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. 

Pumpkin Spice Granola

Good morning! I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend! After a very exciting sushi making dinner on Friday night, the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and catching up on some work. A good weekend, in my book.

Now how about some homemade Pumpkin Spice Granola to start Monday off right?

What you'll need (makes enough to fill a 1L container):

• 200g oats
• 60ml maple syrup
• 45ml honey
• 60ml water
• 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 60g pecans
• 30g pumpkin seeds
• 30g coconut flakes
• 60g sultanas/raisins
• 60g dates

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 160C/320F.

Line a baking sheet (preferably one with a slight rim so nothing slides off) with baking parchment.

Evenly spread the oats over the parchment paper. I used a mixture of gluten free oats, rice flakes, millet flakes, buckwheat flakes, and golden linseeds (Alara's Gluten Free Pure Oats and Gluten Free Luxurious Porridge). You are very welcome to use whatever kind of oats you prefer and/or have on hand, but I do recommend the mixture!

Next you should sprinkle the chopped pecans and pumpkin seeds over the oats, making sure to distribute them evenly(ish). Then sprinkle the cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg on top.

Drizzle the maple syrup, honey, and water over the nuts and place the baking sheet of goodies into the oven. Use a spatula to stir the baking granola around and re-spread every five minutes or so to ensure everything bakes evenly. The granola should bake for about 25 minutes, or until the oats reach a nice golden hue. 

When the granola has about 3 minutes of baking remaining, quickly sprinkle the coconut flakes on top so they lightly toast. No more than about 3 minutes though, or they'll go from toasted to burnt!

After about 25 minutes, remove the baking sheet of granola from the oven and carefully use the parchment paper to pour the granola into a large mixing bowl that can stand a bit of heat. 

Then add the raisins and/or sultanas and the dates to the granola and stir to properly combine everything.

Enjoy this tasty granola sprinkled over porridge or yogurt, in a bowl with unsweetened almond milk, a handful on the go, or - if you feel like more baking - try using it in my Granola Cluster Cookie recipe!

This will keep perfectly well for at least a week in an airtight container. That is, if your willpower allows it to last that long! Mine, maybe... possibly.... who told? did not. What can I say? This granola was calling out to be consumed. Good luck!

Granola Cluster Cookies

I made these reasonably healthy Granola Cluster Cookies for a hike up Snowdon this weekend - more on that later. They're fluffy and filling and full of good stuff. How's that for alliteration? The big secret - wait for it - is that I use all natural applesauce instead of butter! You could eat these for breakfast and feel pretty good about it.

All ready for Welsh mountains

What you'll need (makes 3-4 dozen cookies):

• 240g natural applesauce
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 320g self-raising flour (I used Dove's Farm GF blend, you can use any variety you'd like!)
• 320g granola

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 170C/340F.

Combine the natural applesauce, eggs, vanilla extract and sugars (caster and light brown) in a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer to blend thoroughly.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Then gradually add this to the wet mixture.

Next comes the fun part - add in 400g of the granola of your choice. I'm sort of obsessed with this pumpkin granola. Like the sort of obsessed that means I really should eliminate the temptation and ban it for life. But I digress. I actually used a granola without raisins this time though, as some of my group are dried fruit averse.

Fold the granola into the cookie batter using a handheld mixer on low or a heavy duty spoon and some arm strength.

Once you've added the granola, the mixture should look chunky, but still have enough non-granola batter to it to hold things together. The consistency will be sticky, and somewhere between traditional cookie dough that you can roll into balls and cake batter. (You will not be able to shape these cookies, nor should you be able to pour the dough out of the mixing bowl.)

You can also add raisins or chocolate chips (Or both! Go crazy!) to taste if you'd like. I made about half of this batch with raisins and half without.

Drop heaping spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet (as above), leaving space in between each cookie mound because these do tend to spread out just a bit.

Golden brown on top and waiting to be scooped into a travel bag!

Bake for 10 minutes, then allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing. Eat these at home, or pack them up and go exploring!


(Thanks A Cup of Joe for alerting me to the concept of banned for life - hilariously applicable to my own kitchen!)