Trail Mix Granola Bars

Trail Mix Granola Bars

My little friend Madison Long made trail mix with her mom and shared it with us.  TCJne doesn’t eat “trail mix” he thinks it’s for the birds.  So instead of hogging it all down myself, I decided to make granola bars with it.  He will eat them if there are no cookies in the jar… like my granny always used to say, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat!”

*2 cups trail mix

2 cups oatmeal (whole grain quick oats)

2 cups Quaker Natural Granola oats, honey & almonds cereal

1 cup coconut

½ cup raisins

½ cup honey

½ cup butter

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter

1 egg

1 tsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease the bottom of a 13x9x2 in baking dish with cooking spray.  Place a sheet of parchment paper on top and spray that also. 

In a very large bowl combine trail mix, oatmeal, granola cereal, coconut and raisins and mix well.  Melt butter.  In food processor or Magic bullet add butter with honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, peanut butter, egg and salt.  Pulse until well blended.  Pour over granola mixture and stir well. 

Spoon mixture onto greased parchment paper, press down firmly all around.  Sprinkle with sea salt (optional—I’m addicted to it).  Place in oven and bake 20 minutes.  Rotate pan so that the front is in the back and the back is in the front and bake an additional 5-7 minutes, just until all outside edges are brown.

Cool 30 minutes and slide out of pan to continue cooling.  Cool completely before slicing into squares (I made the mistake of cutting too soon).  Place in an airtight container.

*Madison Long’s homemade trial mix consists of pecans she picked from her granddaddy’s backyard.  She mixed them with salt and butter and roasted them on a cookie sheet in a 375° oven for about 15-20 minutes, stirring every five minutes.  After they cooled, she chopped them up and combined with a bag of dried cranberries, a bag of M&M’s (the ones she didn’t eat) and a bag of milk chocolate chip cookies.  This is her snack for when goes to her daily job of blueberry picking.

© Crackerberries 2013

Granola Cookies

I really didn’t mean for these to come out the way they did, but they taste just like a granola bar made into a cookie.  I even crumbled one up and ate it in yogurt for breakfast the other day.

½ cup butter flavored Crisco

½ cup peanut butter (next time I will use a little more peanut butter)

1 cup brown sugar

½ granulated sugar

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp maple extract

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

¾ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup whole wheat flour

3 cups dry oats

½ cup dried banana chips

½ dried figs

Preheat oven 375º.  Cream the Crisco and peanut butter together for 30 second; add sugars together in large mixing bowl and beat until fluffy.  Add maple flavored extract and eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. 

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda together, slowly add to mixture and stir until well blended.  Add oats, banana chips and dried figs and mix well. 

Drop by scoops on ungreased cookie sheet two inches apart.  Bake 375º 10-12 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheet immediately and cool on wire racks. 

© Crackerberries 2011



Good 4 U Treat

I love granola bars. They are so expensive though. So, I decided to try making my own. They came out OK. Next time I would be sure not to use cereal with raisins during the first baking process because some of the raisins seemed to be a little “overcooked”. All in all, this is a good homemade version of a chewy granola bar.


3½ cups of granola cereal, quick cooking oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, sesame seeds, wheat germ, (*whatever crunchy ingredients you would like)1 cup coconut
1 cup raisins
½ cup honey
¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
4 Tbsp margarine

Preheat oven 300º

Combine granola ingredients and coconut and spread on 9x12 baking dish. Do not add raisins at this time. Bake in 300º oven for 20 minutes, stirring once during baking time. (For crunchier granola bake an additional 5-10 minutes.) In the mean time, heat butter, brown sugar and honey in small sauce pan. Once dry ingredients come out of oven add raisins. Add vanilla to melted butter mixture and mix with granola. (I put aluminum foil down and that made it easier to take out of the pan and put on a chopping board for cutting). Press mixture into greased 8x8 pan and bake for another 20 minutes in 300º oven.
*You may add whatever ingredients you like. I contemplated Lucky Charms … do you think they would be magically delicious?
© Crackerberries 2009