Sourdough Granola Bars

Granola bars used to be my (Amelia’s) all time favorite food, but these days, I find them a little too stale and a little too sweet. I tried to solve this problem with homemade granola bars, but the recipes I’ve tried thus far have either been 1) too sweet, 2) complete structural disasters, or 3), both.

Just after I’d given up hope and wished my granola bar days goodbye, my Gia introduced us to sourdough granola bars. The idea enticed us and we knew we had to try them. To my delight, they were the granola bar I’d been looking for. They have a wonderful flavor and stick together easily. After some tweaking, we had a new favorite granola bar, perfect for after-school snacks.

Yes, you need a sourdough starter. But - the rest of the recipe is very simple, and we know many people have been experimenting with sourdough recently, so if there’s ever a time to use starter without much effort, this is it. Literally just mix everything together and bake it. I promise, you can do it.

Sourdough Granola Bars

• 1 cup whole pecans, toasted and cooled

• 2 cups rolled oats

• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds/pepitas

• 1/3 cup dried fruit (we especially like dried figs, cherries, and a few golden raisins)

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

• 1/3 cup maple syrup

• 1 cup sourdough starter

Take sourdough start out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking dish.

Toast the pecans (we do so at 350 in our toaster oven) in the oven for 7-10 minutes, until their color has deepened and they are fragrant. Set aside to cool.

Put oats, salt, pepitas, dried fruit, and chocolate chips in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Once the pecans have cooled, chop them and add them to the bowl (it’s important to give them time to cool, both to give the oils time to settle and to avoid melting the chocolate chips). Stir in the maple syrup and sourdough starter with a spatula until well combined (you might have to fight with the starter a little bit, but keep stirring and it will work out).

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool completely in pan (this is important for easy cutting), then transfer the bars to a cutting board and cut into desired sizes.

Chocolate-less: If you prefer a lighter snack, omit the chocolate chips and increase the dried fruit to 1/2 cup.

Millet: Add 1/3 cup millet to the dry ingredients, if you have it on hand.

Old-Fashioned Oatmeal

When I (Kate) first lived in Russia as a twenty-year old, I had an older roommate from the Ukraine who made us oatmeal every morning for breakfast. Ludmila Romanina was her name, and during the few months we lived together she took on oatmeal as a challenge. Had she lived in Brookline, Massachusetts during those early years of Cooks’ Illustrated magazine, I’m certain a symbiotic relationship would have flourished. As it was, she planted an understanding in my heart that oatmeal had considerable potential in terms of flavor and texture worth even more than its offering of sound nutrition.    

Amelia’s bowl

Preparing oatmeal is easy, but the many approaches out there can be misleading. Made with water as the only liquid, you deprive yourself of any creaminess. Using only milk, the resulting richness overwhelms the oats’ chew and delicate flavor. Omit salt and you’ll understand why some people consider oatmeal slop—it’s the equivalent of abducting the poor oats and asking them to communicate with scarves stuffed inside their little mouths.

 The following recipe will get your oatmeal just exactly where it needs to be, freeing you to experiment with toppings—from a simple spoonful of jam to more elaborate glories. On vacation, weekends, or if we awaken five minutes early enough on a weekday, we adorn the oatmeal with granola and, depending on the season, fresh or canned fruit, a spoonful of nut butter, dried currants or cherries, a sprinkle of nuts, muesli—really, the potential combinations are so stimulating you can work yourself into a state. And we have—it’s a state called bliss. 

Mom’s bowl

Old-fashioned Oatmeal

Serves 2 or 3

• 1 cup rolled oats (aka Old-fashioned oats)

• 1 cup milk (of your choice)

• 1 cup water

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• Brown sugar, to taste

Place oats, milk, water, and salt in a saucepan. Turn heat to medium-high, bring to a simmer, then turn heat to medium low or low, to maintain a simmer but prevent boiling. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add sweetener (I like brown sugar; Amelia prefers it without; it’s also good with honey or maple syrup).

If you are serving the oatmeal in a fairly plain way, these quantities make two satisfying servings. On a busy morning where timing-wise the choice to squeeze in oatmeal was a bit dangerous, we’ll top it with a spoonful of jam and be perfectly content.