Experiment the First: Granola Bars

Experiment the First: Granola Bars
Recipe adapted from here.

What you need:
• 2 cups of rolled oats

• ¼ cup shredded coconut

• ¼ cup of wheat germ
• ~2/3 cup sliced almonds
• ~2/3 cup of crushed pecans
• ½ cup honey
• ¼ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup raisins (although dried cranberries would probably be good too)

What you do:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and butter a 9x9 baking dish. Even a monkey can do this.

Dump your oats, wheat germ, and nuts onto a cookie sheet (preferably the sort with sides so you don’t accidentally spill any into the oven). Leave them in the oven for about 15 minutes so that they are nice and toasted.

Don’t wait for the toasting to get done before you mix the honey, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir it often while the brown sugar dissolves.

When you hear the beep, take the oat mixture out of the oven and lower the temp to 300. Stir the oat-y goodness into the liquid mixture in the saucepan, and throw in the raisins now as well. It’ll be a bit sticky and hard to stir, but you must not let this daunt you. You must stir with all your might.

Pour the whole mess into the 9x9 pan and spread it flat with a spoon or spatula. Bake it for 30-40 minutes, then take it out and LET IT COOL. It will look delicious and yummy, but don’t try to cut it until it is ice cold. I tried cutting mine when they were perhaps just over 100º. This meant that I ended up with about half actual granola bar, and half cereal-granola, which is not ideal, but I will probably survive. I am very brave.

Time Needed: **** ½ : Pretty low-key. You can do other stuff while it bakes; only about 20 minutes of actual hands-on time.
Deliciousness: **** : Probably could have used less nuts, more coconut. The bars are also crumblier than I prefer.
Serving size: **** : Made about a week and a half’s worth of granola bars (I eat them almost every day). Well, okay, a week of granola bars and three days worth of granola cereal.
Ingredients: ***** : All pretty common stuff, findable at Piggly Wiggly. I bought the almonds pre-sliced, because I am not a masochist, and crushed some of the pecans I got for Christmas with my mashed-potato-masher without much trouble at all.
The Bottom Line: Suck it, Kashi.