Daughter's Granola
Making granola at home is easy, economical, and can be adjusted to a variety of nuts, seeds, and dried fruits. We love making a batch and using it to top oatmeal, fruit, ice cream or as a snack on its own. Our daughter loves this so much she even eats the nuts—which she would pick out of anything else! Originally served as part of Joes.
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- ½ cup raw, sliced almonds
- 2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar (packed)
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- ¼ teaspoon coarse salt
- 3 tablespoons grade B maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 16 scrapings whole nutmeg
- ½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup dried, golden raisins
- ¼ cup dried cherries
Instructions
We start by preheating the oven to 250°. In a medium bowl, we mix the oats, almonds and wheat germ. In a measuring cup, we combine the brown sugar, water and salt and mix. Then we stir into the measuring cup the maple syrup, oil, cinnamon, nutmeg (about 1/8 teaspoon), and vanilla.
Stirring the oat mixture with a spoon, we drizzle in the syrup. We stir well to combine and then spread on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
We bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, stirring the mixture quickly every 20 minutes with a heat-safe spatula.
When the granola has crisped and the almonds are nicely browned, we set the pan on a trivet to cool for an hour.
The cooled granola is put into a large bowl and we mix in the raisins and cherries. We store the granola in airtight containers. If we cannot finish it in a week we refrigerate the containers to ensure the nuts do not go rancid.