perfection
Or nearly there.
We used to always snack on granola bars, cereal bars, muffin bars, etc. We called them all "breakfast bars" to simplify things for Nate. There are such things here, but they are all imports and super expensive. So I started thinking that surely I could make some. Our oven scares me, so I scoured the internet for no-bake options. I settled on Rachael Ray's (no linky right now because her website is down, but it's easy to find).
I had some trouble with it, though. It's ok. I'm not afraid of experimenting with a recipe. I don't know if it's because of the humidity here or what, but I couldn't get the bars to stick together. We had granola clumps for a few batches. But, I think I have arrived at the best way to make them.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cup crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup pretzel sticks
1/2 cup raisins
Melt butter, honey, brown sugar over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
Add oatmeal, rice cereal, pretzel sticks, raisins. Mix until thoroughly coated in the syrupy mixture.
Press into jelly roll pan.
Top with 1/2 cup chocolate chips or 1 crushed dark chocolate bar if you live somewhere that doesn't really have chocolate chips like me.
Chill until set. I work on these during naptime, and right about this point, Ben is waking up, so I come back to it the following day to cut them into bars. I store them in the fridge because of ants.
We left our previous batch of breakfast bars, which was nearly but not quite as good as this one, in Malindi in the fridge at our hotel. I reminded Rodgers yesterday that I'd made more, and they were already cut and ready to eat, then I went to put Nate down for nap. I came back and Rodgers said, "Those are gooooood. I had four."
The only thing I think could possibly make them even better would be a bit of peanut butter. Maybe melted and drizzled over the top of the chocolate?
**Update: I make a chocolate peanut butter coating, which I pour into the bottom of the pan before adding the cereal mixture.
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix in a saucepan over low heat until smooth.
We used to always snack on granola bars, cereal bars, muffin bars, etc. We called them all "breakfast bars" to simplify things for Nate. There are such things here, but they are all imports and super expensive. So I started thinking that surely I could make some. Our oven scares me, so I scoured the internet for no-bake options. I settled on Rachael Ray's (no linky right now because her website is down, but it's easy to find).
I had some trouble with it, though. It's ok. I'm not afraid of experimenting with a recipe. I don't know if it's because of the humidity here or what, but I couldn't get the bars to stick together. We had granola clumps for a few batches. But, I think I have arrived at the best way to make them.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cup crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup pretzel sticks
1/2 cup raisins
Melt butter, honey, brown sugar over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
Add oatmeal, rice cereal, pretzel sticks, raisins. Mix until thoroughly coated in the syrupy mixture.
Press into jelly roll pan.
Top with 1/2 cup chocolate chips or 1 crushed dark chocolate bar if you live somewhere that doesn't really have chocolate chips like me.
Chill until set. I work on these during naptime, and right about this point, Ben is waking up, so I come back to it the following day to cut them into bars. I store them in the fridge because of ants.
We left our previous batch of breakfast bars, which was nearly but not quite as good as this one, in Malindi in the fridge at our hotel. I reminded Rodgers yesterday that I'd made more, and they were already cut and ready to eat, then I went to put Nate down for nap. I came back and Rodgers said, "Those are gooooood. I had four."
The only thing I think could possibly make them even better would be a bit of peanut butter. Maybe melted and drizzled over the top of the chocolate?
**Update: I make a chocolate peanut butter coating, which I pour into the bottom of the pan before adding the cereal mixture.
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix in a saucepan over low heat until smooth.
Man! Those sound better and better. Wonder how much money I'd save making those instead of buying the packaged ones?
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