GRANOLA BARS

Recently I came across some recipes for granola bars and cookies.  It has been many years since I have made granola bars.  The ingredients in this recipe can easily be substituted. For example, you can include some mashed banana, you can use cranberries instead of raisins, and whole wheat flour instead of white flour.  If you want to jazz up your morning oatmeal, you can take part of a bar and crumble it into your bowl of oatmeal.

GRANOLA BARS

INGREDIENTS:

         2 cups rolled oats

         1/3 cup packed brown sugar or Splenda

         1/2 cup wheat germ

         1 tsp ground cinnamon

         1 cup flour

         3/4 cup raisins 

         3/4 tsp salt

         1/2 cup honey or maple syrup

         1/4 cup peanut butter

         1 egg, beaten

         1/4 cup vegetable oil

         2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Generously grease a 9x12 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using a wooden spoon. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (27 minutes in a convection oven) in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.  Makes about 24 bars.