mmmm elmer's

September 7, 2009 8:14 PM

I just made these yummy granola bars, but they're a little too sweet for my tastes. The only thing holding them together in that recipe is brown sugar and honey, and I'd like to reduce the brown sugar if possible. What else could I use as a glue?
posted by you're a kitty! to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

peanut butter or almond butter
posted by CathyG at 8:16 PM on September 7, 2009

Try using peanut butter instead of peanuts; almond butter would be even better. If you're baking them, why not fold in a whipped egg-white or two?
posted by headnsouth at 8:18 PM on September 7, 2009

Brown rice syrup? This was an ingredient in some granola I made a while ago. Something I read said it is about half as sweet as sugar - I did taste a little while making the granola, but can't really remember what I thought about it.
posted by AnnaRat at 8:39 PM on September 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Fruit-juice sweetened jam or jelly?
posted by spinifex23 at 8:56 PM on September 7, 2009

seconding the egg white.

also, sugar acts as a glue because it crystalizes as it bakes, forming a hard, flavorful substance. It does so at a higher rate than honey, so if your main goal was less sweetness, i'd reduce the honey first (honey is also sweeter than sugar).
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:03 PM on September 7, 2009

Check out this recipe for granola bars on Smitten Kitchen. Deb mentions that she hacked the original recipe to reduce the sweetness and took out the butter to make it clump better.
posted by atropos at 9:05 PM on September 7, 2009

I made these sugar-less bars the other day and was surprised how good they were.
posted by Adam_S at 9:20 PM on September 7, 2009

Marshmallow? You should be able to use very little of it and keep things together.
posted by wongcorgi at 10:41 PM on September 7, 2009

Carob molasses
posted by hortense at 11:06 PM on September 7, 2009

Here's a formula for making muesli bars from any sort of bought granola (muesli) although making your own as per your other recipe would work fine too of course. It seems like it has less sugar, but sure has more butter! It has golden syrup in it. (Note: celsius temperatures)
posted by slightlybewildered at 1:59 AM on September 8, 2009

You might experiment with wheat gluten, although (like egg) that would change the texture some.
posted by amtho at 5:56 AM on September 8, 2009

Those don't look particularly healthy to me. I'd leave out the brown sugar all together, as well as the egg whites, and sub in some dates. I'd use vanilla beans instead of extract (the less liquid used the stickier they'd be) and I'd not cook it at all. I'd probably leave out the honey as well. That is, I'd shred some stuff in a food processor (dates, some of the nuts (I'd use almonds and/or cashews instead of peanuts), vanilla beans), then mix everything in a bowl and then shape into bars.

For example, I make these often:

1 cup raw almonds
pinch of sea salt
1/2 vanilla bean pod (seeds only)
1 cup pitted dates
1 cup of dried fruit (i use blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, or sometimes a mix)

put it all in the food processor for a few spins, keeping it still chunky. Then I just roll them into balls.

No cooking, ready in minutes. Delicious and nutritious.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 6:28 AM on September 8, 2009

Oh, and I'd leave out the butter from your recipe. Yech.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 6:28 AM on September 8, 2009

Miss Smitten Kitchen recently did a post about granola bars. She also likes them a little less sweet -- there's some discussion in the comments about binding agents.
posted by amanda at 7:37 AM on September 8, 2009