Nutritious peanut butter granola bars

Back in Leeds we were obsessed with peanut butter. At one point we had 5x1kg tubs of 100% full-skin peanut butter from Meridian. Peanut butter granola bars was an easy choice.

I miss those weekends when we used to use the oven since early morning. We (at least I) used to get up around 8 AM, maybe go to the gym, get a free coffee from Waitrose, and head to the market on my way back. Then I would turn on the oven, mix up the granola mass and relax with Auste in the living room, on our cozy little carpet, enjoying the view through our huge floor-to-ceiling window. Then I would take out the granola, impatiently break off a tasty chunk and burn my fingers. Those were the days!

At that point I had been reading up loads of granola recipes online, and trying them almost daily. Then we started wrapping them up in nice paper with ribbons and packing them as snacks for our trips, only because we had loads left. The good thing about granola is that you can keep it for months and the taste stays the same. If the bars come out too hard or break up into uneven pieces, you can make them smaller and keep in a jar to use as a granola cereal!

PART 1/3

I call this the ‘sugar’ batch, because I replaced 50% honey with sugar – you can make it no sugar, all honey, or the opposite if you’re vegan.

Mix all of the below ingredients in a BIG bowl (this is a big batch):

500g peanut butter

100g sugar [if no sugar, read on]

and 100g wheatgerm

then add 400g oats

100g ground nuts (1 cup) (almonds and cashews)

50g dried nuts (hazels) – I just put them in a bag, and smash a few times with a jar or a strong bottle

pinch of salt

and a teaspoon baking powder

Mix everything.

PART 2/3

Once you’ve got the dry’ish mixture, add 200g honey if using sugar (if no sugar, add 400g) – if your peanut butter is not 100% peanuts, reduce the amount of honey / sugar accordingly.

Add 100g soy milk. Mix well.

PART 3/3

Now this is UP TO YOU, but it worked very well for me, because the bars were solid but not too hard, plus I like the below ingredients due to their availability and nutrient content:

Add 25g ground chia seeds and 25g ground linseeds.

Bake in a preheated oven (160 C) for about 17 mins (keep checking!).

Because I literally made a bucket of granola mass, I separated it into different containers, and experimented with different flavours. Auste enjoyed batch #3, but I loved #4, because it was very chocolatey and after eating them I didn’t want to have any other snacks.

Variation 1: cranberry and coconut

Variation 2: cranberry and pumpkin seeds

Variation 3: cranberry, pumpkin seeds and raw cacao nibs

Variation 4: dark chocolate

Variation 5: goji berries and banana coins