Granola.
AND
Milk.
Yum.
As soon as I saw Sylvie’s (from Gourmande in the Kitchen) recipe for granola, I knew I had to try it. I just modified it a little bit, but it’s absolutely amazing!
I’ve tried a dozen granola recipes and never could nail it. But, I will tell you that I am crazy obsessed with Cascadian Farm’s Organic Cinnamon Raisin Granola. Unfortunately, buying that cereal can get pricey. So, homemade granola is just the ticket. I usually have a bowl with half plain old fashioned oats and half of the cinnamon raisin granola with milk. Yum. For any extra treat I’ll even slice a banana on it…or a special treat…strawberries or blueberries.
Yum! I think I’m going to get my bowl of granola. Right now. 🙂
Homemade Granola
adapted from Gourmande in the Kitchen
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
- 1 1/2 cups puffed wheat
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup natural unsweetened apple sauce (or baby food)
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup sliced or chopped almonds
- 1/2 cup flaxseeds
- 1/2 cup chopped cashews
- 2 cups raisins (or cranberries)
How-To
- Place two oven racks on the top and bottom 1/3 of the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 300°.
- Set aside two baking sheets with sides lined with a silpat liner, parchment paper or aluminum foil.
- In a large bowl, combine both oats, puffed wheat, cinnamon and salt.
- In a separate bowl, combine the apple sauce, honey, brown sugar, canola oil and vanilla extract.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
- Pour the granola on the baking sheets, splitting evenly between the two baking sheets.
- With your hand, squeeze or pinch the oats together into small/medium clumps leaving space on the baking sheet between the clumps.
- Place the baking sheets in the oven for 20 minutes (one on the top, one on the bottom).
- While that is in the oven, chop your nuts and combine them in a bowl and set aside.
- With a large spatula flip over the granola and add the nuts to the baking sheet.
- Bake for another 20-30 minutes, until completely dry and golden brown.
- Let the granola cool completely on the baking sheets.
- Once cool, add in the raisins.
- Store in airtight containers and enjoy with milk or on your yogurt! 🙂
And just for you. Another photo of the spectacular granola! 🙂
Looks and sounds wonderful. Granola is one of my favorite snack and breakfast foods in the world. Love this version
Thank you! Sooo good. 🙂
The photos here are truly spectacular!
Thank you so much Evan! I took it after it had just snowed, next to a window. I really think the bright white light reflecting from the snow, through the window helped sooo much! I didn’t have to really edit the lighting in the photo at all. 🙂
Was step 4 supposed to be blank? I’ve been looking for a granola recipe similar to your ingredients.
Nope. haha…typo, sorry. All fixed! 🙂 Thanks for catching that Tammy!
I haven’t found a really good homemade granola yet…but this looks promising! Can’t wait to give it a try.
You definitely should. So good. Ours is already gone. 🙂
Oh yummy – what a wonderful granola and your picture are fabulous.
🙂 Mandy
Thank you Mandy! 🙂
Your granola looks beautiful, lots of great clumps! I just love that picture of the milk being poured over the cereal. Thank you for trying my recipe, I’m so glad you liked it.
Aww, thank YOU! Your recipe was fabulous! 🙂
I’ve been wanting to make my own granola for sometime now. This looks amazing. Love all the dried fruit (besides the raisins because they’re my least favorite thing on the planet). 🙂
Hi Caroline 🙂 I LOVE your blog! You have SO many yummy recipes that I can’t wait to try. This granola looks SO good and I am going to make it this weekend. I am obsessed with Kashi Golean Crunch and wanted to try and make my own. Is this pretty crunchy granola? Again, love your website. I love to bake and cook all varieties of food and love healthy recipes that don’t taste like “diet” food. Thanks again!
Awesome! I can’t wait for you to try them! I love hearing about it when you do. 😀 Yay! As for this granola…it is crunchy, especially if you clump it up good before you bake it. However, if your clumps are too big, you’re going to have to bake it longer to get them nice and dry. With trial and error, I made my clumps pretty big, but as it baked, I noticed it wasn’t getting hard, so I broke the clumps up a little bit, into smaller chunks, and that helped a lot. 🙂 I had it for breakfast this morning. Yum!
Hi Caroline 🙂 Well, I made this absolutely, to DIE for granola last night and OMG Thank YOU!!!! It is my favorite cereal now!!! I used cranberries as I prefer them over raisons. Also, did you actually “chop” your flax seeds? I have flax meal and bought seeds and they don’t chop, LOL! I used my chopper and nothing, sharp knife, not much. So I just winged it. What did you do? Also, you seem to have more big “clumps”. Were they hard to achieve? It was pretty wet but managed to get some, just not as many as you. I love this recipe and you must post more 🙂 Thanks again!!
Aww! I’m so glad! And, no I did not chop my flax seeds. A total typo. I must have been on a ‘chopped’ high…chopped almonds, chopped cashews, chopped flax seeds….
In regards to the clumps, I just squeezed large chunks (about 6 large chunks per baking sheet) and then when I took the granola out to stir and flip, I broke them up a little bit so that they would get cooked and dry all the way through. It worked beautifully. Yay…I makes me so happy that you tried it! There will definitely be some more granola in the future! My husband is begging me to make him some more all ready. 😀
Hi Caroline 🙂 That’s funny and here I was trying to chop those pesky seeds, LOL! Now I know for next time. I am happy that it made so much, I will get to enjoy it for quite some time! Thanks again! Hmmm now what to make for Valentine’s Day?? 😉
May I suggest either the Healthy Valentine’s Cookies (whole wheat peanut butter cookies with dark chocolate M&M’s) or today’s post, Not-So-Bad-For-You Valentine’s Brownies (whole wheat, no butter, egg white, dark chocolate brownies)? 😀
Cascadian Farms Cinnamon Raisin Granola is my absolute favorite, too!! So glad I stumbled upon your site. Can’t wait to try your recipe (and maybe save some money)!
I love it! So yummy and nutritious. Thanks for sharing.