Honey and Fruit Granola Bars

These simple granola bars are delicious and very easy to make! They make a fantastic snack to take on a long walk, put in your lunch box or just to enjoy with a morning coffee! This recipe will make around 14 generous sized bars. At the bottom of the page you will find an alternative recipe that uses my personal favourite nut combination and swaps out the standard mixed dried fruit for some exciting alternatives. You'll also find some other options and suggestions; the recipe is very adaptable so you'll be able to make the perfect granola bar for you!

Time to make: Around 30 minutes + 2 hours refrigeration.

To Make our Honey and Fruit Granola Bars You Will Need:

• 250g Rolled Oats
• 30g Mixed Seeds
• 35g Mixed Unsalted Nuts (roughly chopped)
• 4 tbsp Just Bee Honey
• 60g Unsalted Butter
• 65g Light Brown Soft Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 110g Mixed Dried Fruit

• A baking tin 20–23 cm square and 3-4cm deep.
• A large lipped baking tray
• A medium sized saucepan
• A Large mixing bowl

Step One: Some Preparation.

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4 or 180c (160c for a fan assisted oven) We won't be baking the bars, but we will be toasting the oats, seeds and nuts.

Line the square baking tin with foil leaving some sticking out the top to aid removal. Then lightly oil; the easiest way to do this is just put a dab of vegetable oil on a piece of kitchen paper and wipe it around, you don't need much. Then put aside for now.

Step Two: Getting A Little Toasty!

Spread the rolled oats out on the dry, clean baking tray, then scatter the seeds and chopped nut pieces over the top of the oats. Pop them in the oven to lightly toast for 10 minutes. While they are toasting we will get the other ingredients ready.

Step Three: Sticky and Sweet!

Add the butter, honey and brown sugar to the saucepan. Stir continuously over a medium heat until melted and combined. Keep stirring and let the mixture bubble away for a further minute then turn off the heat and leave aside for now to cool a little.

Step Four: Mix it Up!

After the oats, nuts and seeds have been toasting for 10 minutes, remove them from the oven and carefully add them to the mixing bowl. Next add your fruit to the mixing bowl too and give it a mix around until the fruit looks fairly evenly distributed.

Add the vanilla extract and salt to the saucepan and stir in, this will give the mixture a subtle (but fabulous) 'salted caramel' taste. Then pour the liquid from the saucepan into the mixing bowl. Using a silicon spatula, mix until all the ingredients are covered in the sticky mixture and no dry oats remain. The mixture at this point may seem too dry and that it's not sticking together enough but this is normal so don't worry.

Step Five: Press to Impress!

Tip the finished mixture into the baking tin we prepared earlier and spread out across the tin as evenly as possible. Then using something flat press the mixture down very firmly until you cannot squash it down anymore! I use an egg flipper and use my hand on the back of the flipper part to really push the mixture down flat across the whole tray. But you can use anything flat, like a flat bottomed mug or even a small block of wood wrapped in some foil.  Don't rush this part, if you don't compress it down enough the bars will not hold together well. When you have a beautifully flat and compressed tray of granola, pop the tin in the fridge for 2 hours to allow it to fully chill.

Step Six: Start Chopping.

Remove the granola from the fridge and using the foil at the edges lift the whole slab out of the tin. Remove the foil, then on a chopping board cut into nice sized 'bars' (mine are usually around 2 ½ cm x 11cm) You will need a large sharp knife and quite a bit of pressure to cut the bars, so be careful and take your time.

These will happily keep in the fridge for a week to ten days in an air-tight tub, if you need to stack them just add a sheet of baking paper between them.

More Recipes and Options

Luxury Fruit, Almond & Pistachio Granola Bars (uses exactly the same method as above)

• 250g Rolled Oats
• 35g Pistachio Kernels (roughly chopped)
• 30g Almonds (roughly chopped)
• 4 tbsp Just Bee Honey
• 60g Unsalted Butter
• 65g Light Brown Soft Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 40g Dried Cranberries
• 35g Dried Cherries
• 35g Dried Apricots (chopped into small pieces)

You can adapt this recipe to use whatever nuts, fruits and seeds you prefer. Just stick to the rule of a total of 65g of nuts and/or seeds and 110g of fruit and you won't go wrong. There are lots of choice in the bakery section of all supermarkets these days, most of the larger stores boasting a whole range of different seeds, dried fruits and nuts for you to use.

Why not make a different variety every week? The possible combinations are almost infinite, so don't be afraid to experiment to find your favourite recipes! Let us know your favourite fruit and nut combinations below, we would love to hear what you've been enjoying!