Raisin, Date, and Pumpkin Seed Granola Bars

In an attempt to snack a bite more often on things with recognizable ingredients, and to feel healthier after snacking, I've been experimenting with home made granola bars. And not to go overboard here or anything, but I think I've struck gold with this combination. Sweet, raisin-y gold.

What you'll need:

• 1 egg
• 80g flour
• 120g oats (I used a mixture of GF porridge oats)
• 80g applesauce
• 45ml honey
• 15g ground flaxseed
• 100g raisins/sultanas 
• 45g pumpkin seeds
• 50g chopped dates

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 160C/320F.

In a large bowl, combine the egg, honey and applesauce. Mix them together with a fork or whisk.

This is a one bowl, no fussy bits kind of recipe, so next you can literally dump the oats, flour, and ground flaxseed right on top of the other ingredients in the large mixing bowl. I continued using a fork to mix everything together.

Clockwise from the top: Ground flaxseed, mixed "oats", flour, oats

Once you have achieved a dough-like consistency, add the raisins (and/or sultanas), chopped dates, and pumpkin seeds to the mix. I've also made a few batches with chopped pecans that were quite tasty too. If you have some on hand, add about 45g of chopped pecans and reduce the pumpkin seeds to 30g. 

You may want to switch to a bit of (clean, obviously!) hand kneading to mix in all of the dried fruit and seeds/nuts.

Adding raisins, sultanas, dates, and pumpkin seeds

Finally, line a baking dish or pan with parchment paper (I used a round glass baking dish that was approximately 12in/30cm in diameter) and smoosh your granola bar dough mixture into the dish. Make sure you really press the mixture down well so that it retains proper granola bar shape once it has baked.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges start to lightly brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before using a very sharp knife to cut into bars. Desired bar shape will come a bit more easily if you use a rectangular pan, of course. But I had a round dish on hand and I "taste-tested" the rounded edge bits. You know, just to make sure...

These granola bars are thin, but a bit chewy rather than crispy. They have just the right level of sweetness from the dried fruit, applesauce, and bit of honey, but they're definitely not that too-sweet kind of sweet you get from store bough granola bars. And, to top it all off, they were pretty darn easy to make, wouldn't you agree?

Hope you enjoy these! I'm definitely planning on experimenting with some more flavors soon. And clearly having a granola kind of week, if you hadn't already noticed. If you're having a similarly crunchy kind of week, take a look at my Pumpkin Spice Granola and Granola Cluster Cookies. Mmmmm.....granola.