It all started out so beautiful and promising- with diced dried fruit, wholesome nuts and old-fashioned oats. I was my day away from the bakery, and I thought I’d use my kitchen to experiment with homemade granola bars. I seem to have trouble eating normally, standing on my feet all day, working in front of a mixing bowl. I notice that I’ll turn occasional bites of dough into a meal. To help solve my intake dilemma, I thought I’d make granola bars to have on hand when hunger strikes but break time does not.I had the greatest of intentions, and the stickiest of results.
Granola bars are simply the goodness of oats, fruit and nuts in convenient bar form. My granola was a hands down winner in the wholesome goodness department, but a total failure in the bar department.
When my pressed granola had baked and cooled and it seemed like slicing time, that’s when my cookie (granola bar) crumbled. It didn’t want to hold it’s bar shape at all. It wasn’t even thinking about it. When I gave up the fight and mounded the cooked granola up on a plate, I noticed that it looked almost exactly the same after it was cooked as it did before I popped it in the oven. Hmm….. not good. But still a deliciously edible treat.
The above picture is the granola mixed with warm honey syrup ready to be pressed in the pan and put in the oven. The picture below is the failed bars turned delicious breakfast cereal.
Thank goodness some mistakes are still mouth watering!
I’m debating whether or not I should give you the recipe. This obviously wasn’t the keenest granola bar recipe. As a granola, while it was still gloriously edible, it was really sticky from the honey. This made is slightly hard to store, because it’s kinda one big sticky mess.
Do you have a good granola or granola bar recipe I should try? I need a little help with this one.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Hey Joy, shame about the granola goodness falling apart on you. But smiles all around since it was still delicious. I made granola just recently using a Nigella Lawson recipe and it was awesome. Sweet, nutty but not sticky, so it was a dream to store. It’s pretty easy to substitute different nuts and dried fruit too,
Try it here on my blog. Then here’s the link: http://buttersugarflour.com/2008/03/15/best-ever-homemade-granola/
Fingers crossed my HTML works!
March 25th, 2008 at 4:04 am
Sorry to hear it didn’t work out, although it sure still looks and sounds good! I say post up the details–I for one would still happily eat the granola cereal even if its not in bar form! Just fill a plastic bag and its fingerfood for the day.
Home-made granola bars have been on my mind as well, but I’ve never tried it myself. I eat some premade ones with some regularity, and I know I could certainly do better than that…maybe one of these days.
Also, if you think this particular recipe didn’t go well, I promise a good post in about a week or so, lol. I think “swiss roll” is enough of a hint as to how things went…
March 25th, 2008 at 5:36 am
I’m a recreational triathlete, and on some tri message boards, Alton Brown’s recipe is very popular, though I have not personally tried it:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_31335,00.html
March 25th, 2008 at 6:39 am
this looks absolutely stunning…on my list of things to do is making granola ~ this looks delicious.
i luv how you bake & approach, you are officially bookmarked…thanks for the yum post!
March 25th, 2008 at 7:19 am
I have the one from Nigella, mentioned above, that I am posting later this week - it turned out crisp and pretty tasty! The granola looks great though!
March 25th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa has a great granola recipe. I have a bar
recipe, but have misplaced it for now. Enjoyed visiting your site!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I have tried so many times to make granola bars, and its really hard to get them to hold together without being too sweet. I think I’ve finally nailed down a good recipe: http://cookingthehardway.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/maple-nut-granola-bars/
I also been making my own granola for years, which I eat just about every morning with yogurt for breakfast. I haven’t posted that recipe on my blog yet, but I hope to get around to it very soon.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Maybe you could turn it into a granola recipe instead of granola bar recipe? Looks delicious…
March 25th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Joy,
I found your site a couple weeks back and have really enjoyed it. Your creations are beautiful and mouth-watering.
I’ve got both a granola bar and granola recipe on my site (links below). Commenters have had trouble slicing the bars, but they complain the bars were too hard to cut (while it sounds like yours were too soft). Either way, my recipe hasn’t given me a problem at the cutting stage. If you give them a try, let me know how it goes. I’d be interested to see your recipe to see how it compared to mine.
http://ourkitchensink.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/homemade-granola-im-warning-you/
http://ourkitchensink.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/how-i-decided-to-create-granola-bars/
March 25th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
SO fun! I was just looking to make granola bars the other day!!!
lovely fist photo.m………mmm
March 25th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
That granola certainly looks tasty even if it is not in bar form.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I’d eat it
That’s all I got to say because let’s face it: it looks great the way it is!
March 27th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Hi Joy ~ After much trial and error I came up with two bars that I make regularly.
This one is nutty and crunchy: http://www.wholegraingourmet.com/recipes/snack/57-snack/52-coconut-almond-granola-bar.html
This one is a soft and chewy no bake recipe:
http://www.wholegraingourmet.com/recipes/snack/57-snack/48-multigrain-energy-bars.html
Let me know if you try them.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I just put my granola recipe up on my blog this morning. I’ve been making it for years and its pretty foolproof and really good. Take a look!
http://cookingthehardway.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/crunchy-granola/
April 7th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I’m a big fan of the ellie krieger one on the food network. I often use puffed rice to increase the volume a bit to make it look like its a decent amount of food!
April 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Leave it all nice and crumbley, put it in a bowl, add about a couple of spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt and - viola! Breakfast.
At least that’s how it’s done in my apartment. Mainly because I could never get the stupid things to stick together.
I’d love to see the recipe you’re working from thought.
Thanks.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I had some of the best snack/energy bars in Mexico and South America. In the Peruvian highlands in particular they had these bars called Inkas Gold *(Oro de Inka) with quinoa, currants, and puffed stuff like those dig’em smacks. I tried making some w/ quinoa, ginger, almonds, and other stuff for energy & appetite. . . they’re a tough thing to master. You’re definitely on your way though!
May 1st, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Your granola looks great, even if it was not cut into bars. I have had a similar problem, although I had some decent results following a recipe from http://www.bakingbites.com. You can check them out on that website or mine.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
[...] Nigella Lawson’s granola recipe and it looks mighty delicious. Also Joy from Joy the Baker experimented with different mixes in her granola so check that out as well. Lastly, Molly at Orangette has a delictable granola [...]
May 16th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Made my first batch of granola bars taste great but feels awfully sinful healthier maybe but all those calories from sugar honey and butter!!
Is there a healthier version that still tastes good…. ! Its a bit soft and not hard like it says in most recipies so did I have to boil ’syrup mix longer’
or had did I have too much of one thing?