Homemade Granola Bars

I decided to try this homemade granola bar recipe the other day.  It sounded good and pretty simple to make, plus I also had all the ingredients on hand.  I also liked the idea of homemade vs. "store bought" because I knew exactly what was in it.  So, as I always do the first time I bake something, I measured with my measuring cups and weighed the measured ingredients as I went.

Take a look at how the recipe translated from traditional measure to a weighted or scaled measure.

HOMEMADE GRANOLA BARS
Ingredient	Traditional Measure	Weight/Scale Measure
Brown Sugar	1/3 cup	3 oz
Honey	¼ cup	3 oz
Butter	4 TBSP	2 oz
Quick Cooking Oats	2 cups	6 oz
Rice Cereal	1 cup	1 oz
Mini Chocolate Chips	2 TBSP	3 oz
Vanilla	1 tsp	1 tsp

Now here is where it get's interesting.  First of all, isn't it crazy easier to see the relationship/ratios between the ingredients when all things are measured by weight (I know, I know... the vanilla is not a weight measurement, but I do still prefer my teaspoons when measuring small amounts of liquid).

For instance, the original recipe calls for 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup honey.  But when I weighed those ingredients, they weighed EXACTLY the same.  I can look at this recipe and see how the ingredients relate to one another in a much more clear and concise way.

Now it's confession time.  I goofed when I was making this recipe.  I was making these really quickly and I read the ingredients wrong.  I actually put in two cups of the rice cereal (which made it 2 oz instead of 1 oz).   When I tasted the final product, I actually liked the additional rice cereal and didn't want to correct that.  However, they were just a bit on the dry side.  

So my solution was to bump up the liquid and sugar just a bit.   It didn't need a lot more, but some. So if I was just looking at the traditional measures... how much, exactly, would I increase the butter, sugar and honey?  It's kind of hard to increase 1/3 of a cup "just a bit".  But when looking at the weights, it was much simpler.   I decided to increase each of those by 1 oz.  So now I was going to use 4 oz of brown sugar,  4 oz of honey, and 3 oz of butter.  

I also tweaked the recipe a bit further and added unsweetened coconut flakes and flax seed meal. Based on the weighted measure of the other ingredients, I decided to add 1 oz of flax seed meal and 1.5 oz of the unsweetened coconut flakes.

They turned out absolutely amazing.  The addition of the flax seed meal gave them a nutty flavor, and the coconut added yet another flavor and texture.  The moisture content was also spot on.... 

So here is the final version of the recipe - weighed measures only, since I'm not really sure how they would translate back into traditional "cups" measuring.  I've also included step by step instructions for making these yummy treats, along with photos.  

Happy Weighing!

               

REVISED GRANOLA BAR RECIPE
Ingredient	Weight/Scale Measure
Brown Sugar	4 oz
Honey	4 oz
Butter	3 oz
Quick Cooking Oats	6 oz
Rice Cereal	2 oz
Unsweetened Coconut	1.5 oz
Flax Seed Meal	1 oz
Mini Chocolate Chips	3 oz
Vanilla	1 tsp

First, weigh your dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Place your bowl on your scale.  Hit the "Tarre" button to zero out the weight on the scale.  Make sure you have your scale set to measure ounces.  Weigh each ingredient one at a time - MAKE SURE YOU HIT THE TARRE BUTTON BETWEEN EACH INGREDIENT!  In the bowl is the oatmeal, rice cereal, coconut and flax seed meal.

Weigh the butter, brown sugar and honey directly into a medium sauce pan.

See the "0.00" on the scale?  That's what it should look like after you hit "Tarre" between each ingredient.  

Cook the butter, sugar and honey on high heat until it starts bubbling.  As soon as it bubbles, reduce the heat to low and cook for two minutes.  It should look like this:

Brown sugar, butter and honey after cooking.

Pour the hot mixture over the dry ingredients and combine until thoroughly moistened.

It should look like this when you're done!  

Spray a 10" square pan with cooking spray and spread the mixture into the pan.  Press into the pan until it's level and somewhat compact.  I used a fondant smoother to press it into the pan, but you could use your hands, a spatula, the back of a spoon.  Whatever you have that's handy and will get the job done.

Sprinkled the pan with the mini-chocolate chips and gently press them into the mixture.  Put the pan in the fridge for a bit to allow the bars to set.

After they've had a chance to cool (you mainly want to make sure the chocolate chips aren't melted).  Run a knife or spatula around the edge of the pan and turn onto a cutting surface. 

I used wax paper to turn them onto.  I cut them into 18 bars, but you can cut them into whatever size works for you.

Enjoy!