Sourdough Discard Granola Bars

Sourdough Discard Granola Bars

The original recipe for the 'Chewy Sourdough Granola Bars' comes from Susan at the Wild Yeast Blog.

That was my starting point, at least.  I just began tossing together ingredients.  She calls for 200g of sourdough discard, and I only had 115g.  I added some whole wheat flour to that, to bring it up to 200g, and then I had to add 50g of water to make it all stick together.  Then I added the 100g of oats, 50g of almonds, another 50g of pepitas, 100g of prunes that I cut into chunks (instead of raisins), and I added some chia seeds, pine nuts.  By that time I was through with measuring, so I just palmed a bit of salt, then I put on a blob of honey, about 1 1/2 TBSP, and a similar sized blob of almond butter (rather than peanut butter), a splash of vanilla and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

I pressed this down into a buttered pan prepared with a buttered parchment paper, and thought it still looked a bit unfinished.

I thought of sesame seeds.   I took 1 TBSP each of sesame seeds, chia seeds, semolina flour and turbinado sugar, and mixed it all together.

Then I drizzled approximately 1 TBSP of olive oil on top and smoothed it around with my fingers, and sprinkled on this mixture of sesame seeds.

I would have tossed an egg in too, but my wife has been successfully giving away our eggs recently and took the six that were laid today to her mom when visiting.  So this is an egg-free version, just like Susan's.

This was baked as Susan suggested, at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.  It came out singing.

I let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before I used a flat object to press it down even further.  Then I transferred it to a board to cut into bars.  The bars were then frozen between parchment/wax paper, and I can pull these out for work as needed.

Results:
I was surprised that it stuck together as well as it did, without an egg.  Unfortunately, this particular combination of seeds and fruit and nuts (my own, not Susan's) tastes a little bland.  Maybe the prunes aren't sweet enough, or the almond butter doesn't have as much sugar as peanut butter.  At any rate, I have not improved on the original.  Probably needs more fruit than what I put in.

Notes to Myself

• These granola bars go together quickly with what you have on hand. Change up the ingredients to use what you have:
• Original Recipe 
• 200g sourdough discard
• 100g honey
• 8g salt
• 100g nuts: walnuts, almonds
• 150g dried fruit: raisins, craisins
• 75g seeds: pumpkin, sunflower
• 100g peanut butter
  
• What I used, more or less:
• 115g sourdough discard
• 85g whole wheat flour
• 50g water
• 100g oats
• 100g chopped prunes
• 50g almonds
• 50g pepitas
• ~8g salt
• ~75g honey
• ~75g almond butter
• ~50g chia seeds
• ~40g pine nuts
• ~40g sesame seeds
• ~20g semolina flour
• ~40g turbinado sugar
• ~20g vanilla
• ~40g olive oil
  
  
  
• Try more fruit next time.  Or different fruit, for a sweeter taste.
• Use an egg if you have it.