¾ to 1 cup granulated sugar (depending on your desired sweetness - I used 1 cup)
⅔ cup oat flour (I processed ⅔ cup of rolled oats in food processor until flour-like)
½-1 teaspoon cinnamon, depending on your preferences
4 cups of mix-ins (I used 1½ cups of walnuts, ½ cup of dried blueberries, 1¼ cup dried cranberries, ½ cup of dried cherries, and ¼ cup ground flax seeds)
¼ cup peanut butter or almond butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick of salted butter, melted (8 tablespoons) (I use higher fat European-style butter)
¼ cup honey
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons water
Instructions
preheat the oven to 350 F.
line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper, leaving enough overhang on the long sides to easily lift the bars from the pan
lightly spray the paper and exposed shorter edges of the pan with baking spray
make your ground oats: pulse the ⅔ cup into flour and remove to a bowl; pulse the 3⅓ cups until the oats are broken down into quick oat lookalikes with some floury binding. Don't go crazy and make more flour, but don't be scared to really break down the oats. This is what allows the bars to bind together.
I also pulsed my mix-ins at this stage because I am lazy and didn't want to chop them.
stir together the oats, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and mix-ins in a large bowl.
in a medium bowl, stir together the nut butter, vanilla, melted butter, honey, corn syrup, and water until smooth.
mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients until all dry ingredients are coated.
spread into the prepared pan, and firmly press down the granola with the bottom of a glass (see pictures). this is also very important for chewy cohesiveness - don't skip! I start at one corner of the pan and press in rows across the short length of the pan until the whole tray looks evenly distributed and firm.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, checking at 30 to asses the brown edges. If the edges look golden brown, they're done.
cool the bars in their pan on the rack. after a few hours, I lifted the bars in their parchment sling out of the pan and allowed them to finish cooling on the rack until completely cool.
chill bars for further 30 minutes in the fridge. (this helps them to stay together when sliced)
when bars are chilled, remove to a cutting board and slice into preferred shapes. (I sliced down the middle from short end to short end, then divided each long slab into 8 rectangular bars.)
wrap bars individually in plastic wrap, and store in ziplock bag.
bars will keep for a week out of the fridge in a cool house, for 2 weeks in the fridge, and they also freeze really nicely.
Recipe by The Bright Kitchen at https://www.thebrightkitchen.com/solidarity-granola-bars/