Done and done! We are never buying granola again. Well, I guess I shouldn't say never, but we are certainly suckers for making our own, now that we've tackled it. Last night the house literally smelled like cinnamony, vanilla spiced heaven. Walt walked in the door from a long day at work and said, 'Woah, what are you baking?' When he saw the granola and pinched a taste he said, 'Wow!' Ok, let me explain. Walt never, ever, ever says wow. It's just not one of those words in his vocabulary. On the other hand, I use it all the time. This is huge, people...HUGE!
So without further delay, here's this splendid recipe below. We adjusted/substituted based on the recipe HERE that was passed along to us from our good friend Kathi. After we posted HERE that we were in the market for making our own granola (for the first time ever) she shared how much her family adores this David Lebovitz version. We headed over and wrote down what ingredients we still needed and added our own substitutions and additions to make it 'more our own!' It's scrumptious, light, not to sweet and we've literally had to hold ourselves back from being a buncha granola heads over the last 15 hours. I could munch on it all day long!
Homemade Granola
Ingredients:
5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups raisins
3 cups almonds, coarsely chopped
1 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup un-toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (or another unsweetened fruit puree)
1/3 cup syrup (we used full flavor molasses)
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300F. In a very large bowl, mix together the flaked grains or oats, raisins, almonds, sunflower and sesame seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. In a small saucepan, warm the fruit puree with the rice syrup, honey, oils and vanilla extract.
Mix the fruit mixture into the dry ingredients until thoroughly dispersed, then divide and spread the mixture evenly on two baking sheets. If you have ones with sides, often called jelly-roll pans, use them. We used one cookie sheet and one jelly roll pan and it worked great!
Bake the granola for about 45 minutes, stirring every ten minutes, until the granola is deep golden brown. Remove from oven, then cool completely. Store the granola in a large, airtight container. It will keep for up to one month.
How do I like to nosh on my granola? I top organic greek or plain yogurt with a few tablespoons of granola and drizzle local honey on top! Mix and enjoy...it really is my perfect snack!
Raw almonds are something we always have on hand. We purchase them in bulk and store them on the counter (for a quick snack) and in the pantry to re-fill constantly.
Chopped up the almonds in our food processor but we love bigger chunks so I was light handed on the chopping action.
Bulk oats...
Sunflower seeds...we also always have these in our pantry. We love to put them on our salads for that extra punch of protein and hardiness.
The dried goods, minus the raisins.
Spicy mc spicy pants...ready to be added!
All mixed up with spices and raisins. This is a massive mixing bowl. Just fyi, use your biggest mixing bowl...this recipe doesn't fool around and yields a ton of granola!
Molasses syrup...yummmers!
The oils.
I pretty much am a sucker for anything that includes this as an ingredient. We can't wait to make our own for next year's holiday season. We'll be sure to use Bake Cakery's recipe HERE! But it takes four months to simmer...so we're going to opt out for now.
The fruity vanilla oily mixture that smelled oh so good!
I used our trusty tongs to mix it all together. Make sure every little piece of oat is covered in the fruity oily goodness. You don't want any dry pieces in there.
Plopped half in a jelly roll and half on a cookie sheet and into the oven they go. We stirred every ten minutes because I probably would've cried if it burned.
The result...YUM! You can already see some snacking going on in the bottom right section of the cookie sheet on the left. Yep, we couldn't control the urge to grab a handful of warm granola goodness...pretty much every time we walked by!
That is one happy boy with a huge tupperware full of granola. Actually, he has a ride along with his boss today and I just got a text saying, "Bryan and I are totally enjoying the granola...thanks for making it!" Looks like it's even a hit with Walt's boss-man too...cha-ching! And now the boss-man wants the recipe...score! Make it, enjoy it and never buy it again, ha!
Take a minute and check out our other awesome weekly recipe re-caps we've featured so far: Easy Baked Kale Chips, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Healthy and Hearty Meat Soup, Easy and Healthy Banana Whip Dessert, Bon Appetit's Strawberry, Lemon and Basil Flavored Soda, Momma's Breakfast Strata, Quick and Easy Shredded Chicken and Black Olive Enchiladas, Yo Momma Blind Man Barbecue Chicken, Real Simple's Yellow Cake with Fresh Strawberry Filling and Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting, Banana Bread, Linguine with Zucchini and Chickpeas, Homemade Ziti, Creamy Fettuccine With Corn and Arugula, Maple BBQ Turkey Sloppy Joe's, BHG's Greek Spinach Veggie Burgers, Mark Bittman's Chicken in a Pot, My Momma's Monkey Bread, CC Hubby's Easy Chicken Parmesan, Sophie Dahl's Chicken Stew with Green Olives and Asparagus/Edamame Salad, Ryan's Poached Egg Breakfast Ramekin Surprise, Momma's Homemade Chili, Christina's Paprika Chicken, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Dog Treats, Momma's Crockpot Pot Roast, Vanessa Barrington's Almond Milk, Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie, Sweet Frozen Lime Slices, Amy's Awesome Homemade Pizza Crust, Brownie Caramel (Pecan) Cake, Papa Horner's Grill Top Paella, What's New Cupcake's Chocolate Chunk Surprise, Green Monster Smoothie, Bacon/Onion Compote Served on Crostini with Gruyere, Eat Clean's Meal in a Bowl Soup, Elie Krieger's Thai-Style Halibut with Coconut Curry Broth, Williams Sonoma's Cauliflower with Orange Zest and Green Onion, Williams Sonoma's Summer Fruit Parfaits, Williams Sonoma's Grilled Beef Fillets with Mushrooms and Red Wine Sauce, Eat Clean's Tam's Constitutional Muffins, Healthy for Life's Stuffed Peppers, Mango, Dill and Cilantro Gazpacho, Women's Health Curried Sweet Potato and Chickpea Stew, Real Simple's Vegetarian Tacos, Aunt Beth's Pineapple Souffle, 15 Minute Cream Biscuits, Sunset Magazine's North Indian Style Spinach Chicken, Mrs. O'Callaghan's Soda Bread, Jordan's Momma's Quiche Lorraine, Shelby's Leek and Lima Bean Soup, Rosemary Grilled Kabobs, Homemade Tomato Soup, Easy Fruit Cobbler, Macho Man Meatballs, Super Bowl Dip Trio, Nana's No Bake Cheesecake, Rum Cake and Microwave Spiced Nuts.
