Incredibly Easy and Delicious Granola Bars

My very first post!

A staple food in my lunch is granola bars. However, I have a couple of issues with store bought granola bars. Have you ever looked at the sugar content? Yikes! Another is that I've recently figured out that I have a dairy allergy and I'm also allergic to coconut. Avoiding dairy in store bought granola bars is like avoiding fatty foods on the holidays, damn near impossible. Its not as easy as picking out the granola bars without chocolate. Companies love to use fillers, such as whey, which is just dairy in disguise. Coconut is another filler in many granola bar brands as well.

So, instead of spending mass quantities of cash on those organic bars that lack my allergens, I decided to take make my own and save tonnes of money.
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Wholesome, organic, dairy-free granola bars

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Here's the recipe I used (which is a modified version of this recipe)

2 and 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (light is fine too)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or wheat germ; or ground almonds)
1/4 cup ground flax (I used flax meal)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup pastry flour (or all-purpose flour; or more whole wheat flour)
1/2 to 3/4 cup dried cranberries (or your favourite dried fruit)
1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped raw or roasted almonds
1/2 to 3/4 cup raw or roasted sunflower seeds
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 to 3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup of canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan. Glass is best as you'll have to cut these bars in the pan after they are cooked and you don't want to be using a sharp knife on your non-stick bakeware (Like I did, oops!)
2. In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients (oats through to salt) with a wooden spoon until throughly mixed.
3. In a separate smaller bowl, beat the egg then add the remaining wet ingredients and stir slightly. A trick to prevent the honey from sticking to the measuring cup, is to first use that cup for the oil. 
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix with the wooden spoon until everything is nicely coated. Plop the mixture into the baking pan and spread it out trying to make the top as flat/even as possible. Bake 25-30 minutes. The longer the baking time the crispier everything will get. The last thing you want to do is burn these delicious bars.
5. Wait 5 minutes after you remove from oven then cut into bars. If you wait until they are fully cooled they will be too hard to cut.

I baked these for 28 minutes and the edges got a little crispy but I don't like gooey food so its perfect for me. When I made these I used whole almonds but when I make these again I'll use chopped almonds since cutting through the almonds afterwards wasn't really happening. I don't think you'd have to restrict yourself to almonds and sunflower seeds. I think a mixture of whatever nuts you like would be great! Cashews, peanuts, and pecans would all be great substitutes.

Happy Baking,
Bree