Granola

UPDATED VERSION. Original post was published March 29, 2011

I do love a bowl of vanilla yogurt with fruit and granola for breakfast.

Sure, you can buy granola at the grocery store, or even better, homemade from a place like Terra Breads. But it’s expensive, and could be loaded with tons of extra oils and fats.

Making it at home is much cheaper because you can go to a bulk food store and buy just what you need for your recipe (which, in most cases is only about a 1/2 cup), and you also have a lot more control over the nutritional and fat content. And it’s surprisingly easy.

Now, Granola is definitely higher in fat than many breakfast cereals. However, it’s packed with mostly good fats that come from nuts and, despite its smaller portion size, it’s packed with protein.

This is a very “loose” recipe. Use it as a guideline but feel free to substitute and swap out which nuts and fruits you prefer.

Granola

Rebecca Coleman

A simple and easily adjustable recipe for homemade granola.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Course Breakfast, brunch

Cuisine American, Canadian

Servings 10

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups rolled oats NOT instant rolled oats, the large, old fashioned flaked kind
• 1/2 cup coconut non sweetened
• 1/2 cup larger nuts: almonds, walnuts, cashews or pecans whole, chopped or slivered
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds or pepitas
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds or flax seeds
• 1/3--1/2 cup dried fruit raisins, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, apricots, whatever you like
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla or maple flavouring
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
• In a large bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients, except for the dried fruit.
• In a smaller bowl (I use a 2 cup pyrex liquid measuring cup for this part), mix together the coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and cinnamon. Whisk well to combine.
• Mix the wet ingredients into they dry using a spatula, until they are well incorporated and the dry ingredients are all coated with the oil/syrup mixture.
• Spread in a thin layer on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and bake for 20 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and stir the granola well. Return to the oven for about another 20 minutes. You will know if the granola is done when the oats start to get tanned and toasty looking, starting to brown.
• Remove from the oven and stir in the fruit.
• Allow to cool. The granola will crisp up as it cools.
• Break into chunks and store in an airtight container.

Keyword granola

If you really love a chunkier granola, try this method of baking.

Nigella’s version is also very nice. I haven’t yet tried the Chocolate version, but it looks good.