Soft Buckwheat Granola Bars

It's time for a recipe using buckwheat. If you missed last weeks post on buckwheat, you can check it out here: Great Grains: Buckwheat

There are tons of great granola recipes out there that use buckwheat. And why not? It makes a crunchy delicious addition and it's healthy. Granola was definitely on my mind, but I thought it would be fun to try something a little different and create a recipe for a good soft, chewy granola bar instead. I'm not very fond of certain store bought bars that are so called 'healthy' when they have something like a bucket of sugar in them. Yik!

These buckwheat granola bars are thick and soft, unlike some bars that are hard and hurt your teeth to chew. I much prefer soft bars that are fabulously dense. Think larabars + Cliff Bars. They are sweetened with local Dickey Bee honey and juicy raisins. The addition of buckwheat groats add a nice little crunch to the texture too.

The nice thing about this recipe is that the ingredients are flexible. For example, you can substitute maple syrup for honey if you wish. If you don't like peanut butter *gasp* you can use any nut butter you like, including sun butter. If you're sensitive to gluten and wheat be sure to use certified gluten free oats.

Who doesn't love a good pick me up snack in the middle of the day. Something to get you from lunch to dinner. These will surely keep you energized. They're the perfect grab-and-go snack.

Soft Buckwheat Granola Bars{Gluten Free & Vegetarian}

(makes 9 - 2" x 2" squares)

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Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 2/3 cup buckwheat flour (ground from raw buckwheat groats. Not kasha.)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp natural peanut butter (135 grams)
• 2 tbsp coconut butter
• 2 tbsp water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Line an 8" x 8" baking pan with parchment paper. Allow the parchment to drape over either side of the pan for easy lifting.
2. First, use a food processor (or coffee grinder) to grind the raw buckwheat groats into flour.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together all dry ingredients excluding the raisins.
4. Warm the honey, peanut butter, and coconut butter in a small saucepan on medium heat, stirring until smooth and melty. Remove from heat. Stir into the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Stir in raisins.
6. Press firmly into prepared pan.
7. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool the bars cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then place the pan in the fridge to let them set and finish cooling.
8. Cut into bars. Store them at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap individually for grab-and-go convenience.

Related Buckwheat recipes:

Choc-a-lot Chip Cookies

What's your favourite type of granola bar? Soft or hard?

Banana Breakfast Bread

Good morning everyone!

TGIF!!! Don't you just love that feeling when the weekend is right around the corner? I do.

I start thinking about those fabulous lazy mornings that I don't have to wake up early. I love mornings when I don't have to rush around. You also have more time to make things like this...

A warm slice of banana bread is a great way to change up your breakfast routine. The same old thing day-in and day-out gets dreary after awhile. Sort of like the weather. I saw a glimpse of sunshine today, the first in a week and that was between the persistent snow squalls. If you're Canadian then you know what I'm talking about. One minute the sun is shining brightly and the next thing you know there's a blizzard outside your window. Yeesh! It doesn't make for a fun drive, but does make for some pretty sweet snowboarding conditions, which is what I really wish I could be doing this weekend.

I have to say as much as I love winter and being Canadian, I still love warm temperatures more. It's only January and I think I'm already in need of a break from this weather. So I'm glad to say that instead of letting it drive me to drink..eek!.. it drove me to the kitchen.

This is a reasonably healthy quick bread that I slightly adapted from the Eat Clean Diet Cookbook. It's got heart healthy flaxseed (nearly a whole cup), and only half a cup of sucanat, which is an unrefined dark brown sugar that retains it's molasses content and is basically pure dried sugar cane juice. It's also sourced from Costa Rica quite possibly one of my favourite places in the world right now. Le sigh.

It's also partly sweetend with the help of apple butter and is full of fibre.

Spread some pure Canadian maple butter on a slice for your breakfast, make a fresh pot of tea or coffee, sit back and watch the snow fly because it ain't going nowhere to soon.

Banana Breakfast Bread (makes 1 loaf)

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 medium-sized bananas)
• 1/2 cup sucanat or other unrefined sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup apple butter
• 3 egg whites
• 1 whole egg
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour or red fife flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F.
2. Grease a loaf pan and if desired line with parchment paper so that it hangs over the two long sides.
3. In a large bowl, combine banana, sucanat, vanilla, and apple butter. Add eggs one at a time and beat together until smooth.
4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and powder, ground flaxseed, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and fold together with a spatula until completely incorporated.
6. Pour batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted into middle of the bread comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

One thing is for sure: breakfast will not stand to be dull and dreary.