Granola Bars

I got the motivation to make these bars from Pavithra. I bookmarked a couple of granola bar recipes from her blog and have wanted to try them for a long time. This weekend, I somehow managed to find the time to make them. They didn’t take long to prepare. Here’s what I did.

1. Quick one minute oats - 3 cups
2. Flax seeds - 1/4 cup
3. White sesame seeds - 3 tbsp
4. Salted Edamame beans - 1/4 cup (store bought)
5. Silvered Almonds - 1/2 cup
6. Pecans - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)
7. Mini Semi-sweet chocolate chips - 1/4 cup
8. Almond Butter - 2 tbsp
9. Unsalted Butter - 1/4 cup
10. Coconut Oil - 1/4 cup
11. Honey - 1/2 cup
12. Sugar Free Maple syrup -2 tbsp
13. Cinnamon - few pinches

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a cookie sheet.
• Take oats, flax seeds, sesame seeds, edamame beans, almonds, pecans and chocolate chips in a wide bowl.
• Add cinnamon to it and mix it well.  The actual recipe called for salt. I did not add salt here as Edamame beans had salt in it which I thought was more than enough
• Mean time, preheat a pan, melt butter and coconut oil.
• Add honey and maple syrup. Turn off the stove once every thing melts.
• Add the honey mixture to the oats and mix every well.
• Spread it in the cookie sheet and using a spatula press it tightly.  Spread a parchment paper on top and put a heavy bottomed pan on top of it and let it sit for couple of minutes.  I used my pressure cooker.
• Bake it for 16- 20 minutes and make sure the bottom is not burnt.
• Once it is golden brown, remove it from the over and let it cool. Once they are warm or 3/4 cool, cut it into required shape and store it air tight.
• I used the oats crumbs as granola for my next day breakfast and it was so good to eat with cold milk.