A different crispy rice bar...

This is one of two "granola/health bar" recipes I found.

Chewy Energy Bars

2-½ cups crisp rice cereal
2 cups quick oats
¼ cup toasted wheat germ
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup peanut butter
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine the cereal, oats and wheat germ. In a small saucepan, combine the corn syrup, peanut butter and brown sugar. Cook over medium heat until peanut butter is melted, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat, stir in vanilla. Pour over cereal mixture, mix well. Transfer to a greased 9x13 inch pan. Gently press cereal mixture evenly into pan. Cool completely, cut into bars.


So this is the recipe as I made it. But I did it a bit differently from the original. The recipe calls for a 9 inch square. But after the cooling and cutting part I ended up with two dozen of them instead of the 1-½ dozen that they state the yield to be and I don’t believe mine were any thinner than the ones in their picture. (Taste of Home Sept 2010) So if you choose to make this recipe you can experiment and use whichever sized pan you.

Hubby loves these bars, as do I. They are chewy and tasty. At first I kind of cringed at the idea of a WHOLE cup of corn syrup, on top of the peanut butter. But here’s what I figured; I KNOW what is in these bars, I DON’T know what’s in the average pre-packaged granola bars from the store. I like the wheat germ addition, as well as the peanut butter. Plus these are great to make with kids, and they have more nutrition for them than plain rice crispy bars made with marshmallows…etc. It would also be easy to add extra goodies in these: dried cranberries, mini M&Ms, chopped nuts…etc.

I learned a valuable lesson from this recipe: wheat germ can be found down the cereal aisle, NOT down the flour/baking aisle at your local grocery store. I also bought the untoasted variety and toasted it in my oven. It was much cheaper that way, I believe.


*Note: I found an answer to the corn syrup issue; see the next bar recipe.