Granola bars you'll actually WANT to eat!

Well here I am. I promised! And I'm about to roll out one of the original Celiac Sisterhood recipes...tried and tested time after time, until it was finally ready to share with all of you. 

You may remember the first time I posted about these granola bars. My messy, sticky, gooey, complete-and-total-mess granola bars. It was way back in August 2011. If you missed it and care to see it, you can find it here. If you don't care to, then don't! Fine! No one's making you! 

:)

Gluten-free granola bars are hard to find. The frustrating thing is, granola bars may APPEAR gluten-free on the ingredient lists; but if the oats used in the bars are not 100% "clean" gluten-free oats, then you're out of luck. And you'll end up spending the rest of your day in the bathroom crying for relief from the pain and cursing out Nature Valley. (I'm not speaking from experience or anything...)

These granola bars have it all...sweet & salty, crunchy & moist...chocolate, cranberries, almonds and honey. So good! So, after much tweaking, and many pans of granola bars, we have perfected this recipe. Read on, and enjoy...you are going to love these!

Granoli Bars

3 1/3 cups gluten-free oats (I buy mine at Trader Joe's: $3.99 for 2lbs of clean GF oats!)

3/4 cup white sugar

2/3 cup Jules all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup dried cranberries (Craisins are best)

1 cup chopped semi-sweet chocolate (I use Nestle chunks!)

1 cup almonds (chopped)

1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted

1/2 cup almond butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease the sides and bottom of a 13" by 9" pan with Pam cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine all dry ingredients - oats, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, cranberries, chocolate, and walnuts - in a large mixing bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk together butter, almond butter, vanilla & honey thoroughly until combined. Pour butter mixture over dry mix and stir to thoroughly combine.

Pour into prepared pan.

Spray a large piece of wax paper with Pam cooking spray and place over granola mixture. Press down firmly into pan, making an even, firm bar.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until sides and top of granola bars are browned slightly.

Cool COMPLETELY before attempting to cut them. Be patient, it will pay off! Otherwise they will fall apart since they are inherently gooey and sticky. They MUST cool. I refrigerate mine before cutting them and it works very well.

So. Darn. Yummy.

They keep very well in the fridge. Store them in zip sandwich baggies for easy on-the-go snacks you can stick in your purse! Or man-purse, if the case may be. :) 

Sweet & Salty goodness!

ENJOY!

xoxo