Click here to see if you won Monday’s Navitas Naturals giveaway!
Happy Friday, lovelies! I’m flippin’ blown away by the “like”s, links, shares, retweets, and overall enthusiasm that Tuesday’s announcement about my book, Practically Raw: Flexible Raw Recipes Anyone Can Make, has already received. Thank you all for being so amazing. ♥
Remember, if you get a chance, to go to the book’s Amazon page and “like” it (you can find the “like” button under my name, beneath the title). In addition, you can “like” a couple new Facebook fan pages I just set up: the Practically Raw fan page and the Amber Shea Crawley fan page. Many thanks!
The recipe I have for you today is not raw, but it’s one of the most ridiculously awesome things to come out of my kitchen in quite awhile—and that’s saying something.
I made homemade (baked) granola earlier this week, using Hannah’s stupendous recipe for Maple Coconut Tahini Granola, or The Best Granola Yet (she’s not kidding!). Of course, I messed with the ingredients a little bit—I left out the sesame seeds, I used golden syrup instead of maple syrup since I had an open container, I used Sucanat in place of brown sugar, and I left out the cranberries and raisins. Nonetheless, Hannah deserves full credit for the outrageously tasty granola that resulted!
There was just one problem: Matt’s not much of a granola person, and I couldn’t be trusted around 6+ cups of the stuff. (I’ll eat it by the handful and quickly lose track of how much I’m inhaling!) So what’s a girl to do? Make homemade granola bars, baby. I totally winged it, and yet they came out to be the chewiest, yummiest, most melt-in-your-mouth, BEST granola bars I’ve ever had. Not bluffing. Trust me, and try these ASAP.
*Nutritional stats will vary depending on the type of granola used.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup peanut butter (or another nut butter)
- 2 tablespoons tahini (or additional nut butter)
- 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
- 1/4 cup agave or coconut nectar (or maple syrup)
- Big pinch of sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 to 6 cups homemade or storebought granola
Instructions
- Combine the peanut butter, tahini, brown rice syrup, agave/coconut nectar, and salt in a small saucepan on the stove over low heat. Stir constantly until the mixture is melty and combined. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
- Place the granola in a large bowl and pour the syrupy mixture over it. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon (and/or your hands) until fully combined. (If the mixture seems too dry, you can add another tablespoon or two of agave or coconut nectar.)
- Press the mixture firmly and evenly into a greased 9-inch square baking pan. Refrigerate until set, at least 2 to 3 hours, then slice into bars and enjoy. Store in the fridge.
Holy moly, these are freaking amazing.
To be honest, they’re more reminiscent of candy bars than regular granola bars.
A little gooey, a lotta chewy, sorta sticky, and all kinds of delicious. Try ‘em and see!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
3 years ago…
December “leftovers”
2 years ago…
Almost Vegan in the news!
1 year ago…
Vegan cookies & P90X
Dang! Those look delish!!!
Oh my gosh, THEY ARE. You have no idea.
Those sound super-good, and I’m no kind of granola person normally… I make the power bars from Sweet Gratitude because Phil’s daughter adores them, and I can enjoy them when I make them, except that I don’t care for sunflower seeds and worry about all the nuts. But I love how you’re completely in control of that aspect of it by choosing your own granola–I could even make mine with carrots!
Quite right – you can change/control a lot about these simply depending on which granola you choose to use. I even entertained the idea of making a “grawnola,” using raw almond butter and tahini, and dehydrating the whole thing a bit (even though other things like brown rice syrup aren’t raw). Lots of possibilities!
Totally on my list of things to try ASAP. I’ve never used Brown Rice Syrup….any alternatives or best to buy it and find other ways to use it? (I’m just starting on this healthier lifestyle so still learning about all my ingredients to use.)
Hi Alissa! If you’re here in Kansas City, you can get brown rice syrup at Whole Foods or probably any of the other smaller health food stores. It tends to be near the maple syrup, often in the cereal aisle.
Subbing brown rice syrup in this might be tough – you’d need something equally thick, viscous, and sticky. A nice, thick raw honey could work well. Coconut nectar or sorghum syrup might work – but those probably take just as much effort to seek out as brown rice syrup, heh.
