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Cran-Mac Caramel Bars

Thu, 03/04/2010 - 14:34 — Sarah

Summary

Yield
Prep Time15 minutes
Recipe TypesEnergy Bars

Description

Sweet sticky bars for the trail.

Ingredients

  • 12 oz box cereal of choice
  • 1⁄2 c dried sweetened cranberries
  • 1⁄2 c chopped macadamia nuts
  • 1 c honey
  • 1 c white sugar
  • 1 T molasses
  • 1 t pure vanilla extract
  • 1 c natural peanut butter

Instructions

At home:
Spray a 9x13 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.

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Comments

Sun, 06/27/2010 - 13:45 — dipink

cran mac caramel bars

If wrapped in wax paper or in a freezer bag, would these keep in a cache pot for 4 days?  8 days?

Fri, 07/09/2010 - 08:28 — Sarah

Storage time

4 days would be fine. In cooler weather you could go longer but in summer I would keep it under 4 days.