Friday is movie night at my sister’s house in Oakland, California. When I go for a visit, I get to join—and that means I’m on snack duty with my nine-year-old nephew, Thaddeus, and eight-year-old niece, Nellie. More often than not, we skip the popcorn and make these chewy no-bake puffed-grain-and-granola bars. They’re a little nutty, slightly salty, not too sweet, and infinitely customizable. And once you know the formula, the rest is up to you. Here’s what we do:
I scoop a small nub of butter into a 13x9" baking dish and have the kids work it all over the bottom and sides with their hands. Then I measure and they dump in 4 cups unsweetened puffed-grain cereal (we like a mix of rice, kamut, corn, and/or millet), 1 cup old-fashioned oats, and 1½ cups dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and/or unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut into a large bowl. (Stick to four mix-ins tops, and coarsely chop up anything large.) If we’re using chocolate chips or anything that will melt, I hold it back for mixing in later. I then tell the kids to stir everything really, really well.
While they’re busy with that, I bring ⅓ cup (packed) light brown sugar, ⅓ cup honey, 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces, and ½ tsp. kosher salt to a boil in a small saucepan over medium. After 1 minute, I take it off the heat and whisk in ⅓ cup creamy nut butter (cashew, almond, or peanut) and 1 tsp. vanilla extract until smooth.
I have the kids stand back while I pour the hot syrup over their mixing masterpiece and toss until everything is evenly coated. If adding chocolate chips, I let the mixture cool about 5 minutes before working those in, then scrape it all into the prepared dish. Everyone’s hands get buttered to prevent sticking, and we pat the mixture into an even layer. I always give it a final press so it’s compacted enough to hold together once set. We let it cool about 1 hour, then cut into bars and cue the movie! (That is, if we can all immediately agree on what we want to watch, which is very rarely the case.) To store, wrap tightly, and these bars will keep up to a week—if they aren’t all gone before the credits roll.
