Homemade Granola Bars

Granola bars are a staple in our house – a good, nutritious (most of the time), and filling snack. It’s fairly simple to make your own granola bars so I thought I’d share my favorite recipe that we use when we make them. Plus, you can completely customize the dried fruits you use so it’s exactly the flavor you want – or even throw in some chocolate chips if that’s more your speed! I base my recipe on Ina Garten’s Homemade Granola Bar Recipe.

You need to use oats and wheat germ for granola bars but everything else you add is really up to your own taste. For this recipe I used coconut, dried cranberries, and apricots.

This recipe calls for 2/3C honey which feels like a lot but really helps bind everything together. Heating it with the butter and brown sugar makes it easy to mix up with your dry ingredients.

I used a 9 x 13 inch pan (Ina’s recipe calls for an 8 x 12 pan) because I like a thinner granola bar. These are super sticky so I just used the back of a spoon to spread the mixture evenly in the pan.