This was literally a clean out the pantry recipe. I had about a handful of peanuts, some miniature boxes of granola, and a cup of white chips, all of which needed to be used and all of which could be found in this one, easy, bar cookie.
Adapted from a book I bought years ago called America's Top Recipes, Over 200 Contest Favorites, this was a winner in the "Kid Pleaser" division, and the credit goes to G. Berry. It's pretty innovative, and there's no flour in the recipe so if you use gluten free granola, I suppose it's gluten free. But I was really just going for something rich, sweet, salty and peanut butter flavored.
The photo shows bars, but after I took it I decided to cut the bars into squares. Also, for the granola I used a type that's fairly loose and comes in small clumps.
You'll probably get a slightly different flavor and texture if you use a different brand, but I'm sure any brand will work.
Recipe
Sweet & Salty Peanut Bars
Ingredients
- ¼ cup salted peanuts
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
- 4 tablespoons unsalted or salted butter
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- ½ cup oats
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons granola
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 inch square metal pan with foil and spray foil with cooking spray.
- In a food processor, pulse the peanuts to chop. Add the white chips and pulse them with the peanuts. Set the mixture aside.
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the corn syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, peanut butter, oats and granola, then stir in the peanut/white chip mixture, stirring just until chips begin to melt. Pour the mixture in the pan and press down with the back of a spatula. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool, then transfer to the refrigerator. Chill for about an hour, then lift from the pan and cut into 8 or 16 bars.
Anna says
Ha! That's so funny that you made them out of scraps as well.
Katherine says
Coincidently, upon reading this post I realized I had all these leftovers. Half a bag of white chocolate chips, small bag of peanuts from a golf outing, sample size box of dark chocolate and almond granola... put it all together and viola a great bar! I threw in some coconut too. Yum!
Adam says
Okay, these bars look way too perfect :)... waaaaaayyyyyy... that doesn't seem fair for "leftovers" :).