How granola bars are made

A granola bar is cereal glued into a slab with syrup, pressed flat and cut into bars.

stations: 6
things upstream: 8
raw sources: 4
steps from the ground: 3

The short version

Rolled oats, nuts, seeds and sometimes puffed rice are mixed with honey or other sweet syrup, which acts as glue. The sticky mixture is pressed into a slab and baked. After cooling, the slab is cut into bars and each bar is wrapped. Granola itself is oats baked with oil and stirred until crisp.

Weigh the dry mix

Rolled oats, nuts, seeds and sometimes puffed rice are blended. Dried fruit and chocolate pieces may go in too.

Goes in
Rolled oats
Coat with syrup

Honey, corn syrup or maple syrup is stirred through the dry mix. The syrup is what holds the pieces together once it cools.

Goes in
Honey Corn syrup
Press into a mold

The sticky mix is pressed into molds or a flat, even slab. Pressure matters, because loose granola crumbles instead of staying a bar.
Bake until set

An oven toasts the mix and sets the syrup. Time and temperature change with the recipe, and the bars then cool to room temperature.
Slice the slab

Blades cut the cooled slab into individual bars of equal size.
Wrap each bar

Bars are wrapped one by one and boxed, ready for lunch boxes and backpacks.

End of the lineGranola bar

Worth repeating

The first granola, called granula, was invented in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson in Dansville, New York.
In 1969 at Woodstock, volunteers fed about 130,000 people from Dixie cups of muesli.
The invention of the granola bar is disputed between two US inventors, though most of the credit goes to Stanley Mason.