What is a Granola bar?
Granola bars are simply a blend of rolled oats with various added ingredients such as almonds, coconut, raisins, and, more commonly, dates. They are typically consumed for breakfast or as a snack.
They not only taste good, but they also provide enough energy to replace breakfast or snacks. It holds your hunger upto 1 hours for grown ups and upto 2 hours for kids.
If we make a fresh homemade batch of granola we can store in refrigerator for upto 15 – 30 days. It depends upon the quantity. It is always recommended to prepare small batches in order to preserve the nutrition. the store bought ones are loaded with sugar which can really be unhealthy.
Very easy to make and very soulful to eat as well. Although they are typically made in the shape of a bar, I prefer to make them in various shapes with a cookie cutter, which is much more fun and interesting for children to eat.
There are many variation but
i personally crack my own revised version of recipe that i love.
First, dry roast the ingredients one by one over a slow flame. Keep transferring to a large mixing bowl, preferably glass. Using a knife, split the nuts into two or four pieces that are small enough for the kids to chew. Also, keeping all of the ingredients’ sizes close to the same helps with good binding.
In a blender jar add dates with 1 – 2 tbsp water. Blend it to coarse paste. Now start adding the wet ingredients gently and give a good cut and fold mixing. make sure every nuts and seeds are coated with the wet ingredients. Don’t introduce all the wet ingredients at once. Just gradually keep adding and stop once you see that it starts holding the shape.
In a wide cutting board grease some oil and take handful ball sized mixture. roll to a considerable thickness. Use cookie cutter and take some of them especially made for kids. Rest of them you can shape to a regular bar using a rectangular baking dish, bar mould or simply by cutting with knife.
Store in an airtight container in refrigerator. Before consuming take out the desired portion and leave it to come down to room temperatyre so it is soft to eat.
TO NOTE:
- In order to keep the nuts crunchy from outside roast them in low flame. Nuts and seeds being high in protein tend to catch the burnt flavour quickly. so take time in roasting.
- We can introduce peanut butter as well that will also add a roasted peanut flavour. The choice is entirely up to the individual. i kept it plain because the plain ones are subtle in taste with the presence of vanilla flavour.
- This is an excellent option for your weight loss journey. as it can replace your entire protein intake for a day. Consume 3 bars a day during weightloss journey.