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:
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Prepare baking sheet with a layer of aluminum foil or wax paper.
- In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together (except the dried fruit, while be added the last 5 minutes of baking time).
- 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.
- 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!
- Spread granola mixture onto your baking sheet
- 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.
- After 45 minutes of baking your granola, let your granola cool down unstirred for 15-20 minutes.
- Pull the sides of the aluminum foil/wax paper up to loosen up your granola and pour into multiple jars or a large container!
- 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!