A friend received dried cherries for Christmas, and emailed SeedtoSpoon for an idea how to use them. Perhaps something with dark chocolate?

I suggested this recipe for homemade granola bars. If you don’t have cherries and dark chocolate, you could easily substitute semi-sweet chocolate, raisins, coconut, walnuts, almonds, whatever. The bars make great after-school snacks, although they’re so good, you might be tempted to save them to go with your coffee!

Dark Chocolate-Cherry Granola Bars
1 1/2 cup oats (not steel cut)
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate (or semi-sweet morsels)
1 tablespoon flour

Preheat oven to 325. Put oats in a large sauté pan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, about 8-10 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside. Lightly butter an 8-x-8 or 9×9 pan. Whisk the egg and egg white, then stir in brown sugar, oil, cinnamon, salt and vanilla extract. Stir in toasted oats, dried cherries, dark chocolate and flour. Spread in the pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool and cut into bars.