‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond’s Granola Bars Are a Healthy Snack Idea
Ree Drummond makes an easy homemade granola bars recipe that gets an extra kick of sweetness after they’re dipped in chocolate. The Pioneer Woman star’s bars are a perfect snack for the family, loaded with healthy oats and nuts.
Ree Drummond makes easy granola bars
Drummond demonstrated how to make her granola bars recipe on an episode of The Pioneer Woman. “I’m whipping up some chocolate-dipped granola bars,” she explained. “I love homemade granola bars and dipping them in chocolate is an extra bonus.”
She combined rolled oats, canola oil, melted butter, and salt in a bowl, using her hands to toss and coat everything. Drummond toasted the mixture by spreading it out in a thin single layer on two baking sheets and baking in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
“I’ll shake them a couple of times while they’re toasting to make sure they don’t burn,” she said.
While the oat mixture was toasting, Drummond started to prepare “the sticky, sweet liquid mixture.” She combined brown sugar, honey, molasses, and apple juice in a pan and brought it almost to a boil. Drummond added vanilla then turned off the heat.
The Pioneer Woman star removed the oats from the oven. “If you don’t toast the oats, the top of the granola bars will toast but the inside won’t have that rich, deep flavor,” she noted. Drummond poured the oats into a bowl and added finely chopped pecans, roughly chopped almonds, rice cereal, and wheat germ, then tossed everything together.
“And now for the fun part,” she said. Drummond poured the “sticky, gooey liquid” over the oats, stirring to coat the oats completely.
‘The Pioneer Woman’ star shared an easy hack for the granola bars
Drummond spread the mixture onto a foil-lined baking sheet she sprayed with baking spray. “The granola bars are incredibly sticky so if you don’t spray the foil, the foil’s gonna stick to the granola bars,” she explained of her easy hack. “And who needs that hassle?”
The Pioneer Woman star pressed the mixture into a flat layer and baked the granola in a 325 degree Fahrenheit oven for 25 minutes. After baking, she allowed the granola bars to cool before she cut them into rectangles.
Drummond dipped the bars in chocolate to add more flavor
Drummond melted chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water, then she dipped one side of the granola bars in it for more sweet flavor.
“I’m not totally submerging them in the chocolate,” she explained. “That would be way too decadent. This way it’s a pure, unadulterated granola bar on top and a sinful chocolatey granola bar on the bottom.”
She placed the bars, chocolate side down, on a parchment-lined sheet pan and allowed the chocolate to set. Her recipe recommends putting the bars in the refrigerator to speed up the process.
The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.
