Previously Healthy Nutty Granola Bars

I once read that humans get addicted to foods with high fat content.

Like peanuts and chocolate?

I would say that explains why the smell in my kitchen has me swooning.  I haven't even started baking yet.

Today my practical side took over...or at least temporarily.

I set out to make an easy 5-ingredient granola bar because, well, I have an extremely stressful week ahead of me, with an exam at the end, and a granola bar makes a good grab-and-go snack.

But then I woke up this morning feeling as though granola bars were un-inspired.  My conscience was saying c'mon Nicola, where's the flare???  If you're going to be practical you better at least make it sort of exciting.

So in response, what did I do? Added a layer chocolate, obvs.  I just can't get away from it.

Which brought me to a new dilemma because OK, yes, I am going to get creative, BUT THE GROCERY STORE IS CLOSED.  This is the problem with having my baking day on Sunday.  Hard to be spontaneous.

I had run out of semi-sweet baker's chocolate (a moment of weakness turned it into liquid on my tongue...).  Luckily I still had some unsweetened chocolate (a lot less tempting to eat on its own).

Soooo instead of wasting my precious study time to bike all the way to Metro for one thing, I sweetened the chocolate with some maple syrup, and problem solved!!

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Nutty Granola Bars with Chocolate Base

For the first part of the recipe I followed Minimalist Baker's 5-ingredient healthy granola bars recipe.

Chocolate Base
4 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate (dark or semisweet chocolate would work just fine)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp granulated sugar (optional, to taste)

Heat the chocolate and cream in small bowl over saucepan of simmering water.  Add maple syrup and sugar, stirring constantly until smooth.  Spread over granola bars before removing from square pan.  Refrigerate 1 hour, or until solidified.
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Curiously, while I was melting the chocolate, a squirrel launched itself at my screen door and hung out there for a while.  Perhaps he has a sweet tooth.  But somehow I don't think he's the sort of neighbour I want to invite in for tea...

Nicola ♡

Comments after tasting:

1.  Possibly because of the honey, I find these a bit too sweet for my taste.  I think adding some salt to the mixture or sprinkling coarse sea salt on top would balance this out.

2.  Because I used maple syrup in the chocolate base, it took a long time to solidify, and melts very quickly when out of the fridge.  The taste is right, but the texture is not what I'd planned.  In future I would use a higher ratio of sugar to syrup, but ultimately I think I was going for something similar to the chocolate layer in my Mini Cream Pie recipe, which uses dark chocolate and no sugar at all.  For now I think it best to store them in the freezer.  Or just eat them all really quickly before the chocolate melts.