Mr. Jones’ Granola Bars

·      1 Cup Corn Syrup
·      ½ Cup Granulated Sugar
·      6 Marshmallows (torn in half so they melt faster)
·      1 ½ Cups Peanut Butter (or Almond Butter)
·      1 TBS Canola Oil
·      6 Cups Slow cooking oats (Organic old Fashioned Oats)
·      1 bag (12 oz) or less of chocolate chips

Combine corn syrup, sugar and oil in saucepan on stove. Heat until boiling, add the marshmallows and remove from the hot burner (Don’t overcook).

Stir until the marshmallows are just melted. Add peanut (or almond) butter and return to the warm burner and stir until mixed. (You may need to turn the burner back to medium while stirring because the mixture needs to be almost too hot to handle so that it will partially melt the chocolate chips which are added later. Take the mixture back off the burner if it looks like it is about to boil. You don’t want it to boil again.)

Add this mixture to a large bowl with the oats in it. Stir until you can mix by hand. Having some oil or Crisco on your hands will help keep the mix from sticking to your hands. Divide the mixture in half and break off pieces from one half and press a Layer into the bottom of a greased, 9”x13” casserole dish. You can also use a silicone pie mat and roll out each half of the mixture and place it into a 9″x13″ layer.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the bottom layer. Break off pieces of the other half of the mix (or roll out the top layer) to cover the chocolate chips with this second layer. Press into the casserole dish to mash everything together. If the chocolate isn’t melting then you can put casserole dish into the oven or microwave to heat the ingredients, then press the layers together so the chips just start to melt.

Use a spatula to carefully pry loose an edge of the granola. Turn casserole dish upside down and the mix should slowly release the rest of the way. If you wait too long then the mix gets too cool and won’t release. Let cool for at least an hour after the mix is released from the casserole dish.

Cut into bars and wrap with plastic wrap. (I divide the 13″ side into 4 pieces and each 9″ tall piece into 5 bars for a total of 20 bars.) If you’re not going to eat them right away then freeze the bars.

Hint: Nestle chocolate chips take longer to firm up than Ghiradelli chips. Some kinds of Ghiradelli chips seem to have a lot of wax and are too hard.

Yield: 20@ (approximately) 3 ounce bars. Nutrition Information per bar with Peanut Butter, Based on 20 servings for the recipe.
·      Calories – 382
·      Sugars – 25g
·      Carb – 51g
·      Sodium – 73mg
·      Chol – 0mg
·      Fat – 17g
·      Protein – 8g
·      Fiber – 4g