Granola Bars

Total Time: 25 mins Preparation Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup wheat flour or 1 cup rye flour or 1 cup other whole grain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons coconut, grated (optional)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup applesauce
• 1/3 cup molasses (blackstrap gives the best flavor)

Recipe

• 1 combine dry ingredients. add applesauce and molasses.
• 2 press firmly into a greased 13x9 baking dish.
• 3 bake at 325 for 20 minutes. cool at least 15 minutes, and cut into bars.
• 4 *you can use up to 1/2 cup applesauce if you want a much softer granola bar, or decrease for even more crunch. coconut is absolutely optional, but it adds something special to the consistency without drawing attention to itself.
• 5 *i really believe this recipe would lend itself well to any whole grain flour. i've only tried the two listed here, and maybe oat flour once, but i hope to try other flours sometime.
• 6 *i can get molasses cheap in bulk, so i use that in this recipe. the original called for honey, but it's too expensive for me to keep much on hand, and the granola bars made with honey were really bland, even with some vanilla added, so i prefer the molasses. if you prefer to use honey, just add 1/4 cup, a little vanilla, and substitute 1/3 cup of brown sugar for the . don't use vanilla with the molasses--tastes weird. besides, everything is cheaper without vanilla.