Granola Bars Revisited

A while back I posted a recipe for granola bars. These bars are great and it's still a great recipe. However, we've made some modifications around here so I thought I'd share the changes.

First, we've pretty much switched to almond butter in our house in general, so I switched the peanut butter for almond butter in the recipe. And, we had to use unsalted almond butter once so I added sea salt to the recipe to make up for it. Turns out I like the bars with a little bit of salt added so that's on the list of ingredients now too.

Almond butter and sea salt.

Second, we had a small portion of dried cherries and dried cranberries around the house and I wasn't using them for anything. One day I got tired of looking at them in the cabinet so I added them to the granola bars. Delightful. So, we either buy dried fruits in bulk to add to the mix or use some of our own dehydrated fruits. We had a big batch of strawberries earlier in the spring and some peaches and apricots from earlier this summer. I chop them up with kitchen scissors and mix them right in.

Dried fruits.

Finally, I didn't have sesame seeds one day and so they didn't get added. I didn't miss them and it was one less thing to buy at the store so they're gone.

So, here's the updated recipe:

Mix the following in a large bowl:

5 Tbsp. melted butter
2/3 cup almond butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup whole flax seeds
1/2 cup ground/milled flax
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tsp. vanilla

sea salt to taste

Then stir in:
1/2 cup steel cut oats
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 bag of dark chocolate chips

dried fruits of your choice

Press into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I usually let them cool for a bit before I cut them and then I store them in the fridge.

Enjoy!