I love granola bars but find them very hard to buy. If they are gluten free, they also tend to be nutrition free and school unfriendly.
So here is a recipe that is fit for the season. Chewy pumpkin granola bars. As a bonus, maple syrup is the only sweetener in them 🙂
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups gluten free rolled oats
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup hemp hearts
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips (this could easily be more oats, raisins, more seeds…whatever works for you)
- 1/2 cup pumpkin
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.
- Mix wet into a small mixing bowl another.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients well so all the oats get coated.
- Line a 11×8 baking pan with parchment paper (or whatever size you’d like really). Use enough paper to hang over the sides so that you can pull them out when they are done.
- Press them down firmly so they are flat.
- Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Let the bars cool completely before cutting.
Use a large sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut them into bars. Wrap in plastic wrap to freeze for easy and fast snacks.
