Chewy Honey-Almond Granola Bars with Dark Chocolate

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

The chewy granola bar, engineered properly at home: oats toasted until nutty, a honey-brown sugar syrup cooked to exactly 240°F so the bars set soft and bendy instead of crumbling, and enough almond butter to keep everything tender for a week. Packed with sliced almonds, chopped dates and dark chocolate, pressed hard into a pan and cut into 12 lunchbox-ready bars for a fraction of the cost of the boxed kind.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 3 tbsp raw sunflower seeds or shelled pepitas
• 3/4 cup crisp rice cereal
• 2 tbsp ground flaxseed

• 6 tbsp honey
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp creamy almond butter
• 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup pitted Medjool dates, chopped into raisin-size pieces
• 1/3 cup dried tart cherries or raisins
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped 70% chocolate
• flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
• neutral oil or nonstick spray, for the pan and your hands

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8-inch metal baking pan with two crossed strips of parchment, letting them hang over all four sides, then lightly oil the exposed pan corners. Cut a third piece of parchment roughly 8 inches square and set it aside for pressing.
2. Spread the oats, sliced almonds and sunflower seeds on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for 11 to 13 minutes, stirring once at the halfway point, until the oats smell nutty and the almonds are pale gold. Scrape the hot mixture into a large heatproof bowl and stir in the crisp rice cereal and ground flaxseed. Keep it nearby — warm dry mix coats much more evenly.
3. In a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, almond butter and fine sea salt. Stir constantly with a silicone spatula until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a full rolling boil, about 3 minutes.
4. Clip on a candy or instant-read thermometer and boil, stirring, until the syrup reads 240°F, about 2 to 4 more minutes. This is the whole trick: below 235°F the bars stay loose and crumbly, above 245°F they turn hard and brittle. Pull the pan off the heat the moment it hits 240°F and stir in the vanilla (it will hiss).
5. Immediately pour the hot syrup over the oat mixture, add the chopped dates and dried cherries, and fold with the spatula for 45 to 60 seconds until every oat is glossy and no dry pockets remain. Work quickly — the syrup stiffens as it cools.
6. Scrape everything into the lined pan and spread it roughly level. Lay the reserved parchment square on top and press down hard with the flat bottom of a measuring cup or a straight-sided glass, going over the whole surface two or three times and paying extra attention to the corners and edges. Compression is what makes a bar hold together instead of becoming granola.
7. Peel off the top parchment, scatter the chocolate over the surface, wait 2 minutes for it to soften, then press it in gently with the parchment so it anchors without smearing. Sprinkle with flaky salt.
8. Let the pan cool completely at room temperature, 2 hours, until the slab is firm and no longer warm in the center. For clean cuts, chill it for a final 20 minutes — no longer, or the syrup gets glassy.
9. Lift the slab out by the parchment onto a cutting board. Using a long sharp knife, cut 3 even strips one way and 4 the other to make 12 bars, pressing straight down in one motion rather than sawing. Wrap individually in parchment or waxed paper.
10. Store the wrapped bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. They stay bendy and chewy; refrigerating makes them firm and snappy, which is a different (also good) bar.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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