My Favorite Granola

To say my husband and I love granola would be an understatement. If it’s in the house, you’ll certainly find us eating it by the fistful! Unfortunately granola (without a lot of additives, sugar, etc) can be quite expensive.

My granola recipe is super easy and you can easily make it sweeter (we don’t like it overly sweet), add more nuts, dried fruit or leave out any nuts or seeds you don’t like (or are allergic to).

Calories:
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time 40-50 minutes
Makes approximately 13 cups of heaven

Ingredients:

7 c rolled oats
3/4 c wheat germ
1 c sunflower seeds
1/2 whole almonds
1/2 sliced almonds
1 c walnuts
1 1/8 c cashews (I put a lot because I specifically dig for these suckers)
1/4 c roasted sesame seeds

1/8 c maple syrup (or agave)
3/4 c vegetable oil (do not replace with olive oil)
3/4 c honey
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp salt

1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 c raisins
1 cup chopped dates

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F

2. Mix the first 8 ingredients together in a large bowl. This includes the rolled oats, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, whole almonds, sliced almonds, walnuts, cashews, sesame seeds. Make sure all ingredients are mixed together well.

3. In a sauce pan mix together: maple syrup, vegetable oil, honey, vanilla extract, brown sugar, and salt. Stir ingredients together cooking over low/med heat. These ingredients can burn easily so keep an eye on them. When liquids starts to simmer remove from heat.

4. Pour liquid over top of dry granola ingredients. Try to spread the liquid to ensure all ingredients are coated. Use a wooden spoon/spatula to mix the dry and liquid ingredients together.

5. On parchment covered baking trays spread granola evenly. I had to use 3 trays to lay out all the granola.

6. Put 1 to 2 trays in your oven depending on the evenness of its heating. I switched the trays once to ensure they all had the same golden brown colouring. The granola takes approximately 40-50 minutes to cook. But as it burns easily I always set a timer and mix the ingredients every 10-15 minutes.

7. While you’re waiting, prepare your dried fruit. Chop up the dates and mix together with raisins and dried cranberries.

8. After 30 minutes of baking, add the dried fruit to your granola trays. Bake for another 15 minutes. DO NOT mix the dried fruit into granola until the last 15 minutes of baking as the fruit can get very hard and burn.

9. Wait for the granola to cool before storing in air tight containers or ziplock bags

*In my original recipe and video I added 1/3 c ground flax but upon further research, flax is really only beneficial after being freshly ground. It also loses a significant amount of its nutritional value in the oven. So..i’d skip this or add it when it’s all done. Just remember don’t add too much, the taste can be over powering.