Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Nutrigrain Bars!


So I ran out of energy bars, and didn't really have the funds to go buy more of them... so I decided to make some. I like nutrigrain bars, so I thought that might be a good start. I ended up using a muffin recipe for the bottom, jam in the middle, and an oatmeal cookie recipe on top. I wanted these to be relatively healthy, i.e. not all just sugar and butter, as good as that would taste. I did end up with a 27%, 66%, 8% fat, carb, protein ratio, which works pretty darn well for any pre- or during-workout food.
so:

The Bottom:
1/2C white flour
1/2C whole wheat flour
2 tbs granulated sugar
2 tbs brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4C milk
1 egg
1 tbs unsweetened yogurt
2 tbs oil (you could probably substitute one of these tablespoons for a tbs of yogurt, to make it 2tbs yogurt to 1 tbs oil)
1/2 tsp vanilla

For the Top:
1/4C butter (1/2 a stick)
1/4C brown sugar
1/4C whole wheat flour
1/4C white flour
3/4C oats (although next time I'll definitely add more)
2 tbs applesauce (You could try yogurt here instead if you wanted to increase the protein)

Middle: 1/2C of jam, whatever flavor you like. I like smucker's blackberry jam.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Make the bottom layer first. In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients. In a 2C measuring cup, mix together the wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry, stir until just mixed. If its not runny enough, add more milk. Grease a 9x9 inch pan, and pour the thinnest layer you can manage into the bottom of the pan. Bake until the top is just firm enough to spread jam on top.

Spread the jam on the muffin layer. Using your fingers, mush out chunks of the cookie dough into the thinnest layer possible and spread on top of the jam. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until done. I sprinkled mine with oats before baking, and that tasted good.

Repeat as many times as necessary to use up the rest of the batter and dough. Cool as long as you can (About 30 seconds in my case, because I want to eat them so badly). Cut into bars, and eat.

1 comment:

rhiannon said...

these sound amazing... the muffin bottom is exactly what my other experiments like this have been missing. thanks!