In my travels around the Internet, I’ve noticed that not everyone knows how to write a great recipe. All too often, I find ingredients buried in blocks of text or instructions that are disorganized. Here is an example using one of my favorite recipes so you can see how professional freelance writers do it!
Anything Goes Granola Bars
Granola bars are great if you’re looking for a tasty treat or a grab-and-go breakfast. You can stash them in your desk drawer to keep you from rummaging through the fridge. After trying dozens of granola bar recipes, I finally settled on this one. It has that perfect mix of chewy-crunchy goodness, and the interchangeable ingredients make it seem like a new recipe every time you make it.
Ingredients
- 2 cups oats (rolled or instant will work)
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup wheat germ
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup clover honey
- 1 egg
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon of your favorite spice
- ¾-1 cup tasty stuff (chocolate, fruit, nuts, etc.)
Preheat a convection oven to 325 degrees or 350 degrees for a conventional oven. Spread a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and set aside. Blend dry ingredients together – including the tasty stuff – then add the egg, oil, honey, and vanilla. Using your hands, mix everything well. Turn the dough out onto the parchment lined cookie sheet. Form it into a large rectangle, making sure the dough is about ¾ of an inch thick. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the granola dough is golden around the edges. Let cool for about five minutes, and then cut into bars.
Tips and Tricks
When it comes to your favorite spices and ingredients, the name of this recipe says it all. If you want to use raisins, cinnamon is a great choice for the spice. For dark chocolate granola bars or fruit and nut granola bars, I often omit the spice entirely. Don’t be afraid to get creative with combinations. My personal favorite so far has been ½ cup of white chocolate chips and ½ cup of dried peaches. A mix of dried cranberries and almonds is great too! Use mini marshmallows and milk chocolate chips for s’mores granola bars – although that is heading into sinful territory.
If you want to make this recipe even healthier, try making an apple cinnamon variant. Use 1 ¼ cups applesauce instead of the brown sugar, honey and oil. Toss in 1 ¼ cups chopped apples and 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon, and you’ll have granola bars that remind you of apple pie.
If you choose to use applesauce instead of oil, or if you don’t use oily ingredients like chocolate chips, this recipe tends to come out a little on the crispy side. You can avoid this by watching them carefully and taking them out of the oven just as soon as the edges start to brown. Also, this recipe hardens well, so make sure you cut the bars a few minutes after you’ve removed them from the oven!
And there you have it! The actual recipe is short and to the point. Readers don’t have to hunt for ingredients, and the instructions are simple. Add your own tips and tricks so the audience knows that this recipe is tried and tested, and your followers will be coming back for seconds!
Amber K enjoys writing about home improvement, gardening and the great outdoors. When she’s not sitting in front of a computer, she can be found developing strategies to conquer the world – or at least her own little piece of it!
