TWD - Granola Grabbers

I really liked the idea of this weeks TWD selection chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking- love oatmeal and raisins. My family does not like oatmeal and raisins, and therein lies the problem. Only me to eat them - and after a weekend of overindulgence my clothes are straining at the seams :). But, what the heck!

Believe it not, I do have to limit my intake of sugar. My first step was to make my own granola without any added refined sugars. I adapted a recipe I found on the web and it turned out really good:

Sugar-free Granola

2 cups whole oats
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. chopped almonds
1/3 c. toasted wheat germ
1/3 c. + 2T unsweetened apple juice concentrate
1 t maple extract
1 t cinnamon
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275. In a glass measuring cup combine apple juice concentrate, maple extract, cinnamon and salt. Microwave for 1 minute.
In a large bowl combine the oats, nuts and wheat germ. Pour liquid mix over dry ingredients and mix well. Lightly oil a cookie sheet and spread the granola mixture in a single layer. Bake on a lower rack for a total of 45 minutes - stirring every 15 minutes. Let cool.

This made exactly the right amount for the Grabbers recipe. I didn't add additional nuts or wheat germ to the recipe. I also used white whole wheat flour (1/2 c) and whole wheat pastry flour (1/2c) since I was all out of all-purpose flour and substituted 1/3 c Splenda and 1T molasses for the sugars in the recipe. (You can find the original recipe on Michelle's blog.)

I really like these (too much!) They had a short-bread like quality to them due to the fairly large amount of butter used in the recipe. I froze the majority to take as a contribution to a picnic dinner we are going on at Wolftrap this weekend.