Naturally sweetened, gluten-free, chewy granola bar recipe

These make a dense, chewy bar. Lots of "extras" could be added, such as coconut, diced dried fruits, nuts, etc.

Renee's Gluten-Free Granola Bars:
Dry ingredients:
2.5 cups broken organic rolled oats (I run mine through my Vitamix to break them up a little bit)
1/2 cup organic oat flour (you can make your own here)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup local orange blossom honey
1 beaten organic egg
1/2 cup organic applesauce
3 Tbs organic canola oil or melted butter
2 tsps vanilla extract (homemade is preferred)

After cooked ingredient:
Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line a 9x13 glass pan with parchment paper.
2. In a largish bowl, mix everything together.
3. Spread the mixture into the lined pan. The mixture might look like it won't fit into the pan, but it will! I promise! Just keep spreading it with the back of a spoon until it's level and even.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes and then rotate the pan; cook until golden brown on the edges.
5. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the bars after you've taken them out of the oven.
6. Set you timer for 5 minutes.
7. Spread the chocolate chips around to make a chocolate topping for the bars.
8. Lift the parchment paper out of the pan onto a cutting board and cut the bars with a sharp knife. I normally do 4 cuts the long direction of the pan and three cuts the short direction to get 12 bars.
9. Let cool and then store in an airtight container. I keep ours in the freezer.