With ingredients as beautiful as these, how can this recipe not be delicious?

I work with an amazing group of people, and I really enjoy baking things for particular coworkers as a token of my appreciation when they go above and beyond. Recently, two coworkers have demonstrated an amazing amount of patience and humor while helping me with a project, and I realized that my normal sugary baked goods weren’t going to cut it. These are two healthy guys who generally avoid sweets, so I decided to try my hand at energy bars!

The granola bars could not have come out better. They were actually really easy to bake and cut, though I would recommend doubling the recipe if you don’t think 16 bars will last long in your house. The only trouble I had was blender space – we had to chop things up in batches in the food processor. These are a lot of ingredients to blend!

Ingredients

1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup bran cereal
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup walnut pieces
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped stemmed dried figs
1/2 cup nonfat dry milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Place the oats, cereal, flour, walnuts, figs, dry milk, cinnamon and ginger in a food processor; coarsely chop.
3. Add the honey and eggs; pulse until well combined.
4. Transfer the mixture to the pan; spread evenly with your fingers.
5. Bake until lightly browned around the edges, about 20 minutes.
6. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then cut into 16 bars.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or wrap individually and freeze for up to 3 months.

Related Posts:

• Chai Cake with Honey Ginger Cream
• Chai Snickerdoodles
• Pumpkin Roll
• Pear and Earl Grey Tea Crumble Cake
• Pineapple Orange Ginger Cake

Tags: bran cereal, cinnamon, figs, ginger, honey, nonfat dry milk, oats, walnuts, whole wheat flour