Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gather your ingredients:
2 cups oats
3/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup peanuts, crushed
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
4 Tbsp butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
approximately 8 oz. dried fruit
To crush your peanuts, put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a heavy mallet, measuring cup, or sauce pan.
Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds in a baking
dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring
every few minutes so that they don’t get burned.
Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) for
your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with a
nonstick spray.
Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan
and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.
By now, your grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything
together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried
fruit. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now.
Mix everything REALLY WELL because you want to make sure the “glue”
gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your
prepared baking dish.
Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and
PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that
your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.
Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.
Then, open the waxed paper …
And carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper.
Now, firmly pressing down with a big knife (not sawing), cut your granola into whatever size bars you’d like.
Wrap the bars individually in plastic wrap, so that you can just throw
one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on
packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between
sheets of waxed paper (so they don’t stick together).
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