What These Granola Bars and The Microwave Have in Common

Juliana Kenny : Techfast
Juliana Kenny
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What These Granola Bars and The Microwave Have in Common

They were both accidents.

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, but when life hands you weird macarons, make... granola bars? Sure.

We all have "oops!" moments. Most recently, Mariela Castro Espin, the niece of Fidel Castro, when she noted how impressed she was with the legalized prostitution system in Amsterdam. That was such an "oops!" moment, she had to open a Twitter account to clear up the whole thing. But read Beecher Tuttle's article to get the scoop, and check out the rest of today's Techfast eNewsletter for other tasty insight!

Tons of important tools and useful items have been invented by accident, by turning failures into successes. Penicillin was an accident, was it not? Half of us would probably be dead if Alexander Fleming had remembered to clean up his work station that day before leaving for vacation. 

So much technology has come to us through accidental happenstance. Take, for example, the microwave. According to varied sources,  Percy Spencer began the invention process for the microwave while experimenting with a new vacuum tube called a magnetron. The candy bar in his pocket began to melt during experimentation, and then he popped popcorn. Two years later, the microwave came out. 

Of course, the actual development of the technology was more complicated than simply throwing some corn kernels into his pocket and standing next to the magnetron, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?

The same goes for breakfast foods. Granola bars can be pretty "blah," but not if they are derived from a batch of chocolate macarons gone awry! I'll spare you the ugly details of how "wrong" these macarons turned out, even though they looked lovely, and I'll cut to the delicious chase.

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Those macarons are too flat and sticky (but they look so good! I know!), take my word for it. Really, you can use any chocolate-like cookie for this recipe, and your granola bars will be just as accidentally delicious. 

The fun part about making granola bars is that you can basically throw in anything you want, as long as you have a decent combination of wet and dry ingredients, they'll turn out well. You'll also have an original recipe! The following is simply my own version:

The OOPS! Granola Bar

2 cups rolled oats
About 16 chocolate cookies (cocoa macarons, in this case)
1/2 cup raw pecans, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup butter, melted (I used Earth Balance, vegan butter)
1/2 cup agave nectar
a whole bunch o' cinnamon

Pulse the oats, cookies, and cinnamon together in a food processor. Transfer to a medium-sized bowl. Mix in the melted butter, and agave nectar til well-combined. Stir in pecans, dried cranberries, and chocolate chips. Spread evenly into a 13-inch baking tray, and bake for approximately 40 minutes at 325 degrees F, or until the top is just dry. Cool for at least 10 minutes, then cut into squares. 

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Enjoy!
 


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2 Comments

How much agave nectar? It didn't specify! :(

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