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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Homemade Granola

I made homemade granola for our trip to Bear Lake this past weekend. It was so good, and healthy too! I got the recipe from melskitchencafe.com (all her recipes are truly amazing). I'll post the original recipe and put notes of how I made it in italics.
Classic Granola
(this is her picture as well)

6-1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)
2-1/2 cups unsweetened, desiccated coconut (I used basic sweetened coconut)
1 cup raisins (I like golden raisins)
1 cup dried cranberries
1 1/4-1 1/2 cups sliced almonds (or whole, chopped, slivered or a combination) (I used sliced)
1 1/4 cups pecans (whole or chopped to the size you like) (I don't like pecans, so I leave these out and toss in a few more almonds).
1/2 cup high-quality honey
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup flax seeds (I never have these, so I just substitute more sunflower seeds)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
 (I find that I usually need a bit more of the honey/canola oil mixture to get it to clump up the way I like it. Also, if you add about 1/4 cup more honey, you can make granola bars).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well to distribute oil and honey evenly. Spread a thin layer of mixture on two rimmed baking sheets (half sheet pans) lined with parchment paper (I used my silpat liners). Bake for 15-20 minutes stirring mixture and rotating sheets half way through until mixture is an even golden brown. Be careful to watch granola: it will quickly turn from golden to burnt and will continue to cook as it cools when you take it out of the oven. Mixture will be moist when it comes out of the oven but will crisp and clump as it cools. Keeps for 1-2 weeks. (Let it cool in the pans. If you stir or move it too much, it won't clump up very well).

Variations:
• Substitute any of the nuts for other nuts such as cashews, walnuts or peanuts (it’s nice to leave some of the nuts whole as it varies the texture)
• Add additional dried fruit such as apricots or dates
• Add 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I always add vanilla)
• For extra-nutty granola increase proportion of nuts

Enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. Oh my goodness, first of all I thought this said 65 cups of oats and 25 cups coconut. I thought, how much granola are we making here? Yikes! It has to be eaten in a week and a half!!! Anyway, thanks for the recipe, I am going to try it - I am a big homemade granola fan. Now I am embarrassed....

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