So I’m going through a little bit of a granola bar baking phase thanks to the fabulosity of the pumpkin granola bars, that I have made several times at this point. I decided to switch it up a little and try a granola bar recipe from Martha. This recipe is great because it doesn’t have a million ingredients (sometimes granola ingredients can add up quickly), and it had all the best stuff: peanut butter, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, and oats!
I decided to make a couple alterations as usual. First, I felt the need to add some mini chocolate chips, of course. And second, I threw in some protein powder just for fun. I will try protein powder in anything these days. Don’t worry, I’m aware that I’m weird. Martha’s recipe only makes an 8 x 8 pan’s worth, but since I was made these for a big group I tripled the recipe and used a full cookie sheet.
To make them more portable I ended up wrapping them individually! They’re a great snack when you’re on the go!
Peanut Butter Almond Granola Bars
Adapted from Martha, yields about 24 bars depending how you slice them.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ½ cups sliced almonds
- 1 ½ cups dried cranberries
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 “scoops” protein powder (optional)
- 1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter ( I used an entire 15 oz jar)
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar
- 9 Tbs oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 egg whites
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Method
- Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment.
- Combine the oats, almonds, cranberries, protein powder, and salt in a bowl.
- In a small pot over medium heat, combine sugar, oil, and peanut butter. Cook for about 5 minutes until brown sugar is completely melted.
- Pour warm mixture over oat mixture. Stir to combine. When mixture is slightly cooled add egg whites and continue to mix to ensure that the eggs don’t cook.
- Spread mixture out on parchment lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle top with mini chocolate chips (if you add them earlier they will just melt into the mixture).
- Bake 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
yum! great food for lunch at school/work!