Homemade Chewy Granola Bars

Time for another breakfast recipe. But this time, its wholesome breakfast on the go. These homemade nutrition bars are perfect to start your day or as an anytime snack. It has whole grains, nuts and fruits. The best part about making it is, you get to pick your choice of fruits and nuts.

Ingredients:
Old Fashioned Oats - 1 cup
Rice Cereal - 1/2 cup
Dry Cranberries - 1 cup
Almonds/Badam - 1/2 cup
Cashews/Kaju - 1/2 cup
Dry Coconut - 1/2 cup
Sesame Seeds/Til - 2 tbsp
Light Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup
Apricot Preserves - 1/2 cup (optional)
Unsalted Butter - 6 tbsp
Vanilla Extract - 3 tsp
Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 4 pods
Salt - 1/2 tsp

How to make Granola Bars:

• Heat a pan and roast oats at low heat for 3 - 4 minutes. Let it cool.
• Roughly chop cranberries. You can use any other dry fruits like cherries, figs, dates and so on.
• In a food processor, chop almonds and cashews. Make sure there are some chunks of nuts left. Pick any other nuts like walnuts, pecans, pistachios for this bar.

• Now blend the roasted oats in the food processor. Blend it in such a way that some oats are left whole.
• In a mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients - oats, rice cereal, chopped cranberries, almonds, cashews and sesame seeds.
• Crush the cardamom seeds in a mortar pestle to a fine powder. You can use ground cinnamon/dalchini and nutmeg/jaiphal as well.
• Line a baking dish with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper with cooking spray or butter.
• For the sugar syrup, heat a thick bottom sauce pan. Add 1/4 cup water, light brown sugar, apricot preserves, butter, vanilla extract, salt and cardamom powder. Keep stirring until apricot preserve is completely dissolved. When the sugar syrup starts bubbling, lower the heat. Continue cooking until sugar syrup turns sticky. Touch the syrup and check if it sticks to your fingers. Overcooking the syrup will make the bars hard.
• If you like your bars less sweet, just 1/2 cup sugar will be sufficient. Instead of apricot preserve, you can use any other fruit jelly, jam or preserve.
• Turn off the heat and add the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add this hot granola mix to the baking dish and spread it evenly while its hot. Refrigerate it for about an hour or so. Cut out pieces and wrap each piece in plastic food wrap. Keep the bars refrigerated.

Enjoy!