Sunday, April 06, 2014

Snickerdoodle Granola Bars, Gluten Free—Secret Recipe Club

Snickerdoodle Granola Bars, Gluten Free

Gluten Free Snickerdoodle Granola BarsT

These are sure tasty!  I know they look kind of plain and boring, but I assure you, there is some great flavor there!  Do you like Snickerdoodles, those cinnamony, chewy cookies?  These taste like those cookies, but in no bake granola bar form.  And of course, I made them gluten free with gluten free oats and a glluten free flour blend and used raw honey and organic sugar.  I decided to splurge a little on the sugar, I consider organic cane sugar not to be a 100% natural, unrefined sugar, but sometimes I use it—so sue me. ;  )  I also don’t use butter much anymore as I’ve been using coconut oil for the most part, but these called for butter and I decided to splurge there, too, and use real butter.  Mmm, I thought the butter flavor came through nicely with these.

Hey, I found these bars over at my Secret Recipe Club blog assignment for this month.  I really enjoyed Aimee’s blog, See Aimee Cook.  New to me, but I sure spent a lot of time there.  I had the hardest time deciding what to make.  Check out Aimee’s awesome Recipe Index.  I love that she posts weekly menus and browsing through some of those I wanted to make everything I saw.  Let me correct that, I wanted Aimee to cook everything I saw for me.  There is a lot of good stuff there.

Snickerdoodle Granola Bars

These are making for a great little snack for me the last couple days.  I have this silly little trick—when my boys ask what certain things are, I tell them they are gluten free or sugar free and they cringe their noses and won’t even try most things.  Little do they know, they taste great and they’d never know if I didn’t tell them.  Makes them all for me that way and they last a lot longer, too.  Hehe

Snickerdoodle Granola Bars, Gluten Free, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Aimee at See Aimee Cook

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup (168 grams) raw honey

1/4 cup (35 grams, not packed) organic light brown sugar

1/4 cup (45 grams) organic pure cane sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3  1/2 cups (315 grams) gluten free quick cooking oats

3/4 cup gluten free blend flour (I used Premium Gold Ancient Grains blend)

Line a 9 inch square pan with nonstick foil, enough to use the edges to remove the bars easily from the pan.  Spread a light coating of butter or coconut oil over the foil. 

In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, honey, brown sugar, and sugar until melted and smooth.  Let it come to a boil for 3 minutes.  Don’t let it boil to fast and high, if it is, turn the heat down slightly.  Remove from heat and add the vanilla, cinnamon, salt and cream of tartar.  Stir to combine.  Add the oats and stir well.  Add the flour a little at a time until well combined.  Spread the mixture evenly in the pan.  Press it down firmly (I like to use a potato masher for even pressing.)  Refrigerate for about 2 hours until bars are set.  Lift them out of the pan using the foil edges.  Cut into desired sized bars on a cutting board.  Store in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature or for a month in the refrigerator.  They also freeze well.

Gluten Free Snickerdoodle Granola Bars 2

These are perfectly soft and chewy at room temperature and obviously more firm out of the fridge.  They wouldn’t take long to come to room temperature, but after enjoying them room temperature for a few days, I have the rest stored in the fridge.  They have great cinnamon flavor and the butter really comes through.  I actually thought they’d be a little greasy, but they are not.  Great job on these Snickerdoodle Granola Bars, Aimee.  I’m totally thinking I’ll trick the boys and make other flavors of these.  We buy a lot of granola bars around here and I’d love to make them instead!

The night I made these, I decided to make this Blackened Chicken and Cilantro Lime Quinoa for dinner.  Course, I had to make it for the boys with rice and let them put it all in a flour tortilla like a burrito, blah, blah.  If I’d have just made quinoa with chicken, they probably would have all complained.  Whatever.  It worked just fine for me to make cilantro lime rice and some cilantro lime quinoa.  I followed Aimee’s recipe pretty much exactly.  I just didn’t make as much rice or quinoa so we wouldn’t have a huge abundance.  It worked perfectly.  I love quinoa and this was a great meal!

Blackened Chicken with Cilantro Lime Rice and Avocado Sauce 4-2-14

Check out Aimee’s blog, See Aimee Cook and all the other goodness from the Secret Recipe Club!

 

 

16 comments:

Lisa said...

I go through a lot of storebought granola bars too since I take them to work with me. Looks like I'm going to have to start being like you and making my own, especially snickerdoodle ones. Your boys do not know what they're missing.

Jessie Weaver said...

Those look so delicious! I think my kids would love them, and I would too. We might make a batch today.

Lesa @ Edesias Notebook said...

Yummy bars, Katrina! And that chicken and quinoa dish looks amazing! Popped over to Aimee's blog to pin that one.

bcmomtoo said...

I am going to have to try those granola bars. They sound so good - and they do too look pretty!

I pinned the chicken and quinoa recipe from Aimee's blog, too. It looks so good!

Renee Paj said...

Those bars look pretty darn good to me!! and so does the chicken!

Kate | Food Babbles said...

Both these recipes sound fantastic! I'm a sucker for anything cinnamon so those granola bars are calling my name.

Shelby said...

Whoa! Katrina made something not sweet! ;) Everything looks and sounds amazing (as ALWAYS).

Tara said...

Yum! Visiting from Group D. Love anything with cinnamon. Will definitely try these.

LeAndra said...

Snickerdoodle anything is a win in my book. The quinoa sounds delicious too. I love cilantro lime rice, but I never thought about adapting it to quinoa.

Veronica Miller said...

They don't look boring at all - they are so appealing and your photos are great! You are so tricksy being sure to tell your kiddos about them being gluten-free! Cracks me up!

Unknown said...

These don't look boring at all - they look absolutely delicious! Great pick!

Baking Ribbons said...

The photo of these bars makes my mouth water! Gluten free is not boring anymore!!

Flourchild said...

These look so good! You are such a good baker!

Flourchild said...

These look so good! You are such a good baker!

Flourchild said...

These look so good! You are such a good baker!

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Those are the best looking homemade granola bars I've seen! I'd keep them my little secret, too :) And as a quinoa fan, I'm always looking for new recipes. You got a great blog this month for the SRC!