the oats have formed into a flour-like powder. Line a large mixing bowl, combine the oat flour, remaining 1 ½ cups of oats, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Toss the ingredients until well incorporated.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, agave syrup, maple syrup and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and fold until the mixture becomes a little sticky and is well incorporated.
4. Turn the mixture out into the greased pan and using either your hands or a spatula, press the mixture down until the bottom is completely covered. This could take a little bit of effort, but don’t be discouraged, it will spread out eventually. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let it cool completely before cutting into desired portions. 

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