Cranberry Macadamia Cereal Bars

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I added these yesterday to our website. These are not traditional energy or granola bars. They are very sweet I'll admit – and could pass as dessert – but are quite tasty! They carry tightly wrapped for a couple days, up to a week. They do get very hard in cold weather though, be forewarned.

http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/cran-mac-caramel-bars

Cranberry Macadamia Cereal Bars

12 oz box cereal of choice
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup honey
1 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup natural peanut butter

Instructions:

At home:
Spray a 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray or butter it. Set aside.

In a large and tall saucepan heat the honey, sugar and molasses till it comes to a full boil. Take it off the heat and quickly stir in the peanut butter and then the vanilla. Mix in the cereal, cranberries and nuts with a wooden or silicone spoon till fully coated.

Dump into the pan and spread out, then pack in tightly. Let cool for at least an hour to set up. Cut into portions and tightly wrap in plastic wrap.

These bars carry well in a pack and do not fall apart as they are dense and nicely sticky.

Makes one tray (bars depend on your concept of a "serving").
Notes

Notes:
This recipe was featured in the March/April 2010 issue of Washington Trails magazine on page 35. http://www.wta.org/trail-news/magazine

For the cereal choose a type with texture, flakes and crunchies work well. It doesn't need to be a sweet cereal as the caramel base is sweet enough on its own. If you have a favorite high protein/fiber cereal, by all means use it. Look for a 12 to 13 ounce box preferably.

And of course you can swap in your favorite nuts and dried fruits!

For the peanut butter crunchy is the best.

[Dicentra OPW]

Well YUM!!! Save me one! :)

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Here is a photo of the bars:

[Angela Zukowski]

My one question is do they taste peanut buttery? Carmelized sounds amazing but I am seriously burnt out on bars with a noticeable peanut flavor.

[j lan]

Just sub cashew/almond/sunflower butter.
picky picky.
;)

[Kathleen B]

Where's the chocolate? !!

Since I don't buy or eat store-bought cereal, I need some actual names for ideas. Please don't say rice crispies. I already know I won't buy those. Wheat chex? Grape nuts?

I'm getting mighty impatient for late-breaking news about your new addition. Any action yet?

[Angela Zukowski]

Haha yes, it's true. I am a bit particular!

Good point about the other butters! PB is what I have on hand, though… and I'd be willing to use it, but only if the taste is barely noticeable :P

Also I'd love to hear how long these last in terms of freshness. Whenever I make bars they get eaten too quickly to find out!

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

On nut butters? You want heaven? Get cashew butter. OMG! Droooool! I didn't find the PB taste to be really heavy though – but I used natural style Adam's (you know the really oily stuff). Sunflower butter is very, very mild – it blends right in.

The sugars do really create a flavor that is strong :-)

Kathleen….add chocolate chips! You can definitely change this recipe to one's liking. On cereal brands? My favorites are Costco ones….they make some awesome ones. Think of using a cereal with flakes, nuggets and other shapes. That gives good texture. One that would work would be http://www.postcereals.com/cereals/honey_bunches_of_oats/ – especially the Just Bunches version.

On storage? I'd say a week. You will want to wrap them tightly. You could wrap in wax paper, then in a snack size zip bag. But they won't last – they are too good to not eat ;-)

Now on the baby? Soon! :-)

[Roger Caffin]

Give over Sarah – some of us are trying to keep our weight down!

Cheers

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

The diet version is you hike with 11 other people and let them share the pan of them ;-)

[JR Redding]

Might be better to make these using Brown Rice syrup instead of all that sugar. Make them a tad crispier and healthier by doing so as well.

[Laurie Ann March]

Joe… agave nectar is a good substitution in many recipes as it has a lower glycemic index than regular refined white sugar.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Pffft! Brown rice syrup is still "sugar" when it comes down to it.

These bars are not for diet conscious folks. They are meant for an indulgence – and long hiking trips are often that one time people can indulge.

Not everything must be considered healthy. The ingredients are all simple items, no need to make it into a trip to the health food store.

If I wanted brown rice syrup I'd eat Cliff Bars.

And on using syrups: the recipe would need to be tweaked to work – for any syrup. It also would affect the final flavor. There is a reason there is 3 sweeteners added! They produce a certain flavor.

But hey, go ahead and try it!

[Dicentra OPW]

Which works better to get these out of the pan?

And heck yeah add chocolate!!!

[Wesley Witt]

These look really good and I'll definitely make some for my next trip. If there anything like Sarah's other bar recipes they will be very tasty for sure.

