Allergy Free “Granola” Bar
Recipe type: Snack
Ingredients
- BASIC RICE BAR
- 2 cups (4 – 4 ½ cakes) plain rice cakes, broken up and toasted in pan on stovetop
- cup raw sunflower seeds, toasted
- 1 cup crushed cashew or almonds, toasted (or any nut you like and can tolerate)
- 1 cup cut up small pieces dried fruit. I use raisins, cranberries, dates, apricots, etc.
- cup sesame seeds, toasted
- If you want, and can tolerate, you can add up to ¾ cup of flaxseed meal, oat bran, soya grits, or some other “binder” type food.
- Butter that you can tolerate – I used Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread, soy free
- THE GLUE
- 1 cup rice syrup or corn syrup, both had satisfactory results.(Rice syrup makes a chewier bar, corn syrup makes a crunchier bar)
- 4 tablespoons butter that you can tolerate, (I used Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread, soy free)
- 1 tsp sea salt (optional)
- 2 tsp REAL (not imitation) gluten free vanilla (McCormick pure vanilla extract is gluten free)
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Generously butter a 9”x 13” pan. (I also buttered the outside bottom of a metal or glass 8”x8”pan to use for pressing). Put all items that need toasting in a large pan (I used my dutch oven) and toast (dry – use no oil or anything), stirring constantly to keep everything moving to prevent burning. When finished toasting, transfer to a large ovenproof bowl, place in warm (170◦) oven to keep warm. Make the ‘glue’ in same, washed dutch oven.
- Put all glue ingredients into a sauce pan over medium high heat, cook stirring constantly until the mixture boils and reaches 230˚ “soft ball” stage on a candy thermometer. Once glue has reached 230˚, turn off heat and quickly pour warmed rice bar ingredients into pan and stir like crazy with a large wooden spoon until all ingredients are covered. Quickly dump the ingredients into your prepared 13”x 9”pan. Then using the other pan (8”x8”) you prepared for pressing, PRESS, PRESS, PRESS with all your might, using the corner of the pan to help spread the hot mixture so it is evenly distributed. The ingredients in the pan should be about 50% less volume after pressing than when you started. Make sure there is enough mixture at the edges or they will crumble when you cut them. When you think you have pressed enough, press some more! Once you are satisfied you have compressed the ingredients enough, cut the bars to the size you want them (I cut them 1” x 4 ¼“). I found them easier to cut while warm. Do not saw back and forth with knife, instead cut straight down (I have a ‘sturdy’ long handled metal spatula that I use to cut straight down to desired size). When cool, wrap the bars individually in plastic wrap, waxed paper or parchment, tape and put in bag in fridge. Let come to room temp before eating or they will be crunchy, not chewy.
This recipe is developed by a family friend, Sue Pease. My mom worked on altering and tweaking it to make it safe for Landon. They can be a bit chewy, and we’ve experimented with using corn syrup in place of the rice syrup. Corn syrup makes them VERY crunchy. A 50/50 mix of corn and rice syrup was a little better but still very crunchy. I think next time we’ll do a 1/4 corn and 3/4 rice and see how that comes out.
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