My family loves Granola and if I buy it in the store, a box lasts about 1 day in our house (if they don’t eat it all within the first hour after I get home from the grocery store). So, I started making granola from scratch and find it easy to make and helps our food budget stretch a little farther. I can also sneak in some healthy ingredients like flax seed and wheat germ. The base is old fashioned oats which I think are pretty healthy as well. I can also control the amount of sugar and fat which can be pretty heavy in store bought granola.
In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients (oats, nuts, wheat germ, coconut, flax, and brown sugar). You can totally customize this recipe to suit your tastes. It does work best if you keep the dry to wet proportions in tact. So, for example, if you don’t like coconut, simply leave it out and add more oats or nuts. Any type of nut will work. I used pecans in this batch because I found bags of finely chopped pecans on sale around Christmas so stocked up. Or, if you don’t like nuts, just add more oatmeal. You can also cut this recipe in half if you want a smaller amount. I like to store the finished granola in an empty oatmeal container and this recipe fills up a large one (which still doesn’t last all that long in our house). 🙂
Mix the dry ingredients.
In a measuring cup, measure 1/2 cup of maple syurp. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix. Pour this over the dry ingredients and mix to coat. Traditional granola recipes usually use oil instead of water, but I find that the water works just as well.
Pour this into 2 lightly greased 9×13 cake pans or rimmed cookie sheets. Spread it out as much as possible.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. With a spatula, mix the granola, trying to “flip” the bottom to the top as much as possible. Bake another 10-15 minutes.
Cool and store. I like to store this in an empty Oatmeal carton. It goes pretty quick in our house, so rarely lasts more than a couple weeks. If you want to keep it longer than a couple of weeks, it might be best to put it in the freezer.
Granola
Ingredients
- 6 cups old fashioned oats uncooked
- 1 cup chopped nuts we like pecans or almonds
- 1 cup wheat germ
- 2 cups unsweetened flake coconut
- 1/2 cup ground flax seed
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup warm water
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients.
- Mix the maple syrup and water.
- Pour the syrup and water mixture over the dry ingredients.
- Mix well.
- Pour into 2 greased 9x13 cake pans or rimmed cookie sheets.
- Spread mixture out.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
- Stir and turn from top to bottom, then bake for another 10-15 minutes.
- Cool. Store up to 2 weeks.