{"id":4964,"date":"2011-09-16T13:18:53","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T20:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/?p=4964"},"modified":"2011-10-06T16:33:03","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T23:33:03","slug":"granola-blondies-hit-the-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/granola-blondies-hit-the-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Granola blondies hit the trail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first granola bar I ever tasted came from a natural foods bakery in Oakland.\u00a0 It was a tempting combination of chewy bar cookie and enough crunchy whole grains to make me feel virtuous about the indulgence.<\/p>\n

I bought them whenever I could until the store that carried them went out of business.\u00a0 I pined for something similar but no other commercial granola bar has even come close.\u00a0 Most are hard bricks that taste little better than sawdust and are suited only for emergency rations in my book.<\/p>\n

Recently, though, I’ve been working on my own recipe, prompted by a hike with a friend who was working very hard to make her calories count.\u00a0 Not for her the chocolate chip cookies<\/a> I usually bring along on hikes, even though they’re loaded with oats and granola, too.<\/p>\n

For Sara, I came up with something new \u2013 a whole wheat blondie packed with as much good granola as possible without losing the moist, chewy foundation.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, this granola bar still has butter and sugar.\u00a0 (If you’re going to eat baked goods, I say, you should just go for the good stuff and eat less of it.)\u00a0 But it also contains an extraordinarily generous portion of only lightly sweetened nuts and whole grains as well as dried fruit.<\/p>\n

I’ve tweaked the recipe over the course of several hikes with other friends and like this version best.\u00a0 Top quality granola is essential.\u00a0 I’ve used homemade granola<\/a> sweetened with maple syrup, although any good commercial granola will work, too.<\/p>\n

The optional chocolate chips are a nice touch but don’t give in to the impulse to increase the quantity.\u00a0 Too much chocolate changes the character of the bars altogether.<\/p>\n

These bars received the seal of approval from a quartet of teenage boys on a backpacking trip to Point Reyes last month.\u00a0 They devoured them all.\u00a0 Of course, they also ate everything else in sight.<\/p>\n

More to the point, perhaps, the adults hikers gave them their vote, too.<\/p>\n

GRANOLA BLONDIES RECIPE<\/strong>
\nMakes about 3 dozen bars<\/em>
\n2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
\n1 teaspoon salt
\n\u00be cup butter at room temperature
\n\u00bd cup granulated sugar
\n1 cup brown sugar, packed
\n3 eggs
\n2 teaspoons vanilla
\n4 cups granola
\n\u00bd cup chocolate chips (optional)<\/p>\n

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.\u00a0 Lightly butter a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper leaving extra at each end to use as handles to remove the bars later.<\/p>\n

Whisk together the flour and salt.<\/p>\n

In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle beater, cream the butter and sugars on medium speed.\u00a0 Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions.\u00a0 On low speed, stir in the vanilla, then the flour and salt, mixing until flour disappears.\u00a0 Add 3 cups of granola and the chocolate chips, if using, and mix on lowest speed until well combined.<\/p>\n

Spread batter in the prepared pan and smooth top.\u00a0 Sprinkle remaining 1 cup granola evenly over all and lightly pat into the top of the batter.<\/p>\n

Bake for about 30 minutes.\u00a0 The bars are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.\u00a0 Lift bars out of the pan using parchment handles and transfer to a cutting board.\u00a0 Slice into bars.<\/p>\n

Aleta Watson<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first granola bar I ever tasted came from a natural foods bakery in Oakland.\u00a0 It was a tempting combination of chewy bar cookie and enough crunchy whole grains to make me feel virtuous about the indulgence. I bought them whenever I could until the store that carried them went out of business.\u00a0 I pined … Continue reading Granola blondies hit the trail<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4964"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5000,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions\/5000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skilletchronicles.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}