Stone-Buhr Bars

Whole Wheat Bars

This recipe comes from the Stone-Buhr Milling Company of Seattle Washington.  It is frequently referred to as the "Stone Buhr Bar" or "Stone Buhr Energy Bar".  This is the official page where the recipe can be found (although many others have duplicated it).

I was hoping that this would be a great whole wheat granola bar.  Unfortunately, the way I made it, it is simply a dessert bar, similar in consistency to a date bar, although perhaps not so sweet.  To become a granola bar, it probably could have used a lot more seeds, and nuts, and grains, and maybe an egg to hold it all together.  And I really think that it should have been cooked longer.

I should hasten to add that I've made something a little bit different, so I can't really comment on the actual bars as they would have been had I followed the recipe to a T. 



What's Different?
Not having access to the Stone-Buhr whole wheat, I have used some whole wheat from our local Arva Flour Mill.  And I have made other substitutions as well.  The original calls for whole uncooked oats, and I couldn't find any; so I have used rolled oats.  And the actual recipe asks for apple juice, and I didn't have any of that, either.  So what I used was some apple jelly that we made recently that for some reason never set properly, and was mostly liquid.  Instead of chocolate chips, here I am using up some peanut butter chips that were in our cupboard (rather than open a new package of chocolate chips).  I think I got all the other ingredients right; although I should add that the coconut I used was some coconut that we had shredded ourselves recently.  It probably has a slightly different texture than the stuff you buy in the stores.

I weighed my ingredients as I went; as usual, your mileage may vary:

• Peanut butter 164g
• Whole Wheat Flour 157g
• Wheat Germ 24g
• Shredded Coconut 44g
• Sesame Seeds 32g
• Rolled Oats 98g
• 2 Ripe Bananas - 435g with skins on, 297g with skins off
• Too Wet Apple Jelly - 139g
• Peanut Butter Chips -- 80g
• Raisins - 33g

The dry ingredients are combined, and the wet ingredients are combined separately.  The wet ingredients are mixed until smooth, and then the dry ingredients (except raisins and chips) are added until the mixture is all mixed together.  I used beaters.

The raisins and the chips are folded in right at the end.

Then it is put in a 9x9 dish and baked in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 25 minutes (though as I said, it should have been longer).

It was far too gooey to cut into granola-bar sized pieces so I opted to cut it into brownie-sized pieces.

As my wife said, "It's just a bar.  And there are a million and one recipes for bars."

This one was nothing special.  But it will give me something to take for lunches, if I remember.

Notes to Myself

• Try baking for 35-40 minutes.
• This would definitely taste better if you had chocolate chips. And some nuts.
• What if you, like, made a bread dough that would encase this goo?
• Next time you try this, try these quantities: 
• 3/4 c Peanut Butter
• 1 c Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 c Wheat Germ
• 1 c Unsweetened Coconut
• 1/4 c Sesame Seeds
• 1 c Rolled Oats
• 2 Ripe Bananas
• 1/2 c Too-wet Apple Jelly
• 1/2 c Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 c Raisins
  
• And what else?
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c crushed almonds
• 1/4 c cracked wheat
  After making the recipe as it was before, try combining an egg, and the almonds and cracked wheat and maybe some more whole wheat and some more apple juice and make a pasty dough. Spread this over the top of the bar mixture and press it down.