Monday, January 24, 2011

homemade granola bars, here we come!

I was flipping through the cookie chapter of our America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook when I caught a glimpse of "granola bars."

And my brain stopped. Turned around. Looked again. Granola bars! From a resource we love and trust! I've seen plenty of recipes for them, and from places I admire. And yet there's something about the granola bar that has seemed unattainable.

But then I stumbled onto this recipe, which has likely been put through all the standard rigors of the Test Kitchen, and I was at once put at ease.

things I want to get from this scratchmade experience:
1. internalizing the ratio of dry stuff to sticky stuff. The thing about a treat like granola bars is that they're not relying so much on chemistry to make them actually bake up properly, they're relying on physics to make sure everything stays where you want it. I'm going to examine just how sticky/crunchy/chewy/stable this granola bar is, then get confident that I know it's because I used X amount of honey for X amount of dried goods, and then I'm going to *experiment*. Because another thing about a treat like granola bars is that  they're infinitely modifiable.

2. a PointsPlus-friendly treat! I'll do the math to figure up my Weight Watchers value for the entire recipe, and then divide it into happy sizes (probably around the 2- to 3-point range). I've been hankerin' for a morning snack to accompany my first coffee of the day, and I think this could be the perfect pair.

3. having fun. Doesn't "making granola bars" just sound *fun*? I think so ...

I'll post an update with photos, recipe and day-dreamed variations later this week!

2 comments:

  1. When you finish your experiments, let us know what you figure out. At some point we might look into granola/granola bars as well.

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  2. Have no doubt I will! I'm already looking forward to taking all the delicious pictures ...

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