Simple Granola Recipe (made with ingredients around the house)

Homemade yogurt is not complete without some crunchy granola.  Granola adds nice flavor, crunch, and extra protein for stay power to your yogurt.  The problem with homemade granola is it can get so darn complicated and expensive to make.  Thus, with the goal of making a quick & simple granola to add to my homemade yogurt I turned to the internet.  I found a simple recipe with ratios, this I could work & experiment with… On the first attempt I made a small batch and while it turned out flavor-wise  it was not very “granola-ie”.  I used the wrong oatmeal thinking quick oats would be just the same as whole old fashion – but they are not.  Also this first attempt was lacking the “clump factor” of granola.  For attempt two I got to thinking about clumping & the very complex granola recipe in my cookbook, which I have never made but seen made and it is indeed “clump-a-licious” granola.  So with that in mind I made it again, and added an egg.  The egg is the one item missing from the online recipe but found in my complicated cookbook recipe.  The egg, did the trick in helping the granola to hold together better.  My favorite part about this recipe is that it is ratio based and simple!  The recipe offers ratios and gives you the ability to twist, create, and design a healthy granola that fits into your unique food style.  Let’s get to it…

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups oats – the one picky ingredient in the whole recipe, use whole old fashioned oats if you can, also get gluten free oats, if you need it to be gluten free
• 1 cup any mix of chopped nuts and/or seeds, whatever sounds delectable to you.  I use all almonds.
• 1/2 cup mix of dried fruit (chopped roughly, if large) **Optional** I omit this because dried fruit in yogurt does not appeal to us.
• 1/4 cup oil – I use extra virgin olive oil, but melted butter could work also
• 1/4 cup syrupy sweetener or mix thereof (honey, maple syrup, etc.)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon – **optional** you can also add other spices which sound good to you.

Directions:

First we are going to slightly toast our oats and nuts.  Turn you oven on to 350.  Measure out your oats and nuts and dump into a 12×15 bar pan or 9×13 cake pan. Mix with your hand and spread out so the the bottom of the pan is covered.  Once oven is up to temperature, place pan in oven and bake for about 9 or 10 minutes.   Check every 3 minutes and give it a little stir, this ensures an even “roastyness” & “brownness”.  Check out pic’s of this below.

Meanwhile, measure out a 1/4 cup of honey or whatever syrup sticky thing you want to use and 1/4 cup of oil into a small sauce pan.  Turn on a low heat stir occasionally and get it bubbling.  Then turn off and wait for your roasted oats and nuts to finish in the oven.

Once your oats and nuts are done roasting in oven remove and dump into a metal bowl.  Be careful they will be hot and keep your oven on.  At this point add your cinnamon or other spices if you desire, mix.  Then add egg, and oil/honey mixture and stir.  Once incorporated, take a second to spray the pan you used for the roasting with a bit of non-stick stuff, then spread the mixture back out on to your greased pan and return to oven.

Once in the oven for the second time, set timer for 10 minutes.  Once it rings open the oven check on progress, maybe give a quick stir so it cooks evenly and then cook it up to 5 more minutes.  I prefer mine a bit darker to bring out the “roastyness” and “goldenness” so I cook mine the full 15 minutes but you can pull it out at any time.  Really flexible…  Once out of oven remove from pan to wax paper or to a metal bowl if adding dried fruit.  This is the point you add your dried fruit if you want it, just stir it in.  I usually omit because we do not like it in our yogurt.   NOTE:  sometimes this is a bit soft while warm, but as it cools it does harden; and leave as intact as possible to help form those nice clumps.

Once cool, store in an airtight container and enjoy plain as a quick snack on the go or coupled with some delish homemade yogurt and strawberry freezer jam – yum.

Notes/Tips:

My favorite part about the recipe… taste it once cool then make some tasting notes and adjust for next time until you have it just how you and/or your family like it:

1. Too salty, not enough salt – maybe next time add some.
2. Too sweet/not sweet enough?  Maybe next time go a bit higher on the honey or use a different sweeter.
3. Is there an over powering flavor?  Maybe tone it down for next time.
4. How was the cinnamon?  Too weak or too strong, adjust how you see fit.

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions!  Enjoy~ Megan

***PS:  Check out what we have been up to in our new addition canning kitchen.  Walls are up,  stove cabinet built, and stove is installed.  Next step is to get the hood vent installed.  We are so excited to use this range this summer…. Enjoy!