Crunchy, feel good homemade granola filled with nuts, seeds and a touch of maple. Get ready for your house to smell heavenly!
Hi! I feel like I haven’t been around these parts of the interweb for weeks! We’ve been busy these last few weeks. How has your June been, sun out I hope?! I’m not entirely sure where the first half of 2015 went but hey, here we are half way through the year. Before you know it summer while be gone (booooo!) and then it’ll be Christmas. I know, I just shuddered as a typed that.
Last week we celebrated Toms 25th birthday with family, food, drinks, friends, more food and sunshine. What more could you ask for? I don’t know how my mom does it but she comes up with these epic meals for out family dinners, I mean its not easy feeding 8 people every family dinner. We had the best watermelon salad {recipe coming soon}, pear spinach salad, homemade burgers and a strawberry mouse cake with local berries! Seriously she out did herself! Anyways enough about that and let me tell you about this granola.
This granola is ah-mazing. Seriously you need to make it. I’m going to give you a few reasons why. 1. Its soo easy to make. 2. Its cheaper than buying store bought – and tastes way better. 3. Your house is going to smell heavenly while this is baking. 4. You can customize it to your liking! So did that convince you? I sure hope so. This recipe comes together in less than an hour and requires only 2 bowls. Hallelujah. I’m all about the easy clean up in our itsy bitsy kitchen.
My favorite part about this is that you can customize it to however your taste buds fancy. You don’t like coconut – me neither – leave it out! Love Pecans, add more! Its a pretty easy going recipe. Swap out dried cranberries for fruits such as dried mango, dried apricots, dried blueberries, dried cherries. Whatever you fancy! I would recommend mixing in the dried fruit after you’ve baked the granola. Otherwise you’ll have some mushy fruit – yuck.
Enjoy over vanilla yogurt, with some milk, or even dry as an afternoon snack. Which ever way you eat it you’ll be in granola heaven.
Do you have a favorite granola combination?! Be sure to let me know in the comments!
What You’ll Need
- Large Bowl
- Small Bowl
- Large Baking Sheet – with high edges
- Parchment Paper
- 3 cups oats
- 1 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 1/4 cup pecans - roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (optional)
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup avacado or canola oil
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 - 1 cup dried cranberries (optional)
- Preheat your oven to 300 degrees and line your baking sheet with parchment paper - be sure to use a baking sheet with higher edges so the granola doesn't spill when stirring.
- In your large bowl toss the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pecans, coconut, salt and cinnamon - set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together the maple syrup, oil and brown sugar.
- Pour over your oat mixture and using a spatula to make sure everything is evenly distributed.
- Pour granola onto your lined baking sheet and place into your heated oven for 45 minutes.
- Stir your granola every 15 minutes to be sure everything is cooking evenly.
- *It will feel soft until its done cooking and has time to cool down*
- Once the granola has cooked for 45 minutes let cool for 30 minutes before mixing in your dried cranberries and transferring to a large Ziplock bag or air tight container.
- Store for up to a month.
