Maple Pecan Peanut Butter Chocolate and Coconut Granola Bars
This is a great snack recipe and can be made into bars or loose for snacking. The original recipe from the Weight Watchers cookbook Simple and Classic Home Cooking and found on page 28 in the snacks section entitled as “Maple and Peanut Butter Granola”, served loose, however, we have added the pecans, chocolate, and coconut for our version and made them into bars.
We made our batch into bars and yielded 18 nice 1×4 inch sections, the addition of ½ cup of chopped pecans, ½ cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, and 1 cup of shredded coconut increased the yield from the original 11 1/3-cup servings. We also changed the procedures a bit, as the original recipe called for adding the raisins in a separate step after an initial oven time of 30 minutes; we combined them in one-step with the other ingredients.
One of the reasons for changing the recipe ingredients is that it called for 3 cups of oats, we only had two cups in house, and so we added the extra coconut to replace the lost bulk of the oats, and then decided to add a few other ingredients also. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.
| Ingredients | ||
| 3 | Tbsp | Crunchy peanut butter |
| ½ | Cup | Maple Syrup |
| 3 | Tbsp | Water |
| 1 | Tsp | Cinnamon, ground |
| ¼ | Tsp | Salt |
| 2 | Cups | Regular or quick cooking oats |
| ½ | Cup | Golden raisins |
| ½ | Cup | Pecans, chopped |
| ½ | Cup | Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips |
| 1 | Cup | Coconut, shredded flakes |
| Cooking spray | ||
| Procedure Steps Note: Pre-heat oven to 300° F | |
| 1. | In a small saucepan, combine the crunchy peanut butter, maple syrup, water, cinnamon, and salt with a wire whisk. Bring to a boil over medium heat and simmer for 1 minute. |
| 2. | Meanwhile, in a separate large bowl combine the oats with the raisins, pecans, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes and toss well. Pour the hot maple syrup mixture over the oats mixture and stir well to coat all the ingredients. |
| 3. | Coat a sheet pan with the cooking spray, spread the mixture into one side of the pan, about ½” deep, and smooth out the top. |
| 4. | Bake in a 300° F oven for 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 250° F for another 30 minutes. Then turn off the oven and allow the granola to cool in the oven for an additional 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before cutting into 1×4 inch bars. |
18 responses so far ↓
1 Roti n Rice // Mar 17, 2010 at 12:25 pm
These look so yummy! Great for the kids bento lunch box.
BTW, I wanted to let you know that I enjoy your blog and would like to share the Sunshine Award with you. Please check out my posting at http://rotinrice.blogspot.com/p/awards.html 🙂
2 Ryan Boudreaux // Mar 17, 2010 at 1:01 pm
How nice Biren and thank you so very much! As we say in French…merci beaucoup!
CCR
=:~)
3 Sook @ My Fabulous Recipes // Mar 17, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Wow, homemade granola bars! Lovely!
4 Dawn@CocinaSavant // Mar 17, 2010 at 2:48 pm
these look perfect! you always seem to post just what I’m in the mood to bake 🙂
5 Chris Stonecipher // Mar 17, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Snacks at Chef Ryan’s house!! What time Chef Ryan?
6 pegasuslegend // Mar 17, 2010 at 4:00 pm
wow is there anything you can’t do Sire’ my goodness these really are so much better than store bought cant believe you make granola bar! whew can’t top that one , you are one talented man!
7 Danielle Pallaske // Mar 17, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Definitely one of the best granola bars I have seen of late. Nice one!
8 Jessie // Mar 17, 2010 at 6:10 pm
homemade granola bars at it’s finest!
9 My Postcard Printing // Mar 18, 2010 at 1:49 am
Coconut sounds like a good replacement. I think that it makes the bars more delicious. I think that I’ll stick to that even if I have enough oats. Thanks.
10 penny aka jeroxie // Mar 18, 2010 at 9:04 am
I always wanted to make my own bars – this looks like the naughty start!
11 redkathy // Mar 18, 2010 at 9:06 am
I’ve been wanting to make granola bars. These look so yummy, I’m going to have to change that wanting into doing. Thanks for sharing this with us.
12 Gloria // Mar 18, 2010 at 10:58 am
I love these granola bars! look yummy! gloria
13 Paulette Le Pore Motzko // Mar 18, 2010 at 1:02 pm
What a great site you have as a featured publisher. That is my aim ya know! Very nice indeed!
You did a nice job on your site. I guess everybody in the food industry has to be part food stylist, photographer, web designer, writer and cook/chef!
I can do most all of those things but I’m gonna need a new camera. I asked 2 of my friends what kind of camera they used to get the type of winning shots on their blog. So, I will ask you-what kind of digital camera would you suggest?
I’m gonna buy one this month. I would love to find one that uploads files really easily to my computer.
Something tells me I will meet you in my lifetime…I know I will and your dear wife Monique.
She and you make a great couple. You both look so happy together.
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IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THOSE 2 WEBSITES, THAT IS MY GIFT FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY TODAY!
I am getting a manuscript ready to submit it to Bon Appetit Magazine. Wish me luck!
Your CA friend,
Paulette Le Pore Motzko
14 Ryan Boudreaux // Mar 18, 2010 at 1:12 pm
After posting this I thought about variations with using cereal such as puffed rice (not Rice Krispies) or even Fiber One cereal in place of the oats. Would be much less expensive than the Fiber One bars we buy now.
@Paulette, congrats on the new web site, ning looks like a great platform for putting up sites.
15 5 Star Foodie // Mar 18, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Scrumptious granola bars! I love these flavors!
16 HoneyB // Mar 18, 2010 at 8:10 pm
LOVE the ingredients in this granola bar (especially the maple!)
17 sweetlife // Mar 18, 2010 at 10:18 pm
great recipe..my girls would love these!!
sweetlife
18 Beth // Apr 1, 2010 at 10:32 am
I always like trying new granola recipes as some of the ones I have tried were not quite what I wanted in a crunchy bar. Will try this one!!