Coconut Almond Granola Bar Awesomeness
1 cup nuts, blended to powder (I used almonds)
1 cup oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 whole coconut, shredded (~2 cups)
1 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup soymilk
1 teaspoon almond extract
Combine the nut powder, oats, coconut, wheat germ, salt and sugar.
Combine the soymilk and almond extract and add to the dry ingredients.
Mix thoroughly, and firmly press onto a greased cookie sheet (if you don't press it down, they will just fall apart and turn into granola).
Cook at 350F for ~25 mins then raise temp to 450F for another 10-20 mins or until golden. Let cool completely, cut into bars and enjoy!
Notes:
I greased my cookie sheet with virgin coconut oil cuz it's so yummy, but you can use canola or margarine etc.. just try to avoid olive oil cuz it will give the bars a strange taste..
Also, a mix of almond, pistachio, cashew and macadamia nuts is super delicious too (although very expensive hehe ;) ).
The nuts give a lot of protein, the coconut gives a bunch of medium chain tri-glycerides, the type of fat that’s really good for you and your metabolism, and the oats and wheat germ give you fiber. Overall, these are my favorite energy/granola bars ever. They taste so good and are so good for you.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
I recently found gluten free oats in the states and was sooooo excited to try this out because granola has always been my favorite!! I used bagged unsweetened coconut shreds, pecans instead of almonds and vanilla instead of almond extract (almond allergy >:-( ) 1/3 cup agave nectar 1/3 cup xylitol crystals and 1/4 cup finely chopped/smashed dried white raisins instead of sugar, flax instead of wheat germ and used parchment paper to line. omg YUM! I think I am now happy with snack-life again. THANK YOU!
These taste so delicious, but I had such a hard time getting them off the cookie sheet. I oiled it with virgin coconut oil as suggested (because it is incredibly yummy!) really well but they still stuck. Thank you very much to hiimkelsi, for the double boiling idea, otherwise I would have driven myself nuts and destroyed many utensils.
This might have something to do with me overcooking them for a couple minutes, and also that I used packaged coconut. My problem is that fresh coconut is expensive here (I live in the desert and fresh fruit is hard to come by, especially exotic fruits), and I don't think I've even seen an organic coconut, although I've never really looked.
So, my question is to any one who has made these successfully, what can I do to ensure these don't stick again, besides using fresh coconut (which isn't really an option for me) or parchment paper? I swore I oiled the sheet really well.
breaking coconuts open is so fun :D.. you can be all fancy and hit it around the circumference with the back of a knife to pop it open in half.. or do what i do and go outside and throw it against the ground and hard as you can.. hehe.. it explodes into like 5 pieces that are really easy to get the flesh out of.. btw you want the fuzzy brown coconut.. the white ones are young coconuts and are really just for drinking and scooping out the gooey flesh..
but once the coconut is broken into pieces, take a butter knife and try to get it in between the shell and the white part of the coconut.. if you do it just right, working it back and forth, the meat will pop out.. it will have a brown skin on it, but thats ok to eat.. then just take all the meat and shred it and use it for the bars :)
it is quite labor intensive but man fresh coconut is good..
Thanks so much for the coconut tips, oktokrewl. I look forward to trying this out.
breaking coconuts open is so fun :D.. you can be all fancy and hit it around the circumference with the back of a knife to pop it open in half.. or do what i do and go outside and throw it against the ground and hard as you can.. hehe.. it explodes into like 5 pieces that are really easy to get the flesh out of.. btw you want the fuzzy brown coconut.. the white ones are young coconuts and are really just for drinking and scooping out the gooey flesh..
but once the coconut is broken into pieces, take a butter knife and try to get it in between the shell and the white part of the coconut.. if you do it just right, working it back and forth, the meat will pop out.. it will have a brown skin on it, but thats ok to eat.. then just take all the meat and shred it and use it for the bars :)
it is quite labor intensive but man fresh coconut is good..
I want to make these sometime, but I have coconut questions. Exactly what kind of coconut should I use? I've never worked with fresh coconut before. I know the grocery store produce section has the brown fuzzy ones, as well as the young white ones. What is the best way to go about cutting into one of these wthout losing a finger? I'd appreciate responses from anyone who's made these. Thanks. They sound so delicious!
willwolf. i just used bagged coconut, or raw sliced coconut from bulk, not sure which one. but anyways. it worked well. but if you want fresh coconut. i dont know how to go about that sorry!
Thanks for responding. I do have some unsweetened shredded coconut, but I was hoping to try out the fresh coconut in this recipe. If anyone else has tips on what kind of coconut to buy and how to go about cutting, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
I want to make these sometime, but I have coconut questions. Exactly what kind of coconut should I use? I've never worked with fresh coconut before. I know the grocery store produce section has the brown fuzzy ones, as well as the young white ones. What is the best way to go about cutting into one of these wthout losing a finger? I'd appreciate responses from anyone who's made these. Thanks. They sound so delicious!
willwolf. i just used bagged coconut, or raw sliced coconut from bulk, not sure which one. but anyways. it worked well. but if you want fresh coconut. i dont know how to go about that sorry!
Just finished making these and they are pretty awesome. I didn't have wheat germ so I used ground flax instead.
I want to make these sometime, but I have coconut questions. Exactly what kind of coconut should I use? I've never worked with fresh coconut before. I know the grocery store produce section has the brown fuzzy ones, as well as the young white ones. What is the best way to go about cutting into one of these wthout losing a finger? I'd appreciate responses from anyone who's made these. Thanks. They sound so delicious!
these taste soo good! mine got stuck to the pan, (i used a casserole dish, added extra coconut and didnt grease it very thuroughly). they were so stuck that it broke a serated knife (still havent found the broken off part), bent a butter knife and bent a metal spatula. i finally tried double boiling it, it layed the casserole dish in a pan of boiling water for a couple minutes, took it out, and the bars came out perfectly!!! it was amazing. PHEW! i would have been so sad to see all that delish food go to waste because i didnt use parchment paper or grease it well enough.
so ANYWAYS. if your bars get stuck. just double boil them.
These are awesome! Instead of 1 c. sugar, I used 1/3 c. brown sugar, 1/3 c. agave, and 1/3 cup chopped dried apriocts. I also added a little bit of peanut butter. They held together wonderfully and kept great in my backpack all weekend. Best "granola" bars I ever made, hands down.
Pages