Granola Bars- Part 2

Ok, ok. I have made these granola bars *twice* and still have not gotten a picture. Sigh. Instead of making you wait until I have a picture, I'm just going to give you the recipe and a couple things I have learned.

I highly recommend making your own granola for this. If you use this recipe you will have enough to make a batch of granola bars and some left over for cereal or snacking :) It really matters that you use a low sugar granola (and this one is) because they won't work out if you don't. Ask me how I know.

The recipe calls for pressing the bars into a 9x13 inch pan. DO NOT DO THIS. Your bars will be thin, fall apart and make you angry. They will taste fine, but are not going to be what you are looking for. I used 2 9x5 inch bread pans instead. I lined them with wax paper so I could just lift them out, worked like a charm. I think a 10x10 inch pan would work just as well too.

Chewy Granola Bars
adapted from Back to the Cutting Board

4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 cups granola
1 cup rice cereal
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix the granola and rice cereal together in a bowl. Heat the butter and honey together. When the butter is almost melted, add the brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and then let simmer for 2 minutes or until the sugar has completely disolved. You will notice that is has gotten a little thicker as well. Pour over the granola and rice cereal. Stir to combine it really well. Pour into your pans. Set them aside for 10 minutes. Spray some non stick spray on the back of a measuring cup and press down the mixture very firmly. Add your chocolate chips to the top and press again. If the bars are still too hot and are sticking to everything, let them sit a couple more minutes. Let cool at room temperature for a couple hours and lift out of the pan. Cut into whatever sized bars you want and store in an airtight container with wax paper, parchment or plastic wrap seperating the layers.

One thing I did pick up from the comments on the blog I got this off of was that this recipe has no high fructose corn syrup in it, HOWEVER name brand rice cereal does, so if you are trying to stay away from HFCS you may want to check your rice cereal and see if you can find one without that little addition :)

I just gave you the plain jane varitey here, but you can come up with a million ways to make these your own. Nuts, seeds, candy, fruit...anything you want to add (or leave out) is up to you!