Homemade Granola, delicious crunchy, sweet, crispy and fruity.
I remember eating granola as a kid; my mom made the most amazing granola.
Doused in chilled milk or snatched from a bag in my tiny fist, my mom’s granola was better than any boxed version.
As an adult and admitted food and recipe obsessed person, it’s somewhat embarrassing to admit that homemade granola is one thing I’ve never tackled. (until now
One of my favorite go-to recipe blogs, fellow redhead and all around favorite people ever, Heather of Home Ec-101, posted the Easiest Homemade Granola Ever recipe and I must admit, I was inspired.
Y’all know me though, I can’t leave a recipe alone; I am compelled to tweak and twiddle and mess with every recipe that I come across.
I now have what I believe to be the MOST amazingly delicious homemade granola recipe ever.
Mixing the ingredients for this ridiculously easy, filling and delicious granola takes less than 5 minutes, baking it to crispy, golden heavenly perfection takes about an hour to an hour and a half.
Mix Oats, coconut, walnuts and almonds* together in your largest mixing bowl
Top with your binding mixture of honey, vegetable oil, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon and applesauce
Mix together until all ingredients are perfectly blended.
Divide and place on two baking sheets (your cooking time will differ if your baking sheets are dark or light)
Bake at 250 for 1 hour 20 minutes on light or 1 hour 10 minutes on dark non-stick, stir and mix every now and then, you want the granola to turn a lovely golden color, they will crisp up after they’re out of the oven. ( 20 minute intervals works well)
Remove from the oven, allow to cool.. add in dried cranberries, raisins, dried cherries (I would have added dried apples and nectarines if I’d had them)
This is amazing served in a bowl cereal style with ice cold milk
or by the handful. It’s healthy, chock full of anti-oxidents and all that yumminess without the preservatives and cost of the store bought kind.
Seriously, $4ish dollars for less than a pound of store bought granola or $4 for 2 gallon size bags (if you make two batches like I did) chock full of homemade healthy granola
Recipe: Homemade Granola
Ingredients
- 6 C oats (NOT the quick cooking ones)
- 1 C sliced almonds
- 1 C chopped walnuts
- 1 1/2 C shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 C applesauce
- 1/2 C honey
- 2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 C light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 C raisins
- 1 C dried cherries
- 1 C dried cranberries
- or dried apples, nectarines etc….
Instructions
- In your biggest mixing bowl, mix together; oats, almonds, walnuts and coconut
- In a small bowl mix together: 1/2 C honey, 1 C applesauce, 2 Tbsp vanilla, 1/2 C brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- Pour the applesauce mixture over the oat mixture and combine thoroughly. Use your hands (preferred) or a spoon and mix until thoroughly combined
- Spread the mixture over two baking sheets and bake at 250 F for about 1 hour 20 minutes.
- If the baking sheet is light it will take about 1 hour 20 minutes, if it’s dark/non-stick it will take about 1 hour (these are {abouts} it will depend on your oven, you want the granola to have turned a lovely golden brown. It will get crispy after it’s removed from the oven and allowed to cool
- stir the granola every 20 minutes
- remove from the heat and allow to cool, this is when it will crisp up
- add in dried fruit: cranberries, raisins, cherries, apples etc…
- this recipe will yield 1 gallon sized storage bag
*apparently the Print plug-in is broken, AGAIN! GRRRRRR.. As always, you can use the Print Friendly button to print the recipe with or without images and deleting whatever text isn’t relevant.
thank y’all for linking up and for y’all’s patience with the print/recipe plug-in issues! I love seeing what y’all are making. Thank you so much for sharing! Don’t forget, link up your recipe URL, leave a comment, link back here in your post and don’t forget to visit the other participants!!!
psssssst: I’m nominated for the Tastiest Blog Award and I’d REALLY appreciate your votes! I’m up against some really major competition!
But, I would have written about it anyway!
