Chocolate Mountain Bars
This is a yummy snack/healthy dessert that my best friend’s family introduced us to years ago. The original recipe called for carob, but we didn’t care for that (pun intended :-). These are quick and easy to make (kids love helping with it!), and are perfect for a quick at-home snack (I don’t like to take them on the go since they can be a bit messy.)
In a bowl, mix:
3 cups oats
6 Tbsp. cocoa powder
½ cup peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
½ cup coconut flakes
In a saucepan, mix and boil for 1 minute:
½ cup honey
¼ cup butter
¼ cup oil
Mix honey mixture in with oats. Shape into balls using cookie scoop or pour into an 8x8 pan and slice into
16 pieces. Refrigerate.
Great Escape Granola Bars
I pretty much always have a pan of these in my fridge or individually wrapped pieces in my freezer. These bars are delicious, filling, and travelable. The only problem is they are so good they don’t last long...unless you’re starting to get tired of them (ahem. Yeah, I make them that much).
Makes: 9x13 pan
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together:
½ cup butter
¾ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
1 ½ cups peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Add and mix well:
3 cups oatmeal (+ a little flour if needed)
1 cup chocolate chips, optional*
Grease 9x13 pan, and press mixture into it. Bake 20-22 minutes, or until light golden brown. Do not over bake!! Cool completely before removing from pan.
*Optional: If omitting chocolate chips, you may (once it’s cool) frost with:
Yummy Fudge Frosting:
1 cup chocolate chips, optional*
Grease 9x13 pan, and press mixture into it. Bake 20-22 minutes, or until light golden brown. Do not over bake!! Cool completely before removing from pan.
*Optional: If omitting chocolate chips, you may (once it’s cool) frost with:
Yummy Fudge Frosting:
In a bowl:
4 cups powdered sugar
Melt together in saucepan:
2/3 cup cocoa
2/3 cup butter
Pour chocolate mixture over powdered sugar, and add:
1 Tbsp. vanilla
¼ cup+ milk
Beat until smooth. Spread the desired amount on top the bars (will not need all the frosting). Cut. Once cooled, the bars may be individually wrapped for traveling ease.
Behind the Name 😉 by my sister Laura
After making these granola bars a few times for trips, everyone--especially Daddy--loved them and deemed them the perfect travel food. I myself thought them to be rather heavy and hard to get down. After reading the below, I was struck with the resemblance, and we have since called our travel food, simply, 'Great Escape bars".
Taken from The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill. Here it describes some of the POW's escape preparations: "For some months past, "X" [the escape leader] had been making a levy on the Red Cross food parcels, and in a room of hut 112, half a dozen cooks were mixing "fudge", the concentrated escape food. It was the recipe of David Lubbock, a naval type, and was a compound of sugar, cocoa, Bemax, condensed milk, raisins, oats, glucose, margarine, chocolate, and ground biscuits. The beaten mixture looked like old glue, and it was taken across to the kitchen block where Herrick baked it into cakes, or rather bricks, and packed it into flat cocoa tins. Lubbock had worked it out that one 4-ounce tin held enough calories to last a man two days. The difficulty was to get it down past the ribs, where it tended to stick tenaciously. The train travelers were each allowed four tins, and the hardarsers could take up to six."
4 cups powdered sugar
Melt together in saucepan:
2/3 cup cocoa
2/3 cup butter
Pour chocolate mixture over powdered sugar, and add:
1 Tbsp. vanilla
¼ cup+ milk
Beat until smooth. Spread the desired amount on top the bars (will not need all the frosting). Cut. Once cooled, the bars may be individually wrapped for traveling ease.
Behind the Name 😉 by my sister Laura
After making these granola bars a few times for trips, everyone--especially Daddy--loved them and deemed them the perfect travel food. I myself thought them to be rather heavy and hard to get down. After reading the below, I was struck with the resemblance, and we have since called our travel food, simply, 'Great Escape bars".
Taken from The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill. Here it describes some of the POW's escape preparations: "For some months past, "X" [the escape leader] had been making a levy on the Red Cross food parcels, and in a room of hut 112, half a dozen cooks were mixing "fudge", the concentrated escape food. It was the recipe of David Lubbock, a naval type, and was a compound of sugar, cocoa, Bemax, condensed milk, raisins, oats, glucose, margarine, chocolate, and ground biscuits. The beaten mixture looked like old glue, and it was taken across to the kitchen block where Herrick baked it into cakes, or rather bricks, and packed it into flat cocoa tins. Lubbock had worked it out that one 4-ounce tin held enough calories to last a man two days. The difficulty was to get it down past the ribs, where it tended to stick tenaciously. The train travelers were each allowed four tins, and the hardarsers could take up to six."
After the Germans discovered the tunnel: "The prisoners knew they would be searched soon and probably sent to the cells on bread and water, so after a while, the main occupation was eating escape rations. The stuff was too concentrated to get much down, and before long, no one could swallow another mouthful."
So anytime we're gearing up for a trip, you'll know that I'm in the kitchen, laboriously kneading up a batch of this stuff! (though I think my recipe is slightly more palatable :-P)
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