Tuesdays with Dorie (Baking Chez Moi): Granola Energy Bars

Dorie Greenspan granola bars Baking Chez MoiThis week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is one you might be surprised to find in a French baking book: homemade granola (muesli) bars. But Baking Chez Moi is full of these fabulous homemade treats – humble, not necessarily fancy but always delicious.  These bars would definitely make Dorie’s friends wonder “Why would you bother making these at home?” (as she says, many French people simply don’t bake at home – which I totally understand, surrounded by so many fabulous treats that are so accessible, why would you?)  Well, to that, I say, make these bars and you’ll understand why.

There’s nothing more satisfying than the act of transforming simple ingredients into something tasty which is why I love baking so much.  These bars took about 10 minutes to pull together, 25 minutes to bake, a couple of hours to cool – so really not much hands-on time at all yet a whole week’s worth of granola bars for my mid-morning snacks (and then some!). These will keep me going this week during report card writing! I loved that they reminded me of the muesli bars of my childhood – back when they mostly just contained simple ingredients, as opposed to some of the protein pumped-up versions we see today.

Mine have sunflower and pumpkin seeds, cranberries, golden raisins and coconut as the main ingredients but there are so many other combinations you could try. I’m thinking dark chocolate, coconut and cherry for my next round. Yes, I am already thinking about the next batch and I have barely made a dent in these!  A couple of notes: I used 1/2 golden syrup, 1/2 light corn syrup as my binding agent (Dorie calls for brown rice syrup which I am out of) – this worked really well – and they are not too sweet, which I like… I also, in my sinus headachey and jetlagged state, misread the recipe (multiple times!) and used quick cooking oats instead of old fashioned large flake and while the consistency was perhaps a little more dense, they worked. Next time I will use the right oats 😉

Warning: they are “more-ish” so you might need to ration them. Yes, they are healthier than store-bought because you know exactly what’s going into them but they are very energy-dense so a little bit goes a long way.

Get Dorie’s recipe for granola energy bars here  or on page 328 of Baking Chez Moi.

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Tuesdays with Dorie participants don’t publish the recipes on our blogs, so you’re encouraged to purchase Baking Chez Moi for yourself which you can do on Amazon or Amazon Canada or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us, baking our way through the book!

 

 

 

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48 thoughts on “Tuesdays with Dorie (Baking Chez Moi): Granola Energy Bars”

  1. It was kind of like eating my morning cereal, but in a bar form 🙂
    I did find these to be very good, but I had trouble baking them to the right consistency. (Firm on top, not fully set on the bottom)

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  2. I like that they are energy dense…. Not many bars tide me over from breakfast until lunch! I love that they keep well for a whole week too. It didn’t occur to me to minify this one.

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  3. Everyone seems to be talking about energy dense with these bars. The whole grains definitely fill up your tummy. But the calories, I calculated it for 12 servings, is only 190. Far less than any muffin or other store bought bar. I hope you feel better soon.

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  4. We enjoyed these too. What I love about them (besides how tasty they are!), is that I know exactly what the ingredients are. I will be making these again!

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  5. Okay – that’s it….time to purchase Baking Chez Moi!!!!

    Good-bye Carmen’s Museli Bars (the healthiest I could find in the supermarket) and welcome Dorie’s Granola Energy Bars 🙂

    Thanks for the heads up on the golden / corn syrup combo as I am absolutely certain brown rice syrup will be an unknown commodity in Mount Isa.

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  6. Your bars look wonderful, and I am happy to see you had extra bits around them as well as I thought I was doing something wrong when the bits were sort of coming off here and there. 🙂 It’s been fun to see all the different sizes and shapes people are using this week, all the bars look unique!

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    • Yeah I wondered about the “extra bits” – they were hard to cut and I think next time I might take them out of the oven a smidge earlier so they are softer. Bits or not, they were tasty, huh?

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  7. I love it–put some high energy ingredients together with something sticky (I used raw honey once and brown rice syrup once)–and you have a great snack. Had to add a little chocolate to mine. I was thinking of purposely using quick oats, so good to know it worked.

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  8. I highly recommend doing chocolate and dried cherries, those two ingredients blended well in my bars and it was just by chance it was what I had on hand in the pantry.
    cheers!

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  9. Yeehaw – bars where every ingredient is pronounceable. Granted we generally buy super-healthy bars, but anything homemade will be better as no need for preservatives and the like.

    Witness the fact when I got home from work last night, it took all my willpower not to gobble the last two, thus depriving Mardi of her next day’s snack. (And suffering wrath thereof…) 😉

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  10. Confession time: I’m currently developing a “protein pumped” snack bar with hemp and seeds. Don’t judge! These look awesome and I totally get what you’re saying on simplicity. Maybe I don’t need to pump my bars full of protein… maybe I need to take a page from Life According to Mardi and pump those bars full of love!

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    • No but hemp and seeds would be fabulous too! The great thing about these bars is the way you can customise them according to what you have on hand/ what you prefer in a bar! I was thinking of upping the protein content next time around too!

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  11. these look absolutely delicious! I have been a fan of coconut chocolate and cherry ever since we did the Rugelach but how brilliant to translate it to granola bars.

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  12. Hi Mardi! After I saw your post I baked them today, since I have the cookbook. I did bake 25 mins at 325F. They are over baked. Now it is like granola and it crumbles. We decided to eat the crumbles with almond milk this afternoon and it is delicious. I will make them again but will bake 20 minutes. Maybe it’s my oven that is not calibrated.

    I used maple syrup and added 70% dark chocolate cut into small pieces.

    Thanks for sharing now I think I might join this group since I have the cookbook.

    Reply

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