I did a quick calorie count and the recipe came out at 5607 total calories using a granola for the cereal ingredient. If you cut the recipe into 12 bars you get 467 calories per bar, which is a nice energy kick.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Wesley….Lol! Now there is a calorie count ;-) Oinky goodness!

[JR Redding]

You know Sarah, the way you take things personally continues to shine through.

There is a huge difference between Brown Rice Syrup vs. Refined White Sugar. As an example, Brown rice Syrup is an organic natural sweetner that has a lower glycemic index which for some people is important, indulgence or not. The way Brown Rice Syrup and Refined White sugar react in the body is the difference proving that it's not "just sugar" too as you have implied.

It's a viable alternative in your otherwise nice recipe. Rather than going "pfffft" and carrying on like someone's suggestion is completely ignorant isn't really all that professional. The point of these discussions are to offer input and opinions. If you don't like what someone offers, that's fine, but maybe you should consider not posting them for comment if you are not going to keep an open mind into improving or changing something to suit all people as opposed to just yourself. At the minimum, maybe the high school esque "pffffftt's" could be kept out of it?

[Laurie Ann March]

In defence of the lower glycemic index alternatives to white/refined sugars… there can be benefits such as prolonging physical endurance. Higher GI foods will cause a sudden spike which can also be useful but combined with lower GI choices one can have both immediate and longer term benefits.

[Tad Englund]

Joe- maybe take a chill pill. I don't think you know Sarah as well as you imply "the way you take things personally continues to shine through"
She was just being "light hearted" and "casual". I think you might want to look in the mirror to see if there is a chip on your shoulder and maybe flick it off. We are talking about something with over 470 calories per bar- and yes "pffffft" about whether replacing different sugars is going to make a big deal. She likes the way they taste with regular sugar and has an opinion about "her" bars.

Send me back to High School, I liked the light hearted and totally unpretentious "pfffffft"

[JR Redding]

You don't have any idea of the history involved and that's ok, you don't need to. No chill pills needed.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

As stated:
My recipe is for the ingredients called for. While one can change the cereal, nut butter, nuts and fruits without issue, playing with the form of sweetener used is not going to work straight across. It is designed to be work with dry sugars, honey and molasses. Oh sure, you can replace the honey – but and a big but – honey is thicker than every other syrup out there. It also has a taste unlike others. If you go to replace all the sugars/sweeteners with one syrup it isn't going to be the same. The texture and taste are affected. The molasses is very important.

If you want to go down that route, then come up with your own version. This version is tested and works.

But hey, easier to argue on and on about how I should do things differently. You are more than welcome to make your own version and post them. No one is stopping you.

And more so….this recipe is not aimed at diabetics, dieters or preachy health nuts. It is an indulgence and I will not apologize for doing something delicious and tasty. That is my big PFFFTTTTT right there.

[Greg Mihalik]

+ 1

[Tad Englund]

Hey Joe, if you take me Fly Fishing in Montana I'll try and knock that chip off your shoulder for you. I dare you….

[Jared Cook]

Joe – "You don't have any idea of the history involved and that's ok, you don't need to. No chill pills needed."

Joe if there is a history, maybe you should just drop it, better yet not even start in on the conversation, because from this statement you are intentionally trying to start something. Tact, versus personally attacking someone's mannerisms will get you a lot further in life with any human being.

If you read the ingredients, it's simple to see this is not the recipe for anyone concerned with healthy foods. It doesn't matter how you add the sugar, either way it will be loading some form of B-1,4-glucose or fructose monomers into your system after the enzymes in your small intestines break down the macro molecules… This recipe is for people like me that want to hike 20 miles a day after doing 20 miles the day before and already sneak in cliff bars and candy bars to keep the on demand energy flowing. It's not going to be for someone that is weight conscious and only hiking a few miles a day.

I for one can't wait to make a few and try them out on my next hike. Cliff bars have become fairly blah, after the amount of them that I have eaten.

[JR Redding]

There isn't any chip on my shoulder Tad. No reason to have a chip of any kind.

As for your statement in particular Sarah – No one asked you to apologize for your recipe, no one asked you to make it healthier. If you post something here and people offer their views and opinions, then it should be reasonable to expect that a decent human being as yourself would could offer an opinion back without the "pffffts" and "whatevers" etc. It's that simple.

And Jared – again, I made a simple suggestion. Take it or leave it. If you want to defend Sarah's recipe by all means go for it. Doesn't bother me in the least.

It still doesn't change the fact that the author could have shown simple respect towards someone else on a public webboard and THAT was my reason for replying in the first place until Tad decided to create this "chip on a shoulder" thing.

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