My husband and son eat a granola bar for breakfast almost daily, and while I’m always stocked on the store bought ones, sometimes I like to make them from scratch. It’s an easy process — very kid-helping-friendly, too. And it takes an hour at most from start to finish (including 25 minutes bake time)
The variations on these are endless. I actually made 3 different flavors in this batch, 1 Chocolate Chip, 1 White Chocolate, and 1 Ginger/White Chocolate, but the ones that really popped were the Ginger & White Chocolate variation. The spicy candied ginger is a wonderful contrast to the sweet white chocolate. Recipe and step by step pics are below..

Granola loves snowy days!

I originally started making granola bars using Alton Brown’s recipe, which is excellent, but I now play around with different variations on the same theme.

Oven: 350F

Dry Ingredients:

If you have a kitchen scale, this is a simple recipe to measure out. Just put a big bowl on your scale, zero out your scale, and start putting ingredients in. Once you reach the weight, zero again and add the next ingredient. Otherwise you get a bunch of bowls/measuring cups dirty. In case you don’t have a kitchen scale, I’ve included approximations by volume.

6 1/2 ounces (by weight) coursely chopped mixed nuts (1.5 c)
8 oz (2.5 c) Rolled Oats
1.5-2 oz (1/2 c) wheat germ

Spread these on a cookie sheet and place in 350 oven for about 10 minutes, checking/stirring occasionally.
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While that’s roasting, prepare the binding liquid. (This part is directly from Alton’s recipe, I’ve found it to be very successful for making crunchy bars–I’m still looking for the perfect combination for a chewy result.)
Put your saucepan on the scale, and measure these items into it.
6oz honey (~1/2c)
1 3/4 c brown sugar (~1/4 c packed)
1 oz (1 Tbsp) Butter
1/2 teas kosher salt
2 Teas Vanilla

Heat over medium heat, stirring, until all the sugar is melted.
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Remove your dry ingredients from the oven and stir into your wet.

Gently toss with your addins (if you want your chips to stay chip-like!) The chips will start to melt.
Press into a greased pan (I used an 8×11).
(If you’re doing multiple addin mixtures, separate with parchment paper)

Bake in 300F oven for ~25 min
Remove, let cool thoroughly. Slice and store in an airtight container, or individual wrapped in foil.

Final mix-ins: (approximate)
For a whole pan of Ginger White Chocolate:
6 oz Chopped candied ginger
4-5 oz White Chocolate chips

For mine (3 flavors) I did:
-1/3 of the pan with 3 oz candied ginger/1.5 oz white chocolate
-1/3 with 1.5 ounces white chocolate
-1/3 with 2 + oz. mini chocolate chips
(Separate your sections with parchment paper.)

Hope you enjoy this! The possibilities are limited only by what’s in your pantry, and your imagination…