The Best Granola Bars You Can Make At Home
Darby and I were going to one of our favorite local coffee shops and getting our usual — two marzipan lattes to go — when we decided to venture from our normal order and get a little something to nibble on, too. And boy — were we so glad we did! We got one of the homemade granola bars to share, and it was absolutely amazing. Being the dessert lovers that we are — we're not ones to go on and on about granola bars (since it's essentially trail mix in bar form), so you'll have to take our word for it when we say it was the best snack we've ever had.
Considering it's not exactly cost efficient to go get a piece of granola from the coffee shop every single day, we decided to try and recreate the recipe at home. In all honesty, we haven't quite nailed it just yet, but our trials have left us to find some solid granola recipes we've been loving. I've had the version I made for breakfast ever since making it. Going on week 3, batch 3 over here, and never been happier. :)
The recipe I based my granola bars off of comes from Pinch of Yum. It called for peanut butter, pretzels, peanuts, rolled oats, honey and vanilla — which all sounds amazing.
Photo by: Pinch Of Yum
But, in an attempt to get close to the version we had at the café (and because my partner hates peanut butter) I chose to mix up the ingredients.
I used almond butter, pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, rolled oats, honey and vanilla to make mine. I also tried a batch with half peanuts and half pumpkin seeds. That's one of the greatest parts about this recipe — so long as you get the ration of binding agents (peanut butter, honey and vanilla) to dry ingredients — you can feel free to mix and match as you please!
Here's how my version turned out:
This recipe is super easy to make, considering it requires absolutely no bake time. It only needs about 30 mins in the freezer before it's set and ready to eat. Or you can store it in the freezer and it on it for at least a week, which is what we like to do!
The only issue with this version is it isn't quite the consistency of the granola bars we had at the café. We're thinking we'll have to try a recipe with similar ingredients that requires baking to really get the same soft, moist texture we're going for.
The next recipe we're going to try is from Sally's Baking Addiction and calls for the addition of whole wheat flour, cinnamon, salt, coconut oil and coconut sugar on top of the other ingredients I'm already using to make my delicious granola.
Photo by: Sally's Baking Addiction
This version looks delicious, too, and we can't wait to try it out next!
No matter which version you make at home — these are bound to change your breakfast/snack game for the better. Try them both out like we intend to, or just start with whichever version speaks to you the most. Seriously — there's no going wrong. Or you can always make a special trip to Homecoming to try the granola bar that forever changed the way we think about this on-the-go food. The choice is yours!
If you want to make your mornings even easier, you can also check out these breakfast recipes after you make your granola!
—Labels and Lacquer girls
Images: L&L Originals (2); Courtesy Blogs (2)