I made a healthier lower fat version that turned out really great. I used 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup oil egg beaters instead of eggs and only 1/2 c honey and 1/2 c sugar. I also added some natural peanut butter. They were wonderful baked them about 30 minutes. Thanks for this great healthy snack.
I love this recipe! I did as the other reviewer suggested. 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil and it turned out great! I didn't have any wheat germ so I used ground flaxseed instead and just eliminated whole flaxseed. These freeze great and can be eaten right from the freeze (they don't get too hard). No more energy bars from the store for us! They also feel you up pretty good. Works great for a quick breakfast if you are in a hurry. I will DEFINITELY make these again!!
Great alternative to preservative filled and/or pricey grocery store granola bars. Perfect on the go breakfast for a busy family. Recipe is great as is but when you start to get bored of it try mixing it up a little. Try cocoa powder apple pie spice reese peanut butter bits peanut butter trail mix M&M's or anything else that sounds interesting to mix up the flavours. I've made this a couple dozen times and always add a couple extra cups of filler (trail mix expecially). A hint for handling the sticky dough; spray your hands lightly with no stick cooking spray when mixing/patting it into the casserole dish and it'll handle much better. These keep very well--I usually get 10-14 days out of the fridge b4 they mould or go 'off' and around a month in the fridge and have frozen as long as six months.
These are surprisingly very good! Not 'very good for health food' good. Just plain good! 4 stars because although I actually followed the recipe and ingredients exactly my bars are just slightly crumbly unless frozen. The reviewer who said they're a little cake like is correct - these are different than what you get in the box at the store. But they are genuinely filling and taste great. Sweet but not 'candy bar masquerading as health food' sweet. It will be easy to make different flavors of this for the kidlet who has happily taken them to school all week. I think the recipe needs modification but I am a big fan. EDIT: made again using 1/2 oil and 1/2 applesauce instead of 1 full cup oil and halved the brown sugar. Found no change in flavor/texture. Still a little crumbly. I also tripled the cinnamon and it didn't change much at all. We've since added coconut almonds and almond extract for almond joy bars. We subbed the chocolate for craisins and the vanilla for lemon extract for lemon cranberry bars. I'm using flax meal (ground flax) instead of seeds because the seeds are undigestible so they're useless in the recipe as-is. UPDATE: replacing all the oil with pureed pumpkin works perfectly too and an extra egg (or equivalent of egg whites) keeps them from crumbling.
I haven't tried this recipe yet but judging by other reviews i'm sure it will be a good one. HOWEVER! I would like to make note that if you'er going to use the flax seed It must be GROUND first to realease it's healthy Omega 3 oils and other minerals. I've read that people can not digest whole seeds. If you don't have a spice or coffee grinder you can buy flax meal or flax flour but it needs to be kept in the freezer to keep the oils from becomming rancid.
WoW this is my new goto meal replacement/snack/energy bar. Better than any granola/fiber bars on the market. This has become an essential part of my diet. I have made them with the original recipe and changed some things around. I found if you use three eggs they are not so crumbly and stick to gether much better.
I love finding healthy snack choices for my family and although I usually don't try recipes that haven't been reviewed already I thought I would try my luck... so glad I did! These were great! I did tell my kids they were "CHOCOLATE CHIP bird seed bars" and that did the trick! I did only give it 4 stars because the bars could have used a little more egg or something to stick better... I was nervous that they would taste a little "cardboard" because they only used whole wheat flour but they were fine just as written. I might try using half oil and half applesauce to cut down on the oil - if I do I'll post an update. As is - they are great though! (they remind me a little of my PLAYGROUP GRANOLA BARS! If you like these you'll like those too.)
These were great. I wrote down all of the suggested "additions" from other reviewers and am eagerly looking forward to trying the different varities. I used 1/2 c. home made sugar free apple sauce I had on hand and 1/2 c. oil like some suggested to try to cut out some calories. I also added an extra egg. Oh yeah- I cooked this in a jelly-roll pan. It made them plenty thick enough. My hubby wanted something healthy he could grab on his way out the door for the gym in the AM. This is the "ticket"! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
I used flaxseed cranberries chocolate chips sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. I thought about throwing in some almonds but I thought it would be too dry. I'm currently letting them cool but I snuck a bite and couldn't wait to give my report. They are fantastic! I might use other people's suggestions and use applesauce instead of all the oil seeing as the main point of making granola is to stay healthy!!
These came out tasting good but they crumbled apart and were very dry when I tried to get them out of the pan.
