Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars

Instead of packaged granola bars, we’ve been making these for lunchbox snacks.
chocolate granola bars

Ingredients

  • 1/3 c honey
  • 2 TB butter
  • 3 c whole oats
  • 2/3 c whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 c finely ground peanuts
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 Tb cocoa
  • 1/3 c vegetable oil
  • 1 large, cage free egg, beaten
  • 1 TB orange juice
  • 2 TB water
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 c chocolate chips
  • 1/4 c dried cherries

    • Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 350.

    2. Melt butter in small pot over med-low heat on stove. When mostly melted, add honey, stir, turn off stove but leave pot on burner so honey warms up.

    3. Combine oats, flour, peanuts, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa in large bowl. Mix well.

    4. In a small bowl combine oil, egg, orange juice, water and vanilla. Stir in warm honey and butter.

    5. Pour wet ingredients into large bowl with dry ingredients. Stir until all dry ingredients are mixed in and well coated. Add chocolate chips and dried fruit - or other desired mix-ins.

    6. Using a rubber scraper, press mixture firmly onto a small cookie sheet lined with a Silpat liner or sprayed with cooking spray. Take your time to keep the batter flat and even. If you don’t have enough batter to fill the cookie sheet, use the rubber scraper to finish off the edge of the bars in a straight line.

    7. Bake 14 mins, until light brown and firm.

    8. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack. When cool, cut into 10-15 bars.

    NOTE: We add the butter and chocolate chips to add calories on weeks when we work out a lot. If you prefer a lower calorie snack, you can eliminate the butter (and add the honey at room temp to step 4), and leave out the chocolate chips. If you don’t have a food chopper to grind up the peanuts, you can just add a handful of peanuts as a mix-in or leave them out for lower fat (but lower protein).

    Also: these are soft, not crunchy.

    Adapted from The Laptop Lunch’s Oatmeal Bars.

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