Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Granola bars - 1 / Diet – 0



Tonight's two endeavors were both second trials, attempts to tweak and improve upon my first tries. I did indeed improve both recipes to my satisfaction, and was pleased with the end results. 
First was a copy-cat of a local bakery’s granola bars. They’re loaded with seeds (sunflower and pumpkin) and oats. I even added the tinniest bit of Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate chunks, which works well with the bar's chewy, caramel-like texture, created by cooking the butter, corn syrup and brown sugar. What I learned? The bars do not cook for long or at a high temperature. I learned this the hard way the first time and overcooked the bars, so I reduced the baking time to a mere 15 minutes.
Secondly, the peanut butter oat bars, which were… amazing.  Another crack at mimicking: this time, a coffee shop dessert bar. Very sweet (and addictive), no-bake, (Callebaut) milk chocolate... There is just no resisting this food – It is too powerful, at least for my willpower.
I barely had the time to take a picture to share with you. Every last trace of these treats was devoured, wrapped up, shipped out or passed in the blink of an eye. 

3 comments:

  1. and even sadder...none made it to SMS for testing:(

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  2. Mandy, the bars both sounds marvelous! Granola-style bars are one of my mainstays. I hope you're getting closer to publication because I'm dying to try the recipes. :)

    Carol Garvin

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  3. Thanks for reading, Carol - the encouragement is motivating! I am looking forward to sharing the recipes, and hearing what people think! And yes, Shelley, the staff table is a good place to start :)

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