I know, I know. It doesn’t seem very experimental or crazy. But I’ve never made homemade granola before so this process is very new to me. And I’m so excited to share it all with you because it is absolutely simple and delicious. Who knew?!? Certainly not me. It’s just a matter of picking out your favorite ingredients to make it all happen. First thing I did was post a question to my Facebook and Twitter followers to see what ingredients they wanted me to add…and the responses were great! Dried apricots and mango, shredded coconut, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, chocolate, peanut butter and so much more! Now that I write this post, I wish I had added macadamia nuts so I highly recommend adding those as well. With their ideas and some of my own, I came up with what I think is incredibly scrumptious homemade granola.
Homemade Cinnamon and Coconut Granola
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
1/3 cup roasted salted hulled pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup roasted salted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds (I used blueberry flavored flax seeds)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut oil (can use canola oil)
1/2 cup raw honey (I used wild blackberry)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries, blueberries, raisins and cherries
I preheated the oven to 300 degrees. I mixed the nuts, seeds, coconut, cinnamon and salt together in a bowl and stirred to combine.
I added the old-fashioned oats and combined again.
Separately, I combined the maple syrup, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla extract in a bowl. Well, my mother added the honey 🙂 Thanks Mom!
I microwaved the mixture for 30 seconds just to warm everything up a little then stirred to combine.
I mixed the coconut oil mixture in to the oat mixture and stirred to combine. The mixture should be pretty wet. I spread it out on to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and baked for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally so the mixture didn’t burn.
Once the granola came out of the oven, I mixed in the dried fruit then cooked for another 10-15 minutes. When the granola comes out, it will seem a bit wet but as it dries, the texture will become nice and crunchy!
And that’s it! Can you believe it? I guess if you’ve made your own granola before, you can believe it, but if you always buy your granola from a grocery store, this is your chance to try it out in your own kitchen. No fillers. No preservatives. Just fresh ingredients. You don’t even have to go grocery shopping to make your own granola. Just use the ingredients you have lying around your kitchen! This is YOUR homemade granola so add what you want. Add chocolate! Add macadamia nuts! Add candied pecans! Okay, now I need to go make another batch…
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