Crunchy Granola

Ten years ago, I was totally a mainstream person and would have laughed at anyone who told me I would such a hippie now. Homeschooling mom, breastfeeding advocate, holistic health care believer, GMO fighter, whole food eating, home birthing, cloth diapering and now even granola. Now, I know plenty of people out there a lot more crunchier then I, so I really consider myself sorta crunchy. I’m headed that direction but won’t beat myself up if I get fast food every once in awhile.

I started out this way just to save money. I wanted to stay at home with my kids so we cut everything back, way back. Then it became a game. How much more could I save? This all came in very handy when my husband lost his job a few years ago.

One of the 1st things I learned to make homemade was bread and granola. We go through a ton of both in this house. Cereal is about $5 a box, loaded with a bunch of junk, and only lasts a couple of days here if we’re lucky. I have tried many, many different types of granola over the years, but I have finally found one that is perfect for us.
Without further ado, here it is;

Ingredients:

10 cups old fashioned and/or steel cut oats (I like to use a combo)

1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1 1/2 cups of nuts and/or seeds (sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, etc.)

1/2 cup hemp seeds

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

1 cup chocolate chips ( yeah I know that’s a giant bag. You should see the size of my M&M bag in the freezer, see kinda crunchy.)

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 cups maple syrup or agave nectar

2 Tbsp Vanilla extract

1 Tbsp almond extract

Optional : 1/ 1/2 cups dried fruit (ie raisins or dried cranberries) for after baking.

 

Step 1) Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Step 2) Stir together the dry ingredients (oats, seeds, nuts,coconut flakes, salt, cinnamon, and chocolate chips.) except the dried fruit.

My kids don’t like biting into the nuts and seeds so I hide them in there by chopping them up 1st. They have no clue!

Step 3) Warm the coconut oil. Coconut oil is a solid below 76 degrees so you will need to warm it if it is solid either on the stove or in the microwave for a couple of seconds. I use this stuff for everything from cooking oil to lotion.

Step 4) In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, maple syrup, and the extracts until it becomes a smooth syrup.

Step 5) Add syrup to dried ingredients. Stir until everything is coated evenly.

Step 6) Either grease or cover in parchment paper, 2 18×13 in pans. I prefer to parchment paper on my stones. It makes clean up really easy.

Step 7) Pour the granola onto the pans making sure to spread out evenly.

Step 8) Put the pans in the oven for 90 mins making sure to stir every 30 mins. After 90 mins, turn off the oven and leave the granola in for up to 4 hours. This gives it its crunchiness. Once out of the oven and cool, you can now add the raisins or died fruit. If you add it before you will have exploding fruit!

There you have it, homemade Granola! This usually lasts us about 2 weeks ( it can last upto 3 weeks in a sealed container). Granola is a lot heavier then regular cereal so we only eat about 1/2 cup of it mixed with either milk or yogurt and we don’t get as hungry as fast. I usually make a batch of this on Sunday morning while making a double batch of pancakes ( we freeze the other batch to have later in the week.), so we call Sunday morning breakfast day. lol

For a printable recipe card for this granola recipe, click here!

The great thing with granola is that you can sub what you have on hand or mix up flavors such as dried apples and apple pie spices. Make it your own!

What is your favorite thing to add granola too?