Last Thursday, I went to the Margate Community Farmer’s Market. Two of my favorite things there were the Tony Baloney pizzas and the granola bars that The Dinner Belle was selling. I bought four different granola bars from her: Cherry Almond Chocolate, Lemon Blueberry, Chocolate Pretzel Sunflower Seed, and Peanut Butter and Jelly. I am trying to savor them so I only have tried the Cherry Almond Chocolate & the Lemon Blueberry…and both were excellent! In fact, I liked them so much that I decided to try to make my own version of the Cherry Almond Chocolate granola bars. I was very happy with how they came out. They were not exactly like The Dinner Belle’s, but they are equally delicious.
Cherry Almond Chocolate Coconut Granola Bars
Makes one 8″x8″ pan or ~10 granola bars
If you do not want some of the chocolate chips to melt, make sure you allow your wet ingredients to cool a bit before pouring them over the dry ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups rolled oats
- 3 Tbl. Wheat Germ
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup dried cherries, roughly chopped
- 3 Tbl. organic coconut oil
- 6 Tbl. honey (next time I am going to try using 4 Tbl.)
- 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 cup corn syrup
Directions
- Prepare an 8″x8″ pan by spraying with cooking spray or lining with tin foil.
- In a small-medium sized pot over medium heat, combine wet ingredients: coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture foams. Allow the mixture to cool slightly if you would like your chocolate chips to stay whole. Otherwise, no cooling is necessary.
- In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients: rolled oats, wheat germ, salt, mini-chocolate chips, slivered almonds, coconut flakes, and cherries. Pour wet ingredient mixture over dry ingredients and mix thoroughly until all dry ingredients are coated with wet ingredients.
- Pour mixture into prepared pan and press down firmly. Cover with saran wrap and stick in the refrigerator or freezer for a few hours.
- Remove granola bars from fridge/freezer and cut into bars. Wrap individually in saran wrap and store in freezer.
I was very excited with how tasty these came out and I am really excited to adapt the recipe and make different flavors. As I noted in the ingredients list above, the next time I make these I am going to try to use 4 Tbl. of honey instead of 6 Tbl. because I thought that these were pretty sweet.
Last night I made pizza for dinner but unfortunately did not take a picture. It was some great pizza too….I made a Fontina & Truffle Oil Pizza (very similar to Stella’s Truffle Pizza if you’ve ever had it) and a smoked mozzarella topped with arugula which was tossed with a simple dressing of olive oil, lemon, garlic, salt & pepper. They came out fantastic! Now all I need is a real pizza oven but for now I will settle with my oven that gets to 500 degrees. I do use a pizza stone in my oven and I highly recommend buying one if you’re going to be making pizza a lot! For dessert, I made something special that is very near and dear to our hearts….
That, my friends, is Banana Whip. Banana whip has become a lot more popular so you may already know what this is. If not, then listen up! This is simply a frozen banana. There are several ways to make banana whip. The three ways to make it that I am familiar with is The Champion Juicer, Yonana machine, or a food processor. I used a food processor to make mine and I mixed in some Peanut Butter. It was so awesome and I really have to make this more often! Last night I topped mine with mini Reese’s cups and then later added nutella to the top. Next time, I think I’m going to mix the nutella right in with the frozen banana and peanut butter…because that just sounds like the most perfect combination ever.
Todd also brought home a case of Jersey Blueberries that he got from work…
I plan to make a Blueberry Pie using my Mom’s recipe which she came up with a few summers ago when she made a blueberry pie almost everyday in an attempt to copycat Steve & Cookie’s famous Blueberry Pie. I think she came pretty close and I think I actually preferred her crust over Steve & Cookies! So hopefully I’ll be as lucky. Otherwise, I have no plans for the rest of the blueberries besides throwing handful after handful in my mouth. Maybe Blueberry Pancakes or Muffins? Hmmmm….
Does anyone have any good blueberry recipes?
Does anyone have any cool granola bar flavor ideas?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
lucky to have such a wonderful cook as a sister!!! the pizza/banana whip and granola bars rocked!!!! agree- we should make banana whip more often!!!
here it the recipe I found for blueberry muffins:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/03/insanely-good-blueberry-oatmeal-muffins.html#more