raw sunflower seeds | Little Chef

I tend to think that granola bars are healthy since there are nuts, seeds, and dried fruit in them, but when you read the nutrition facts you’ll be surprised. I adapted Alton Brown’s recipe I saw on my new favorite blog Cupcakes and Cashmere. I went to Trader Joe’s for all of my ingredients – I ended up spending way too much money. I should have just bought a $5 box of granola bars and called it a day. But since everything I bought came in bulk I will just have to bake something else.

These granola bars turned out to be a bit too sweet for my liking but everyone else in my house loves them. Next time I am going to use half the measurement of brown sugar or maybe none at all. I also saw a similar recipe that used coconut flakes as well. That sounds delicious.

Ingredients:

– 2 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats

– ½ cup raw sunflower seeds

– 1 cup sliced almonds

– ½ cup of wheat germ (I used flax seed)

– ½ cup of honey

– ¼ cup packed of brown sugar

– 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

– 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

– ½ teaspoon kosher salt

– 1 cup of chopped dried fruit, any combination you chose (I used dried cranberries)

Directions:

Start by buttering a 9 by 9-inch baking dish and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

On a baking sheet spread the oats, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, and flax seed and toast in the oven for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally so it does not burn and toasts evenly. Remove from oven when completed and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F.

Meanwhile combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the sugar has completely dissolved add the oat mixture along with the dried fruit combination stirring together well enough so all of the oat mixture is covered.

Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared baking dish and press down so the mixture is evenly distributed throughout. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Allow the granola to completely cool before cutting into squares.