Homemade Granola Bars

I've had the pleasure of giving away some awesome gift baskets filled with spa goodies and Chex Mix bars over the past few weeks. In the comments, one question has popped up a few times now:

Will I share my homemade granola bar recipe?

You betcha. But first, let me just tell you this: It contains corn syrup. I know some of you choose to avoid that. Personally, I still use it in some candies and baked goods. I'm sure there are great recipes that do NOT use corn syrup but, well, mine does. As long as you're still on board with me, here you go:

Chewy Granola Bars

Ingredients

3 cups oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda (+ 1/4 tsp salt - optional, but I think it adds something!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup butter (softened to almost-melted)
1/2 cup lite corn syrup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or any flavor chips, or M & M minis, or dried fruit, or nuts, raisins, you name it, the list goes on... we LOVE M & M's dark chocolate with dried berries!)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle corn syrup and softened butter over the top and stir until crumbly. Add chocolate chips or other fillers and mix. Press into pan with your fingers and bake for about 20 minutes.

I make these in a 9 x 13" pan sprayed with cooking spray. After they cool for about a half hour, I cut them in three WIDE rows across and then cut six columns lengthwise. I wrap each of the 18 resulting bars individually in narrow pieces of saran wrap. I try to save these pieces of plastic wrap to reuse; they don't get particularly sticky or dirty. This way they're handy to toss in a diaper bag or grab on the go!

Check out Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes for more recipes and ideas.