Since our oldest cherub has gone to college,
we find ourselves traveling to his college home on many weekends in the Fall.
That's because we have season tickets to the home football games.
This gives us a change to see our cherub,
meet his friends,
secretly check in on him;
all in the name of being football fans.
It's awesome!
When we go, of course we take him out to eat.
But I also haul a small fridge worth of supplies to him.
When we go out to a new place in town, I peruse the menu looking for new items to recreate.
This weekend, our cherub took us to a hip place.
He said there were "lots of gluten free options."
Clearly, he is mis-persuaded by what "lots" means.
He likes the new place,
and I can certainly see why.
It was fun,
busy,
hip,
and trendy.
But "lots" of gluten free options wasn't really their forte.
But of the three choices, two of them were really good.
Which spurred me on to look up new recipes to try at home.
Today, I give you breakfast bars.
To be fair, these are not the breakfast bars we had at the said restaurant that had "lots" of gluten free options.
But that said experience made me look into "lots" of options.
I decided on a recipe I found.
I made my own changes, coming up with a satisfactory starting point.
Without wanting to withhold information from you,
I'd want you to know I will bake these again, making some adjustments.
But I didn't want to leave you hanging without a recipe that you, too, can adjust to your own liking.
Here are a few things you'll notice:
- measurements are in grams rather than volume. If you don't have a scale for cooking, you'll be adding enough ingredients to create a thick, but still wet mix. This is more of an art rather than a science, so you'll be ok.
- two different kinds of oats. I just wanted different texture. You can use whatever you have. It will adjust the baking time.
- by the picture, you can tell these are thick bars. You can certainly bake them in a 9 X 13 pan and have a thinner bar. Again, adjust the baking time.
- my baking time allowed for a crunchy texture, but not too crunchy (not like a Nature Valley granola bar, but it certainly isn't chewy, either). You can adjust the baking time to achieve a certain texture. All of the ingredients are cooked, you're really just "baking them together."
- don't like craisins? Add something else.
- missing your favorite coconut? Add it in! Just make adjustments with other ingredients.
- don't have pecans at home? Use what you have! Or use two or three different nuts.
- never use parchment paper? You could use foil to line the pan and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- just be creative! If you don't like the final product, just try again.
Breakfast Bars
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
150 grams of quick cooking oats*
100 grams of old fashioned rolled oats*
150 grams of craisins
250 grams of chopped pecans*
1 tsp. pecan flavoring (vanilla is completely great to use)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a microwave safe bowl, add the sweetened condensed milk and warm.
Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed.
Using an 8 X 8 pan, lined with parchment paper, pour the mixture into the pan and using the back of a spatula, tightly mush the mix into the pan, making it as compact and even as possible.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
Lifting from the parchment paper, remove the bars from the pan and cut into desired bar shape and size.
I cut these about 1 inch wide or so, and about 3 1/2 inches long. By doing so, I was able to yield 10 very thick and substantial bars from this recipe.
* about 3 cups, total, of oats
* about 2 cups of chopped pecans
I made these again and I made these changes:
--craisins were substituted with chopped dates. I used an 8oz bag and chopped to my preference
--pecans were substituted with chopped almonds
--pecan flavoring was substituted with 1/2 tsp. of butter flavoring and 1 tsp. of vanilla
--no cinnamon added; I forgot
I am smitten with this new concoction!
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