Speed Trials

I’ve been going a little granola crazy lately. I make a pretty mean batch of no-oil granola (from La Dolce Vegan) but I was looking to make some bars to meet my granola-on-the-go needs.

My friend Bev has a wonderful recipe, and whenever she brings a batch in to work, I always catch myself hovering around her desk, subtly hinting (aka drooling and begging) for yet another piece.

It’s a super easy recipe, and calls for condensed milk as the binder. I made a batch and was super excited when it came out of the oven…

Mmm… I could practically taste the crunchy goodness…

Oh boy!!

But when I cut into the bars, I was SO SADDENED to see that it had not cooked the way I wanted… The bars weren’t crunchy, the oats hadn’t taken on that granola texture. They just… cooked. I had oatmeal bars on my hands…

After eating one and trying to convince myself that they weren’t so bad, and failing, I decided that something had to be done. I turned my granola bar FAIL into an oatmeal muffin success!!

I stuck the bars into the food processor, hit the On switch and watched it whir. I added a squirt of honey, and two single-serving containers of applesauce to the batter. Poured into a muffin tin, and topped with more granola bars.

What came out were delicious, moist, crumble topped muffins:

Mmm. They are very filling (on account of being made out of granola!) and the apple/cranberry combo makes them kind of tart, but still sweet from the honey. And because they stick to your ribs, eating one is definitely enough!