Chewiest Granola Bars

After finding this recipe on Pinterest (follow me!), I will never buy the bars in the store again. These were far too easy to make, and taste better and fresher than anything in the store. Plus, I know what's in these, and it's not glycerin, artificial flavors and preservatives. It's all stuff I happily store in my pantry. Hubby, kiddo and I all love them! I'll be making these weekly.

Chewiest Granola Bars

1/4 cup butter
3 Tbsp honey
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mini chocolate chips

Melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium heat until it boiling. Reduce heat and cook 2 minutes. Add vanilla and stir.

While melting, stir oats and rice cereal together in a large bowl.

Add liquid to dry ingredients and mix well to moisten.

Pour into small non-stick jelly roll pan (about 12x8x1) and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. If you don't have a small enough pan, mold the mixture to one side, pressing at all angles to ensure compaction.

Press in mini chocolate chips.

Cool on a countertop at room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars.

Wrap in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Adapted from this recipe.

Banana Bread (aka Thank you, Facebook!)

I recently posed a question to my Facebook friends: How the heck do you get banana bread out of the pan without falling apart? I felt like I'd tried everything, but I still lost half of the bread to crumbs. What was I doing wrong?

I got lots of answers, the pan material, pan shape, recipe, lining of the pan or coating, etc. This week, I decided to try them all.

And guess what? It worked. Yes, the angels sang and the heavens shined upon me as this beautiful banana bread loaf slid out of the pan. Glory be.

To recap, I had been using:

•  an old Food Network Magazine recipe
• a glass pan with round corners
• butter
• waiting either really long, or really short to remove from the pan

 When I tried it this time, I used:

• Alton Brown's banana bread recipe (below)
• a metal, non-stick pan with straight sides and crisp corners
• PAM with flour
• wait exactly 10 minutes

It was just amazing, after so many wasted loafs and frustrating baking times, it worked! I'd made a beautiful bread, that didn't sink, that didn't crumble and that tasted fabulous. I was so pleased. I'll be using this recipe from here on out, for sure!

Banana Bread (Alton Brown for Food Network)

1 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with PAM and flour.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.