Why make your own granola? Several reasons.
- It’s dead easy.
- It’s inexpensive.
- It’s exactly the way you want it.
- It’s delicious!
Last week I started a new series called Kitchen Tool Roundup with a review of the Bosch oat flaker. Although I use rolled oats in recipes from porridge to cookies to muffins, that particular day I was flaking them to make granola.
This granola recipe is so customizable, I hesitate to call it a recipe. It’s more of a guideline, which you can tweak to what suits you and your family.
Granola Recipe
In a pot over low heat, melt together:
1 cup honey
3/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Add the following to the honey/oil mixture:
1.5 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
.5 teaspoon ginger
Stir thoroughly and set aside, off the heat.
In a large bowl, mix together:
5 cups flakes, a mix of old-fashioned rolled oats, barley flakes, wheat flakes, rye flakes, or other (up to 1 cup of this can be toasted wheat germ or wheat or oat bran; the rest should be flakes)
2.5 cups mixed seeds and nuts, such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chopped nuts, coconut
Stir together, add honey mixture, mix thoroughly. Pour into 2 large metal pans.
Bake at 300 for 30-35 minutes until golden brown, stirring often. Rotate pans in your oven part way through if needed.
Add: 3 cups chopped mixed dried fruit such as raisins, dates, apricots, cranberries, cherries (I don’t usually add any dried fruit to summer granola, as the whole point of granola is to enjoy it with fresh fruit and yogurt.)
Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container. This time I made a double batch and froze 2/3 of it in ziplocs, so it wouldn’t become stale.
Now I’m all set to enjoy fresh fruit for breakfast all summer long! Raspberries are ripening now. Yum.
