Chocolate Granola Bars with Mixed Nuts and Cranberries

Granola bars - kinda grainy photo.

These granola bars aren't playing at being low calorie - they have nuts, honey, butter, and chocolate.  But they are high-fructose corn syrup free and use 'real' ingredients. They are also pretty easy to make and quite tasty. 

You take your oats, nuts, wheat germ and toast them on a sheet pan for 10 minutes. Then you heat your butter, brown sugar, and honey. Combine the toasted oats and nuts with the honey mixture. When this has cooled for a couple minutes, add the chocolate and dried fruit. I added the chocolate right away and it melted - so don't do that! It created kind of a chocolate glaze. Then you press the mixture into a glass pan and let cool for a couple hours. Then cut into bars. The toasted nuts, sweet honey, chocolate, and tart cranberries were a great combination.

Recipe

1 3/4 c oats

1/2 c wheat germ

1 1/3 c mixed nuts

1/2 c dried cranberries

1/2 c chocolate chips (I might reduce this to 1/3 c)

3 tbsp butter

1/2 c honey

1/3 c brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread the oats, wheat germ, and nuts in a sheet pan. Toast in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring every couple minutes. Heat butter, sugar, and honey in a saucepan on medium heat. Remove from heat after it has melted. Pour oat mixture into a large bowl. Add the honey mixture and dried fruit, stir until well combined. After this has cooled for a couple of minutes add the chocolate chips and mix until well combined. Line a 9x9 in pan with foil and press mixture into pan. Let cool for 2-3 hours and then cut into bars.

2 out of 3 JAMs