Nutty Granola Bars

Last weekend was my first weekend at home after a month, so I was eager to spend some time in my kitchen and bake again. It's too hot in London to keep the oven on for long (I never thought I'd say this!), so I chose simple and quick recipes.

On Friday night I adapted this Love and Lemons recipe to make a Spelt and Almond Banana Bread as a gift to my friends Hannah and Sam who just had a gorgeous baby boy three weeks ago. I met them for coffee at Fred & Ginger, a lovely café in the village on Kings Langley in Hertfordshire. After lunch I bought a slice of Walnut & Cranberry Flapjack to eat on the way back to London; it was so buttery and delicious that I thought about baking some as soon as I got home. I also wanted to use the vintage Le Creuset baking dish I has just bought at an antiques' shop in Berkhamsted! ;)

So later that day I searched my cookbook The Great British Book of Baking and adapted the recipe for Sticky Nutty Flapjacks.

The result was chewy and nutty granola bars, which I've been snacking on everyday since Saturday. I convinced myself they are a healthy snack (they aren't really, with all the butter, sugar and golden syrup!), anyway it's always better to eat homemade granola bars rather than packaged ones. No preservatives or flavourings here!

They are incredibly easy to make (and cheap), though I found them a bit tricky to bake. I kept them in the oven for nearly an hour, but they probably would have been perfect after 40-45' of baking. The original recipe stated 25-30', since every oven is different my advice is to just keep an eye on them after you hit the 30 minutes' mark.

Ingredients

• 200g unsalted butter
• 150g light brown sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 250g porridge oats
• pinch of salt
• 100g unsalted mixed nuts, roughly chopped (I used hazelnuts and almonds)
• 50g sultanas

Preparation

Heat the oven to 160°C. Prepare a 20cm square tin, greased with butter.

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a large pan. Heat gently, stirring from time to time, until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the oats and salt. Add the roughly chopped nuts and raisins.

When the ingredients are thoroughly combined, transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and spread it out evenly. Use a spatula to gently press down the mixture.

Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

Run a round-bladed knife around the inside of the tin to loosen the granola. Wait for it to be completely cooled down before cutting into 12 bars. If the bars are still wet at the bottom, place them on a wire rack for an hour before storing them in an airtight container.