these are great! i made mine healthier by limiting the butter to 1/2 cup and compensated by adding in 1 jar of baby food bananas. i also omitted the chocolate chips and instead used craisins and raisins. halfway through the bake time, i removed the pan from the oven and pressed the mixture firmly into the pan again. this helped to prevent them from crumbling. yummy!
We were going through boxes and boxes of store bought chewy granola bars so I searched for a recipe so we could make our own. This one is great. I feel better about my kids eating something homemade without all the processing of packaged ones! We found them a bit crumbly too. A few changes include whole wheat flour in place of white, have increased the honey & butter a bit, and substituted a cup or two of Rice Crispy's in place of some of the oatmeal to make them a bit lighter and crunchy. We have also cut down on the chips to 1 cup as 2 cups were much too sweet for us. They are a favorite by all!
Excellent! I've made these several times. These suggestions from previous reviewers worked best:
1. Increase butter and honey to 1 cup each.
2. Mix WELL (until sticky).
3. Press HARD into pan.
4. Freeze bars to make less crumbly.
I also substitute 1/4 cup Rice Krispies for some of the oats, for better texture.
These were incredible!!! These are the best granola bars I've ever tried, literally. The version I made tasted almost identical to the Quaker chocolate chip granola bars that kids love. I made a few adjustments like using whole-wheat flour, omitting the sugar and creaming together 2/3 cup butter and 2/3 cup honey together instead and everything came together beautifully! I added shredded coconut, pecans and 1/2 of a bar of 70% chocolate that I chopped up. PERFECT! Thank you so much for the recipe Nancy!
These were delicious!!! I didn't add the brown sugar or the chocolate chips to make them healthier and they came out great. The honey made them sweet enough without the extra sugar added.
These granola bars are AWESOME! They held together superbly, and I had no problems with them crumbling at all. I did add the extra honey, as the other reviewers suggested, and I also used a handheld roller to FIRMLY press the mixture into my pan both before and after cooking. The recipe indicates to lightly press it into the pan, but I packed it all in there as tightly as I possibly could... The results were great! Thanks for a great recipe!
I was a bit shy to try this recipe after reading about it being so dry. I assure you that mine did NOT come out dry. I decreased my oats to 4 cups, used one stick butter, 1/2 c. honey, 1/2 c. applesauce, and 12 ounces of trail mix (which I may change out later). I did not put any brown sugar in it as I thought the trail mix, honey, and applesauce would be enough. I am keeping this recipe.
I just made these today and Wow! I am always skipping breakfast and worse yet raiding the vending machine when I get to work. Store bought breakfast/granola bars are expensive(the good kind anyway) and I wanted to find a homemade recipe to have a nutritious "grab n go" breakfast.I wanted more of a health bar so I used 3 cups of Vitamin Enriched Bran Flakes and 2 1/2 c. oats. I put the bran flakes and 2 cups of the oats in a food processor and blended it to form a "cornmeal" type texture. I also added 1/2 cup of peanut butter and reduced the flour to 1/2 cup and mini chocolate chips to 3/4 cup. PERFECT! Try the tips I used and believe me you wont be disappointed..there's tons of room in this recipe for tweaking and adjusting to your own preference. Thanks for sharing this one Nancy!
This is absolutely awesome!! I always have to have it available to eat!! The first time I made these they came out crumbly and was the only one that ate them. The second time i didn't know how much 2/3c was so used 7Tbsp of butter and melted it. They come out perfect every time and everyone loves them!! MELT THE BUTTER. So thank you very much!!
I was not impressed with this recipe at all. It wasn't chewy like I thought it would be. I was surprised at how soft the texture was and it reminded me of a bland chocolate chip cookie bar. I think I was looking for a bar that has the texture of Quaker chewy granola bars.
