Sweet and Salty Trail Mix Bars

I found this recipe in All You (Jan 21, 2011)(which is my Dad's birthday), which is a magazine my mom occasionally buys and then gives to me. Mostly I like it for the coupons. There are a LOT of coupons in those magazines. But sometimes there's a recipe in there too. I wanted to try it, because, as you know if you have been reading for a while, I am on a quest to make a better granola bar that my children will like. I want them to forget all about the Quaker granola bar man. It is a tall order. Sam and Emma really like the ones I have been making. But, they have butter, syrup, brown sugar, and peanut butter in them. If I used real maple syrup I bet I wouldn't care as much, but that is one thing I can't make the switch to. I don't like how it sinks into pancakes so fast. I don't like that you have to keep it in the fridge and sometimes skim mold off the top (if the directions on the container are any indication--why else would they tell you to just skim it off, unless mold sometimes grew there?). I know that the fake stuff is so so bad. Only basically corn syrup and maple flavor. But I can't switch. Oh and also the real stuff costs approximately 50 times more. So since I cannot (okay--will not) replace it, the best I can do is minimize its use, and only use it when we are eating breakfast for supper, like pancakes or french toast or waffles or whatever. All that to say: this is why I wanted to try this recipe, because it has honey instead. Also Nathan does not like the granola bars I usually make. Once I stopped buying bread and started making my own exclusively, he wouldn't eat a sandwich for like a year. So it takes the kid a long time to come around. He watched me make these and knows they started with pretzels, so maybe he will at least try. He told me today that in the morning he will try a small bite. I did make a few modifications to this recipe...

Sweet and Salty Trail Mix Bars
1 1/2 cups salted pretzel twists, broken into small pieces
2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup raisins or dried cranberries (I used 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup of this fruit blend I had a coupon for, which was dried berries and apples)
1 cup sunflower seeds
4 tbsp unsalted butter (I never have unsalted butter, so I just used salted butter)
3/4 cup peanut butter, preferably natural (phew. I have natural)
1/2 cup brown sugar (still bad....)
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt (I left this out since I used salted butter)

Preheat oven to 350; butter an 11x7 baking dish. In a large bowl, combine pretzels, oats, raisins, and sunflower seeds.

Melt butter in small saucepan (not too small) over medium-high heat. Add peanut butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla, flour, and salt; stir until smooth.

Pour butter mixture into pretzel mixture and stir quickly to thoroughly coat. Transfer mixture to prepared pan and use your hands to press in firmly and evenly. Bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack before cutting into bars.

Okay here's what I did differently, besides the butter & salt thing that I already explained. You do not have to bake my current usual granola bar recipe. Since many of the ingredients are the same in this recipe, I suspected I did not really have to bake this one, either. So I left out the flour, and then, once I poured the butter mixture over the pretzel mixture, I pressed it into the pan, which is a lovely Tupperware dish with a cover which I got for free when I hosted my Tupperware party last year (from my Tupperware lady, Becky Coffin). Then I put it into the fridge, which is where I keep the other granola bars I make too.

I put this under "cookies" for a label, even though it doesn't really apply...it was between that and "appetizers," so that seems more appropriate.

I'm posting this today, even though nobody will eat them until tonight or tomorrow, and once the kids try them (hopefully Nathan too) I will comment with their reactions...