Homemade Granola - Our Very Favorite Recipe
Just sweet enough with maple syrup and coconut and warmed by cinnamon, this easily adaptable homemade granola recipe is chock full of toasty oats, crunchy nuts and bits of fruit and chocolate. Great on its own, over yogurt or as your morning cereal. Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe.
- 4 cups of rolled oats not the quick cooking kind
- 1 1/4 cups sliced almonds
- 1 1/4 cups walnuts or pecans pieces or roughly chopped
- 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup maple syrup only the real stuff
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- no-stick spray
- 5 oz dried cherries (optional)
- 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet (or two smaller ones) with foil and spray very lightly with no-stick spray.
In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients except the dried cranberries. Toss well to distribute the ingredients evenly. Pour onto the baking sheet(s) and spread in an even layer.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring every fifteen to thirty minutes (I often forget this step, remembering only halfway through. Though not ideal, I haven't noticed a huge difference).
Meanwhile wash the large bowl (or at least wipe it out) and when the granola is done baking, put back into the cleaned bowl to cool. Once cooled, add the dried cherries and chocolate if using, and toss to combine.
NUTS: Any combination that you like will work. I constantly change based on what I've got and what I feel like eating and I've never gotten a bad combo. Just make sure you chop the nuts coarsely so that you don't have whole nuts in your granola; it's just a big bite.
OPTIONAL MIX-INS: Any dried fruit (or none) and chocolate (or none) or combination (or not) based on your taste will work. Like more? Use more. Want less? Ditto. It's hard to make this granola not delicious. Not that I'm throwing out that challenge.