The Granola Bar expriment - trial 1

After reading a Globe & Mail article questioning the nutritious quality of most granola bars, the general consensus in my house was that they were no better (sugar content wise) than chocolate bars. Big shocker! This just goes to show how much advertising can change our view of a product. I can also think of McDonald's recent restaurant renovations, trying to revamp it's image from a gross, dirty fast-food place, into a stylish and child-friendly restaurant.

Anyway, I'm not going to go into a hate fest about advertising! But this granola bar issue has inspired an experiment of mine. How to make a not-so-sweet granola bar? Or maybe, how to make your own granola bar? By making your granola bar, you can customize to your heart's content. Plus it's way cheaper than buying them.

So here is trial #1, a recipe from the heart and stroke foundation called Protein Bars.

They are more like squares than bars. They aren't really as hard as granola bars should be. But they are nutritious, I'll give them that! The recipe has no added oil other than that from the peanut butter and the nuts in the musli. There is only 1/4 cup of sugar, plus the dried cranberries and raisins. It's also got some tofu, non-fat yogurt, 1 whole egg and 1 egg white, how's that for protein!

Now that I think about it, perhaps the musli I bought wasn't chunky enough, which is why it absorbed the liquid and became mush. It doesn't help that I forgot to add the peanut butter once it was ready to cook. I had to put it back in the bowl and mix the PB in vigorously. Indeed, that can't have helped...

Regardless! I don't like it! I've realised there's no way out for the granola bar, it needs to have sugar as a binder. It's the only thing which will give the granola the perfect texture.

But I haven't given up yet, this was only the first trial.