Congrats on moving toward a new, healthy lifestyle!
these look perfectly amazing!
Why thank you! They ARE!
That looks pretty great!
“Pretty great” is a major understatement
Must be the epitome of granola bars, then
Quite so!
Who could not love granola! Making these immediately
I know, right?
Report back and let me know how they turned out!
These sound sooooooooooo soooooooo good!! mmmmm I think i have some left over granola tucked away! Do you think there is a sub for the rice syrup? I haven’t found it yet.
To sub brown rice syrup you’d need something similarly thick, viscous, and sticky. Coconut nectar or sorghum syrup might work – but those probably take just as much effort to seek out as brown rice syrup, heh. A nice, thick raw honey could work well. You could also just try maple syrup or more agave, but decrease the amount a little (maybe 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup?) so the mixture’s not too liquidy. Let me know if you make these and how they turn out with a different sweetener!
yikes your right they look more like candy bars then granola bars. I can’t be trusted with granola bars in my house. I eat them without even knowing it~ therefore I only make them when company is coming over…… company never comes over often enough for me
Haha, I can totally relate! You can always make these, wrap them individually in plastic wrap, and freeze them. Then you can thaw and eat just one at a time.
Sounds delicious!!
Thanks! They ARE!
YUM! I’m on a quest for the perfect homemade chewy granola bar. These are just gorgeous and they really do just look chewy!
I think I can safely bet that these would pass your “bar exam” with flying colors
Let me know if you try them!
Those look so yummy. BTW, the link is already up on vegan.com. It must have only taken minutes!
Hehe, yup, Erik blogged the link less than an hour after I posted them.
ahhhhhh so excited for your book & these bars do look amazing ! I cant wait to try them out with some of my chocolate love grown granola yum.
Love Grown granola would be PERFECT in these!
Congrats again! I am so so so excited for you
And those granola bars look perfect <3
Thanks Char!
Granola bars are one of my most favorite things in the history of the planet. I’m soooo making these this month!
Only, I too, cannot be trusted around granola, this will be a true test.
Yay! Report back and let me know how you like them
These look fabulous! So CHEWY which is key. Dry anything is just…blech!
YES! It’s chewy or bust, baby.
Just heavenly, my darling friend! And thank you so much for the link-backs
Now I’ll simply have to make another batch of the granola myself, purely to make these. Sticky gooey chewy candy bar granola bar? Oh, I am so in. So in.
P.S. Just think of the creation-collaborations in our future once we’re in a kitchen together.
xoxo
I can only dream of what we’ll create! I can’t wait
I made some yesterday! THEY ARE AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!!!! seriously… its hard to not just eat them all …
Woohoo! So glad to hear that! And tell me about it, mine are calling to me from the fridge…
Can’t wait to try these. You rock, Amber!
Thanks David! You’ll love the bars!
Hi Amber these look amazing- and whats great is I think I could convince my kids to eat them. It is often hard to get anything granola like into them – but this might just do it.
Ali, these have a VERY kid-friendly texture! Let me know how they like them!
rice syrup is new to me…what is rice syrup?
It’s a very thick, viscous, sticky, sweet syrup made from cooked brown rice. You can usually find it near the maple syrup in the store; Lundberg is a good brand. If you can’t get ahold of any, you could use a very thick raw honey in its place.
ok. Thank you! The bars look and sound awesome.
Made these on the weekend. So delicious- the batch will not last long! Thanks for the recipe!
Happy to hear it, Tonya!
they look delicious thanks for the recipe
You’re very welcome!
Do you think these would work with plain oatmeal instead of granola?
Unfortunately no, you need to use premade granola. But you can always make homemade granola to use!
Just made these, and they are SO DELISH. I can see many variations coming up to try…adding in chocolate chips, maybe
Thank you so much for all your amazing recipes!
I’m so glad you like them, Megan! I think they would be AMAZING with chocolate chips.
I just made these today, and they are amazing.
I made the granola a few days ago, but couldn’t keep my hands out of it, so I was 2 cups short, so I added extra raisins and extra coconut.
Next time, I’ll add a handful of chocolate chips.
Thank you for this recipe!
So happy to hear that, Kelly!! Awesome idea with the coconut & raisins. And I bet they’ll be killer with choc chips!