Chewy Oat Almond Craisin Bars
I just got my dehydrator today, and was anxious to try a recipe. This snack is moist, sweet, chewy (depending on how long you dehydrate it and on what temperature),and can be all raw. After tasting the mixture, I put some aside to eat as porridge because it was so tasty. I am on a gluten-free diet and was told that John McCann’s oat groats are gluten free, so this made me happy!
water for soaking
2 cup oat groats, (this was the measurement after soaking, so I would imagine that it was 1 cup before
soaking)
Your favorite nut milk, enough to get ingredients moving in blender
Raw agave or maple syrup (sweeten to your liking)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon
vanilla extract or the inside of a vanilla bean
2 pinch sea salt
4 ounce (1/2 cup) raw almonds -more or less (to your liking), only soak them if you desire then chop them up and put to the side
4 ounce (1/2 cup) dried
cranberries or raisins
1. Cover oat groats with water and soak in a bowl for 6 hours.
2. After soaking oat groats, drain water, rinse groats with water, then drain in a colander.
3. Add half the groats to a blender, with enough nut milk to get contents moving.
4. Add cinnamon, salt, sweetener, and vanilla to mixture and blend until creamy (will be slightly chunky) Add nut milk as needed. Mixture should neither be runny nor too dry.
5. Add the rest of the oat groats and blend but allow mixture to remain chunky.
6. Transfer mixture to bowl and fold in dried fruit and nuts.
7. Spread mixture onto paraflex dehydrator sheets.
8. I put this in the dehydrator on 125 degrees for one hour, then I turned it down to 105 degrees and let it dehydrate for 12 hours. They taste great! Even my picky niece who turns up her nose at my health food likes them. I think they’ll taste even better after resting in the refrigerature.
This took too long to dehydrate, so next time, I will turn up the heat to the highest setting for the first hour or two. Then I will dehydrate on 110 degrees. Does anyone have any suggestions for temperature settings concerning oat groats?
I inverted my tray half-way through (took it out and put it in backwards) and also cut perforations in the granola when it solidified a bit so that it was easier to cut into bars later.
GOOD AS A COOKIE, GRANOLA, OR BREAKFAST PORRIDGE
NOTE: You can also shape these into rounds to make cookies, chewy or crispy, depending on dehydrating time and temperature. You can also bypass the dehydrator and eat as a breakfast porridge or, dehydrate until crispy (you’ll have to turn up the
temperature), break into bite-sized pieces and eat as granola or cereal with “milk”. I think that the syrupy sweeteners are what keep the granola moist. A dry sweetener such as organic cane sugar or Rapadura will probably allow it to dry crispier.
OTHER ADDITIONS TO TRY IN THE FUTURE: dried blueberries, chopped apples, shredded raw coconut or coconut oil to add the flavor, nutmeg, and/or vegan chocolate chips, over-ripe bananas pureed and blended with the oat groats (you will need less sweetener if you do this). Yum! Experiment! Enjoy!
4 reponses to "Chewy Oat Almond Craisin Bars"
1.
Thanks for your comment Alicia. I eat it for breakfast as well without the dehydrator. It's so filling...and yummy.
2.
I will def. make this once I stop being a penny pincher and shell out for a dehydrator. This sounds perfect for a breakfast on the go!
3.
Thanks super! It is delicious! I used to eat those Nature Valley granola bars with all that junky high fructose stuff until I found out they had wheat in them. Well THOSE have nothing on THESE! I was missing granola bars sooo much...then I was thinking of what I could make in my dehydrator and was inspired to create this recipe.Now I'm so happy.
4.
Sounds good!