Failed Granola Bars aka Granola

So I recently discovered that (sans burning it) its kind of impossible to mess up granola.  This weekend I wanted to make a nice, dense granola bar to eat for breakfast.  Unfortunately, my wet to dry ingredient ratio was waaay off and I ended up with a crumbly mess.  But! fortunately, I was able to resurrect it from its ashes and make a pretty respectable yogurt topping/hot cereal.

So for granola, you need a ratio of 5:1 dry to wet ingredients.  You want enough wet stuff to moisten the dry stuff without making it soggy.  A recent trip to my bulk food store yielded me with

Steam pressed oats
Oat bran
Wheat flour
Ground flax seed
Nuts and Berry mix (which had almonds, pecans, dried cranberries, cherries and blueberries and served me very well)

and a scouring through the cupboards left me with
Honey
Chunky Peanut Butter
Brown Sugar
Vegetable Oil (this helps give texture and helps everything get spread around evenly)
Cinnamon
and Vanilla

But here's where the beauty comes in.  You want coconut vanilla?  Go for it.   Maple brown sugar cinnamon?  Do it.  Dried apple pieces with apple pie spice?  Well, you get where I'm going.  Just so long as you make sure to follow the general guidelines.

I mixed about 4 cups of oats, and a cup each of oat bran, wheat flour and nuts and berry mix.  I then put about 1/4 of a cup of ground flax seed.  I mixed these well together in a very large bowl.  Then in a small sauce pan, I mixed 2/3 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbs of Olive oil (because it's what I had on hand) and a couple pinches of cinnamon and about 1/2 tsp vanilla.  I heated this over medium low heat, just to get it loosened up so I could easily mix it up with the dry stuff.  When I added this to the dry stuff, it still looked a little, well, dry.  Then I had a stroke of genius.  I added enough water to moisten (about 1/4 of a cup) and let it sit for an hour.  This let the oats soak up the moisture and helped them par-cook in the oven, in case I wanted to eat it with hot milk for breakfast.

Once this happens, place on a cookie sheet (or two since this was a double batch so I could share).  Spread out and place in a 275 degree oven.  Stir every 15 minutes until crispy and lightly brown (about 45 minutes to an hour).  Then let cool and store in an airtight plastic back.

I took some photos, but my camera cable is MIA.  I'll try to post them when I find it.

Enjoy!