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To be honest, as much of a summer beach girl that I am, I just crave fall routine.
This type A list maker gets a little lost by the end of lazy summer days, and I am looking forward to a bit more structure in our days.
I’ll be packing lunches for my kindergartener and my husband this fall, and simple granola bars like these make that job super simple.
This is a quick recipe, and nice big batch lasts me a good month or so. They pack easy from freezer to lunchbox, thawing perfectly by lunchtime.
Simple Soaked Granola Bars
Ingredients
- 1 lb oats
- 1 lb raw sunflower seeds
- 2 TB sea salt
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 4 cups unsweetened coconut shreds
- 1 cup melted coconut oil or butter
- 1 cup natural unsweetened peanut butter
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 TB vanilla or almond extract
- 2 TB cinnamon
- 2 cups raisins
Instructions
- The night before you want to bake off the bars, put the oats, sunflower seeds, sea salt, and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl. Fill the bowl up with water to completely cover the mixture – enough that you can stir to combine. This soaking process will help the oats and seeds digest better.
- After the oat/seed mixture has soaked 8-12 hours, add the rest of the ingredients and combine.
- Spread the mixture onto silpat lined jelly roll pans – you will need 2. You could butter your pans if you don’t have Silpat.
- Bake both sheets at 350 degrees an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.
- Use a pizza cutter (or knife) to slice into the size bars you want. Let them cool before removing from the pan.
Tips:
- This batch makes just over 4 dozen granola bars, depending on how big you slice them. I store them laying flat in gallon freezer bags – no need to even individually wrap them. They pull out simple from the freezer straight to the lunch box and are thawed by lunchtime.
- IF YOU ARE NUT FREE :: For the 2 cups blanched almond flour you could use 2 cups of a gluten free flour like rice flour. And instead of the peanut butter you could use sunflower seed butter – just watch the ingredients on those. This is a brand with a safe ingredient list
. - A couple notes on the molasses. There is an organic unsulphured blackstrap molasses that I get locally, but this is a good one if you don’t have anything local. I don’t think the bars have a “molassess” flavor but if you are concerned the kids won’t like it, you could use pure maple syrup or honey, or a combo of those with a little molasses. I love the rich color of the molasses! The granola bars are plenty sweet for our palates, but taste the batter before you bake it off and add more if you need.
- Be sure if you are gluten free that you get oats that actually that say gluten free on them to prevent cross contaminating.
- Silpat liners are seriously my saving grace in the kitchen and work really well with this recipe. Clean up is so much faster and easier!
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if you don’t have anything local. I don’t think the bars have a “molassess” flavor but if you are concerned the kids won’t like it, you could use pure maple syrup or honey, or a combo of those with a little molasses. I love the rich color of the molasses! The granola bars are plenty sweet for our palates, but taste the batter before you bake it off and add more if you need.
to prevent cross contaminating.This post was shared at Fat Tuesday, and Allergy Free Wednesday!
Wow. These look AWESOME. I definitely want to give them a try. Pinning for alter! Thanks. <3
THANK YOU! I’ve been wanting to make my own granola bars for a long time!!
This is great! My kids can’t have any nuts at their school co-op bc their is a child with an allergy. I bet they’d love these!
I’m always so grateful for sprouted grains recipes and this is one my kids will love. Fun food that other kids will recognize. (Some healthy foods look “weird” to kids who are used to eating packaged foods all the time.) We look forward to trying this recipe; my 13-year-old will love helping and my 5-year-old will lick the peanut butter spoon! LOL
So simple and looks so good!! You rock, Renee!
I have never made a ‘soaked’ bar before. Beautiful recipe!
These really look good. I have been wanting to make something like this for a while. I love the idea of making a big batch and freezing them. It just seems so easy.
I definitely want to try these! Thanks for sharing them with us, I will be featuring your recipe this week!
Thank you Tessa! I appreciate it!
Do you have a volume measurement (approximate number of cups) for the oats and sunflower seeds? I don’t have a kitchen scale but would love to try this recipe.
Thanks!
Hi Andrea! For my oats it is a whole container of oats – I’m really unsure of the measurement but I would say a good 4 cups – look on the side of your oat bag/container and see how many lbs it is. And the seeds is a good couple cups – it was the same thing with that they sell 1lb bags at our local health food store and I use a whole bag – you can look on the bag/container of seeds and see the pounds. Hope that helps!
After you soak the seads and oats are you supposed to drain it or rinse it? I made it and it just came out tasting very very salty.
Hi Melissa! Yes I drain/rinse – I will make that more clear in the directions. I apologize for the confusion!
These look so good! It’s been a LONG time since I had a granola bar.
I think you would find this information on phytic acid very important, especially regarding oats (from http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/living-with-phytic-acid/). “OATS
Oats contain very little phytase, especially after commercial heat treatment, and require a very long preparation period to completely reduce phytic acid levels. Soaking oats at 77 degrees F for 16 hours resulted in no reduction of phytic acid, nor did germination for up to three days at this temperature.63 However, malting (sprouting) oats for five days at 52 degrees F and then soaking for 17 hours at 120 degrees F removes 98 percent of phytates. Adding malted rye further enhances oat phytate reduction.64 Without initial germination, even a five-day soaking at a warm temperature in acidic liquid may result in an insignificant reduction in phytate due to the low phytase content of oats. On the plus side, the process of rolling oats removes a at least part of the bran, where a large portion of the phytic acid resides.
How do we square what we know about oats with the fact that oats were a staple in the diet of the Scots and Gaelic islanders, a people known for their robust good health and freedom from tooth decay? For one thing, high amounts of vitamin D from cod’s liver and other sources, helps prevent calcium losses from the high oat diet. Absorbable calcium from raw dairy products, consumed in abundance on mainland Scotland, provides additional protection.
In addition, it is likely that a good part of the phytase remained in the oats of yore, which partially germinated in stacks left for a period in the field, were not heat treated and were hand rolled immediately prior to preparation. And some Scottish and Gaelic recipes do call for a long fermentation of oats before and even after they are cooked.
Unprocessed Irish or Scottish oats, which have not been heated to high temperatures, are availabile in some health food stores and on the internet. One study found that unheated oats had the same phytase activity as wheat.65 They should be soaked in acidulated water for as long as twenty-four hours on top of a hot plate to keep them at about 100 degrees F. This will reduce a part of the phytic acid as well as the levels of other anti-nutrients, and result in a more digestible product. Overnight fermenting of rolled oats using a rye starter—or even with the addition of a small amount of fresh rye flour—may result in a fairly decent reduction of phytate levels. It is unclear whether heat-treated oats are healthy to eat regularly.”
A new go-to for us! These really are perfect for pulling out with breakfast. We swap 1 cup of raisins for chopped prunes to reduce sugar and it works well. It took two batches to nail the texture we like – balance between how much liquid to use for soaking and bake time – so maybe a half batch if it’s your first round. Having experience with restricted dietary needs, I rate these really high for being “free” of so much and still packing in nutrition, flavor, and staying power. Thanks, Renee!