Granola bars

I'm a big fan of granola and granola bars.

Especially at 3 in the afternoon, when it's too early for dinner and too late for lunch. In Britain, they call it teatime.

So when I saw that Smitten Kitchen had posted a recipe for thick, chewy granola bars, I couldn't wait to give them a shot.

I changed a few things in the recipe. The only nuts my family agreed to eat was almonds, so I only used those. And I didn't use corn syrup (Me at the store: "Three and a half bucks? Screw that!"). Instead I made the same amount of liquid sweetener by using 4 parts sugar to 1 part water, cooking it down into a syrup, then melting the butter into it. Then this wonderful toffee-like mixture is what got tossed into my dry ingredients.

I also split my recipe. In one batch I omitted raisins and replaced them with chocolate chips.



Mmm, sweet chocolatey goodness.

And now with the fruit:



So pretty. And blurry, because I took the picture in my dark kitchen.

I've been eating them like crazy since I made them. They aren't long for this world, I assure you. Go make them right now!