Recipe: Thick Chewy Granola Bars

One of the first things that start lacking in a celiac’s diet is fibre. Pre-celiac days, most of us ate whole wheat products. I used to buy the highest whole grain bread I could find.

And never had any problems with my fibre intake.

When you are a celiac, fibre is much harder to find. A lot of the packaged gluten free foods are made with white rice flour. And not only does white rice flour have NO fiber, it has no nutrients either. So, fiber became for me, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. That in itself is a good thing, but I still was looking for something “quick” that I could grab, that was healthy and had fiber.

The packaged granola bars in the grocery stores, are NOT gluten free. Even if you find one that does not have wheat in it, the cross contamination in regular grocery store granola bars, are something a celiac should not eat. And to tell you the truth, I do not like to buy pre-packaged food. I prefer to make things myself-homemade, and with good quality ingredients, low in sugar, and of course-gluten-free.

I discovered this recipe for granola bars on one of my favorite blogs Smitten Kitchen

Here is the recipe.

Chewy Granola Bars

1 2/3 cups rolled oats(I use the brand only oats-no cross contamination with this product)
½ -3/4 cup white sugar(I find ½ cup is plenty)
1/3 cup oat flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
2-3 cups dried fruits and nuts(*)
1/3 cup peanut butter(**)
1 tsp vanilla
6 tblsp melted butter
¼ cup honey
2 tblsp corn syrup
1 tblsp water

*some examples are dried cranberries, goji berries, walnuts, raisins, almonds,pecans, sesame, flax, sunflower seeds, dark choc chips,etc
**You can use almond butter, dark chocolate peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray 8×8 pan with cooking spray and then line pan in both directions with parchment paper(You need to line both ways, so when the bars are cooled, you can lift the whole thing out of the pan to cut)

Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the nuts and seeds. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter, honey, peanut butter, corn syrup and water. Add the dry to the wet and mix well.

Spread in the pan, and press firmly down(I wet my hands to prevent sticking)

Bake bars for 30-40 minutes(I found 35 minutes was perfect)

Remove from oven and let cool completely.(I stress this firmly, if you try to cut the bars when warm they will fall apart. Let them cool completely and then cut up).

After cutting up the squares, I wrap each square with saran wrap.

They easily last 2 weeks in the fridge. Just grab one and go!!

****Please check out www.smittenkitchen.com for the recipe.