I love to eat granola for breakfast, the kind stuffed with goodies like nuts, seeds and dried fruit. That is really a crumbly, healthful cookie in disguise! However, the luxurious, loaded-with-nuggets granola typically sold at high-end grocery stores can cost upwards of $15-$17 a pound. A while back, I learned to make granola and after some trial and error now have a reliable recipe that is, of course, easy to make.
You can mix and match this recipe to suit your own tastes; make it with any combination of sweeteners, oils, seeds, dried fruit, nuts, spices and flavorings. Just follow the correct ratio of six parts dry ingredients to one part wet and it’s almost guaranteed to turn out right. You may need a few tries to find the flavor combination you like, but once you do, you can easily whip a batch. Bake the granola in the oven on a parchment paper lined jelly roll pan– that’s a cookie sheet with a lip around it. The secret to making those irresistible clusters is to add an egg white, pack the mixture down, don’t stir it while it’s baking and then let it completely cool before eating it.
Six n’ One Granola
3 parts rolled oats
3 parts nuts, seeds, dried fruit or coconut
1 part liquid – ½ neutral oil plus ½ liquid sweetener
1 egg white (per four to six cups total dry ingredients)
Spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger
Extract – vanilla, almond, maple, chocolate
Salt to taste
Half of the dry ingredients need to be rolled oats (don’t use quick cooking oats). The other half can be seeds, nuts, dried fruit, coconut and my favorite . . . chocolate chips! I use 2 cups oats, 2 cups dry ingredients and ⅓ cup oil and ⅓ cup sweetener for my 12” x 16” jelly roll pan. You can use six cups dry ingredients and ½ cup oil and ½ cup sweetener and bake it in two batches.
Mix the liquids – the oil, sweetener, egg white and extract in a small bowl. Combine with the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Spread the mixture on the jelly roll pan and use a spatula to pack it down. Bake at 300⁰ for 20 – 30 minutes until it starts to turn brown on the edges. Keep an eye on it because it overbakes quickly.
I stay away from canola and soybean oil preferring the more healthful coconut, grapeseed, walnut and sunflower oils. The sweeteners can be honey, agave, date or maple syrup. Any kind of nut works. I’ve used sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. When you add dried fruit, add it after the oats have cooled. Now you can eat guilt-free cookies for breakfast too!