Cranberry and Dark Chocolate Snack Bars

And so, as always with these things, quantities are just a guideline. Yes, often a batch follows a minor pantry clean out. Nothing better than getting that almost empty bag of dried cranberries out of the cupboard. So, if you don't have pumpkin seeds, fine - add more chocolate, or more dried cranberries, or add some real nuts.

 

Basic method and ratios for these bars come from the Oh She Glows cookbook.  I've adapted slightly to make them nut-free and added some chocolate. I have used WOWButter in place of natural nut butter. WOWbutter is a nut-free, peanut-butter substitute. Natural sunflower seed butter will work too, I just happen to have WOWbutter on hand. The kids like it best. The original recipe calls for brown rice syrup. Regular old corn syrup also works - you know the kind grandma used.  Be careful with other liquid sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, agave - they are not tacky enough.  I think corn syrup has gotten a bad rap - the stuff you buy at the supermarket is not the same as that toxic high-fructose variety. And actually, it's fairly harmless as far as sugars go.  Of course, that is my opinion.  Just stick to something very, very sticky.

 

 

Since the syrup and WOWbutter are heated together don't add the chocolate chips until the very end. Add the syrup mixture to the oats and seed mixture first and combine well before adding in the chocolate chips, heat from the syrup mixture will melt the chocolate. I'm sure they will still taste good though. So get the oats and seeds all mixed well and coated well, by then the syrup mixture will have cooled enough that you can throw in the chocolate chips without them melting into little chocolate puddles. It's an aesthetics thing.