Friday, March 29, 2013

Granola Bars Revised

I've recently challenged myself to get rid of white flour, use less butter and only use whole foods that are natural and unprocessed in my cooking/eating.

With that said, I've made some changes to a few of our favorite recipes, including our go-to granola bars and I'm happy to say that I love them even more

We've decided to use coconut and almond flour as our primary "grain" around here so I was able to sub coconut flour for the all-purpose flour (if you haven't baked with coconut flour it's definitely something you'll want to look up, it's unlike other flours). 

I've also started replacing recipes that call for butter with coconut oil and have found them to be fantastic!

So the below is the new version of the granola bars that have now been adapted MANY times since I originally found the recipe, but this may be my favorite revision since it makes me feel like a real health champ! ;)

Dark Chocolate Coconut Almond Bars    
  • 4 cups organic old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 heaping Tablespoon coconut flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil, liquified
  • 1/2 cup raw organic honey
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (we do 72%)
  • 1/2 sliced almonds (walnuts and pecans work well here too)
  • 1/2 cup organic dried coconut pieces (you can use any dried fruit, we use cranberries or apricots sometimes)
  1. Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease one 8x8 inch pan.
  2. In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter, honey. Use a mixer to thoroughly combine. Stir in the 1 1/2 cups assorted chocolate chips, nuts etc.
  3. Lightly press mixture into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 for 9 minutes and then take out and press mixture into pan again. And then cook for another 9 minutes, press down in pan again when taking out of oven. Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into bars. 
 

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