Honey Oat Granola Bars

Honey Oat Granola Bars

If you grew up in South Africa and you’re able to think back to childhood birthday parties, then you know that every South African birthday party contained a few staples. There was, undoubtedly a game of ‘Pass the Parcel’, ‘Musical Chairs’ or perhaps ‘Musical Statues’ and a game, or two, of ‘Simon Says’. But since I’ve always been a lot more concerned with the food table, most of my memories are of the treats. So, when I think of childhood birthday parties, I think of Chomps, Bar Ones, Sugus and the famous South African crunchie.

A crunchie is a baked treat that even the worst of bakers manages to plate up for her child’s party and it’s one of those staples that pays great tribute to the love that many South Africans have for Golden Syrup. Even my mom, who truthfully has no future as a baker, (although she, of course, maintains that this is due, entirely, to the fact that she has a convection oven, in which you can bake absolutely nothing…), managed to serve many a crunchie during her years as party hostess.

Fast forward 20 years or so and I am now the mom throwing the birthday parties. But, more importantly, the mom, (much like many others) who cringes at the 10am chorus in my house of: “Mooooooooooom, I’m huuuuuuuungry.” Now that we are entering the winter season, too, I fear that my children may actually start throwing the apples, bananas and oranges at me, rather than obligingly eating them, as so many of us grow tired of the staple three fruit choices available until Spring arrives.

I realized, this week, afresh, that I am going to have to take the snack situation in my home to a new level. So, you can imagine my delight when, out of the blue, my mom sends each of us, her daughters, an email last week with a crunchie recipe attached. I had been flipping through her ‘Complete South African Cookbook’ a few weeks before and she had probably thought a staple like crunchies should be in my repertoire.

For a week, now I have been tweaking the original recipe and have made a few adjustments that make it a much healthier snack – more like the American granola bar, only without the high fructose corn syrup. The variations and options for add-ins are endless, really, and since the base of these bars is so easy, you can practically throw in whatever you have in the cupboard.

So, here we go:

Original South African Crunchie Recipe:

1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of coconut
2 cups of oats

125gms of margarine or butter
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
2 heaped Tablespoons of golden syrup

Apparently, some people are still eating margarine … yikes!

‘Tweaked’ Crunchie Recipe or ‘Honey Oat Granola Bars’

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup coconut
3 cups large flake oats
½ cup sugar
1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
½ tsp salt

½ cup sunflower seeds
3 Tbs ground flax seed (linseed)
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, cashews, pecans)
1 cup chopped dried fruit (apricot, cranberries, raisins, sultanas)
¾ cup coconut oil (melted)
¾ cup honey

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 140 C/250 F and line a baking sheet with parchment/baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients and mix together well.
3. In a smaller bowl, combine your seeds, nuts and dried fruits

Apricots, Sultanas (yellow raisins), Slivered Almonds and Walnuts

4. In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil. Once melted, remove from heat and add honey. Stir until well combined.
5. Throw nuts and seeds into the large bowl and then pour honey and coconut oil mixture on top.
6. Mix around with your fingers until it looks like all ingredients are well combined.
7. Dump entire mixture onto baking sheet and begin to pat all ingredients down until baking sheet is evenly covered.
8. Place in oven and bake for 12 minutes.
9. Turn oven off and allow bars to ‘dry’ in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and cut bars into desired sizes, immediately.
11. Remove bars from baking sheet by lifting the parchment paper and placing entire sheet on a cooling rack , or your counter top, to cool completely.
12. ‘Break’ apart once cooled and, assuming your family isn’t like mine and devours everything within five minutes, store in an air-tight container.

Oh, and let’s be real, usually, when I make these, my chocolate chip collection seems to make its way into the mix…don’t know how it happens, but I pull the bars out of the oven and there they are, in all their glossy, gooey goodness, peaking through the oats and sunflower seeds.

No complaints here…

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