Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

Wet Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup of unsweetened apple sauce
  • 1/4 cup of brown sugar
  • 4 Tablespoons of brown rice syrup (or honey)
  • 1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon
  •  2 Tablespoons of peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
  • Optional Ingredients (to add to basic recipe to mix up flavors):
    • In lieu of apple sauce: 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree or mashed banana and pear
    • In addition or in lieu of ground cinnamon: ground pumpkin spice, unsweetened cocoa powder, or any other ground baking spice of your choice (add only 1 tsp of stronger spices such as nutmeg)
    • In lieu of peanut butter, you can use any nut butters! Almond butter is good too!
    • Add 1/2 medium apple chopped or 3 fresh figs chopped

Dry Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of rolled oats
  • 1 cup of walnuts, whole or chopped (I like chopped in my granola)
  • 1 cup of almonds, whole, chopped, or sliced (I like sliced in my granola)
  • 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
  • 2 Tablespoons of ground flaxseed
  • 1/2 cup of dried fruit (my favorite is dried cherries, but you can use raisins, craisins, dried blueberries, dried apples, cocoa nibs, etc.)
  • Optional ingredients (to add to your basic granola):
    • 1/8 cup of chia seeds
    • 1/8 cup sesame seeds
    • 1/2 cup of millet
    • 1/4 cup pepita seeds
    • Other nuts/seeds of choice!

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Prepare baking sheet with a layer of aluminum foil or wax paper.
  2. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together (except the dried fruit, while be added the last 5 minutes of baking time).
  3. In a small pan, mix together all the wet ingredients and bring to a boil. Once the wet mixture starts to bubble, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir every minute.
  4. Add the dry ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl. Stir the mixtures together well. The quicker you mix the easier it will be to stir!
  5. Spread granola mixture onto your baking sheet
  6. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for a total of 45 minutes.
    • After the granola has baked for 20 minutes, take the granola out of the oven for a minute, stir the granola on the baking sheet, and spread out on the baking sheet again.
    • After the granola has baked for a total of 40 minutes of baking, take out the baking sheet again and mix in your dried fruit to bake for the last 5 minutes.
  7. After 45 minutes of baking your granola, let your granola cool down unstirred for 15-20 minutes.
  8. Pull the sides of the aluminum foil/wax paper up to loosen up your granola and pour into multiple jars or a large container!
  9. Optional: Store your granola in the refrigerator

Adapted from Oh She Glows Granola Recipe 

I have made probably 20 different variations of this recipe! I haven’t tried another basic recipe because I just love this one so much!

The more batches you make, the more you can experiment with flavors and not have to rely on measuring cups/spoons! Just have fun and enjoy your granola in milk, yogurt, oatmeal, or just eat it plain for a snack!

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