In preparation for our trip to Austin, I made these granola bars for some on-the-go snacks. I loved them AND so did Andy. They were the right combination of salty and sweet while adding a ton of healthy ingredients. I made just a few small tweaks to the recipe. Thanks Amanda for picking these. It was perfect timing.

On another note…as a participant in Project Pastry Queen, maybe I should have know this, but Rebecca Rather has closed her cafe!!!! I was going to surprise everyone with a post of all the things we tried but when I looked up the address, I was completely bummed. It closed in December. After living in Austin for two years, I never made it (it’s about an hour away) and I finally come back to visit and no bueno.

We still managed to eat our way through Austin. Oh boy, do I love the food here. I planned on gaining all my pregnancy weight in this one week (kidding). Two more days to go…I might make it. 🙂 I’ll be posting pics from the trip soon.

INGREDIENTS
¾ C firmly packed golden brown sugar
¾ C honey
⅓ C maple syrup
¼ C water
½ C (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
½ C peanut butter
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 C old-fashioned rolled oats
1 C unsalted almonds, slivered
1 C sweetened shredded coconut
1 C sweetened dried cranberries or golden raisins
½ C chocolate chips, roughly chopped (or use mini chocolate chips)
½ C unsalted sunflower seeds
2 Tbls sesame seeds
½ C golden flax seeds

DIRECTIONS

1. preheat the oven to 350.
2. Grease a 9” x 13” baking pan with non-stick spray.
3. Combine the brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
4. When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to simmer until it reaches soft-ball stage (234-240 degrees).
5. Stir in the butter, peanut butter, salt, and vanilla.
6. Spread the oatmeal on a large cookie sheet. Spread the almonds, coconut sunflower seeds and sesame seeds on a second cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 7-10 minutes, stirring once, until lightly browned. (I found the oatmeal needed a bit longer than the nuts/seeds.)
8. Combine the oats, almonds, coconut, cranberries or raisins, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and flax seeds in a large bowl.
9. Add the honey mixture and stir to combine. Cool for 30 min.
10. Add the chocolate chips. (They may melt just a tad.)
11. Press granola into greased pan. Cool for 30 min.
12. Cut bars to desired size.

NOTES
Makes – as many bars as you cut 😉

You can mix and match so many ingredients in this recipe. If you use any pre-salted nuts or seeds, cut back on the amount of salt in the ingredients list.

I found these to be a little on the sweet side and I don’t think it would hurt the recipe to cut back just a little on the sugar. Next time, I will try a ¼ C less brown sugar, ¼ C less honey and reduce the maple syrup to ¼ C.

Slightly adapted from Rebecca Rather’s Pastry Queen.