Oven-Free Friday ~ No-Bake Granola

As promised in Monday's post, today is Oven-Free Friday at Ponderings of an Elect Exile.  And the timing is good...with the predicted high for tomorrow being 107 (*cough* *choke* *sputter*), even if we did have a working oven, we wouldn't be using it! :)  

I ran across this granola recipe early this week and decided it sounded simple and good.  It was simple (if a bit sticky :)), and it was a big hit here.  I'm definitely adding it to our snack rotation, and I'm making plans to try some variations in the future. 

I tweaked the recipe just a bit (and made a bit of a blooper, which turned out okay :)):

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 cups oats
2 cups crispy rice cereal
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 T chocolate chips (or, if you are like me, just shake some out of the bag...and end up shaking out a few more than you meant to!)  

Directions:
In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together and set aside. 

In a small pan, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a low boil.{I accidentally dumped 1/4 of a cup of white sugar in before I realized what I was doing.  I just reduced the honey accordingly.}  Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. 

Pour in vanilla and stir. 

Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan press to about 3/4 inch thickness.  If your pan is too large, push to one side to ensure adequate thickness and packing.  You want it to be well-packed. 

Sprinkle with chocolate chips and press down lightly. {The original recipe called for mini-chips.  I ended up using a combo of regular milk and semi-sweet chips because that was what I had.  The milk chocolate chips were a bit melted in my hot kitchen, so I attempted to spread them instead of pressing.  This made a bit of a mess, but it all tasted good in the end. :)}

 Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.  

Note from original recipe..."If your granola bars don’t seem to be staying together when you cut them, you may have made them too thin or you didn’t pack them in tight enough. Stick them in the fridge for 20 minutes and that should help keep them together. {Be sure not to keep them in there too long or else they’ll become super hard!} The next time you make them, try reducing the butter to 3 tablespoons and really packing them down."

I'm looking forward to trying these with various add-ins...I'll try to come back and update with results!  in the meantime, I'd love to hear about your favorite oven-free recipe!