Homemade granola bars

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups old fashioned oats
• 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp. ground flax seeds
• 1 tbsp. ground chia seeds
• 2 cups sliced/chopped almonds
• 1 ½ cup raisins
• 1 cup dried apricots chopped
• ½ cup coconut flakes
• 2/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup pure dark brown sugar
• 4 tbsp. butter
• ¼ tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• ½ tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F/165 degrees C. Bake/toast the oats for 30 minutes.
2. Transfer the toasted oats to a bowl.
3. Add the whole wheat flour, ground flax seeds, ground chia seeds, chopped almonds, coconut flakes and chopped dried apricots to the bowl. Mix everything well and set aside.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C. Line a 9 by 13 inch baking dish with aluminum foil or parchment paper. If you’re using parchment paper spray the baking dish with nonstick spray first so that the parchment paper can stick to the baking dish. If using foil paper, spray it liberally with non-stick spray. Set aside.
5. Place the brown sugar, honey, butter, salt and cinnamon in a small pot and on medium heat and heat until the sugar dissolves and everything is mixed up well.
6. Pour the hot mixture over the oats mixture and mix well until everything is well combined. This part is a little tricky but be patient and make sure everything is coated by the honey mixture.
7. Transfer this to the baking dish and press the mixture onto the lined baking sheet.
8. I usually use my hands to do this. I wet them a little bit with water so that they don’t stick and I press the mixture firmly, as hard as possible.
9. Bake for 20 minutes.
10. Let cool overnight/about 5 hours in the baking dish.
11. Remove from the baking dish and use a very sharp knife to cut into bars of whatever size you like. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or freeze.