My Granola (ingredients, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I don't like the commercially made granolas, partially because they tend to be stale, but mostly because they contain too much sugar. I don't want my breakfast cereal clumped together like Cracker Jacks.


So, I make my own. Less sugar, much fresher, and possibly much cheaper depending upon what ingredients you choose. There is no air to fluff it up, so a satisfying serving is rather small.


Granola


10 cups rolled oats (old fashioned, not quick)
1/2 cup oil


2 Cups coconut
2 cups coarsely chopped nuts, pecans, almonds, or walnuts ( or macadamias if you happen to be rich)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup brown sugar


1 to 2 cups dried fruit, in smallish pieces


preheat oven to 350.


thoroughly blend oil and oatmeal
spread thin on cookie sheets, bake for 12 minutes.


Remove oats from oven and mix in coconut, nuts, vanilla, brown sugar. Mix thoroughly.


Spread on cookie sheets and return to oven to bake for 10 more minutes.


Remove from oven and mix in the dried fruit.



Cook's notes: oats and the rest of it cook at different rates. If you just mix it all together and bake , either the coconut will be burned or the oats will be pasty.


You can make this as expensive or cheap as you want.


Leave the fruit out and add cinnamon, leave both fruit and nuts out to save money, use maple extract instead of vanilla.


The batch I am eating now is strawberry and sliced almonds. Before that it was blueberries and walnuts, before that cranberries and pecans.


The amount of dried fruit can be varied either for cost or for taste. 2 cups of dried blueberries is too much fruit and 2 cups if dried strawberries hardly seems enough.



For more health, add a couple tablespoons of flax seed at the same time you add the nuts. Or use pumpkin seeds.

[burdell]

I keep thinking of hearing The Knack singing My Granola!

[Medtran49]

I used to make my own granola and would have it for lunch with vanilla yogurt. Not sure why I stopped making it. Need to see if I can find the recipe since I got some oats to make kitty treats. Totally agree that homemade to your likes is so much better. I can't stand commercially made either.

[gemstone1]

Not that I'm too lazy to make it, but I buy mine here....Azure Standard, in bulk.

Regards
Gemstone1

[jean_ji]

I make my own granola too. It’s a big batch and lasts for months. It doesn’t form clumps because of the low oil content. The grandkids sprinkle it on my homemade yogurt after school. They feel cheated if they don’t get a ginger piece. . I like a spoonful on my cooked steel cut oats and yogurt too.


Here’s my recipe. I use maple syrup:

Granola

¼ c olive oil
½ -⅔ c honey or maple syrup

heat these together in the microwave for about 1.5 min until warm. Stir in

1/4 c cinnamon

In a large roasting pan:
10 c old fashioned oats
2 c nuts (slivered almonds and pecans are favorites - I usually break them up some)

Pour liquid over oats/ nuts in roasting pan and mix really well until everything is well coated.

Bake at 325 for 15 minutes, stir (especially in from the edges where it tends to brown first). 10 more min, stir repeat from * twice more. So total of 45 minutes baking, stirs at 15, 25, and 35 minutes in.

Take out of oven and sprinkle on 1 cup mixed dried fruit (Cherries and blueberries are my favorites) and 1/4 cup crystalized ginger.

Cool, put in containers

[/url]