This pages houses all of my low-histamine recipes to-date. This site is currently still under construction, so check back soon for more recipes once I've typed them up!
Low-Histamine Granola Bars
These granola bars are chewy, customisable, and delicious. I usually make a big batch, and keep the ones that don't get eaten straight away in the freezer for another day. And yes - they do need that much fat and sugar! There is an open secret to good cooking: you can't make tasty food without some kind of fats or sugars!
The structure
A good granola bar is made up of a few categories of ingredients, and as long as the broad categories are in there, it doesn't matter if you're not using the same exact ingredients as I am in this recipe. You'll need:
A bulk dry ingredient:
oats, flour (gluten free or otherwise, if tolerated), puffed rice, puffed quinoa or amaranthTasty dry "mix-ins":
coconut flakes, seeds, freeze dried fruit, nutsLiquid fats:
coconut oil, loose nut butters, margarineBinders:
an egg, or a tolerated egg substitute - try a "flax egg"Sugar:
maple syrup, agave syrup, honey, cane sugars if tolerated (a non-liquid sugar may result in a more crumbly, less chewy, bar)
Whatever ingredients you use to fill each category, make sure you're matching the quantities I'm using below, or the ratios will go wrong: you might end up with a dry crumbly granola mix, or a wet stodgy thing that won't set.
Ingredients
- Bulk: 1/2 cup oat flour (I use rolled oats that have been blitzed to a powder in a food processor), 3/4 cup of rolled oats, 1/4 cup puffed rice
- "Mix-ins": 1/4 cup freeze-dried blueberries, 1/4 cup flax seed, 1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
- Liquid fats: 6 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- Binders: 1 egg
- Sugar: 3/4 cup of maple syrup
- Plus, a pinch of salt.
Method
- Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 6/204C/400F.
- Measure and place all bulk dry ingredients and "mix-ins" into a large mixing bowl. Add a decent pinch of salt to the bowl.
- Measure the maple syrup and coconut oil, pour it onto the dry ingredients.
- Crack 1 egg into the mixing bowl.
- Using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, mix the ingredients thoroughly together until properly combined, with no lumps of any one ingredient lingering.
- Line a deep baking tray with baking paper. Pour the mixture into the tray, and smooth it flat with the back of your spoon or spatula. Prick the mixture with a fork all the way to the bottom in several places.
- Place the tray in the oven, and leave it to cook for 45 minutes. If you'd like a chewier bar that will hold together a little less, you can take it out sooner. Leave it in a little longer, and it will be firmer and less chewie.
- Take the tray out of the oven after the 45 minutes are up. Using a blunt butter knife (so as not to damage your pan), cut the granola slab into bars while it's still hot.
- Leave the bars until they cool, when they can be frozen for longer storage.