Great granola!
Posted by: TammyI love granola. I love it with milk poured over it and I love it sprinkled over my homemade vanilla yogurt. My middle son loves to sprinkle it over whatever cereal he’s eating to give it extra crunch. He actually loves to sit with a bowl and snack on the granola chunks as is. What I didn’t love about granola was that many brands were high in fat and pretty costly considering the basic ingredients. My same granola loving son also isn’t fond of lots of chewy dried fruit, seed-type add-ins and loves just plain granola. At some point, I found a granola recipe that was basic and allowed for flexibility and didn’t have lots of exotic ingredients. Like so many of the recipes in my box, I don’t know where this one came from so I can’t give proper credit.
I am going to share the original recipe and then I’ll tell you how I’ve tweaked this recipe to reduce the oil and change up the flavors and ingredients.
6 cups rolled oats (the old fashioned kind)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup coconut
2 cups raisins
3/4c oil (vegetable/canola/sunflower but NOT olive oil!)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
1 TBS vanilla
1/2 tsp salt (brings out sweetness)
Combine oats, flour, wheat germ and coconut. Mix well. Blend oil, sugar, molasses, water, vanilla and salt. Stir wet ingredients into the dry and thoroughly mix and moisten all the ingredients. Spread onto a greased cookie sheet (use parchment paper to eliminate the greased cookie sheet). Bake at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes to an hour and stir occasionally and bake until larger pieces are crisp/crunchy (I’ve found it takes closer to 2 hours but don’t try to rush the baking with a higher temps-it can get ugly) Cool and then stir in raisins. Store in airtight container.
So, my tweaked recipe involves reducing the oil by 1/4 cup and increasing the water by the same. The ‘wet’ is the same but the fat is less. I do NOT add the wheat germ simply because I usually don’t have it on hand and the little bits remind me of popcorn kernels that get stuck along my teeth. Must just be the dental hygienist in me, but that bugs me. LOL! The whole wheat flour is what kind of binds the oatmeal into chunks of granola so don’t play with that.
I have also used my homemade maple syrup in place of the molasses. The taste is more subtle than the molasses but it’s about using what I have, which is the maple syrup. I don’t mess with the brown sugar. It’s got a nice flavor. I love adding cinnamon to my granola, too. You’ve got me wondering how honey would be in place of the molasses. Honey would probably be subtle as well but adding local honey would be tasty and supportive of my local hard-working bees. 
I always tweak the raisins. I don’t like just plain raisins. I used to buy this wonderful dried fruit mix from my bulk supplier but he’s not in business anymore so I’m searching out new sources. I searched through my cabinets with yesterday’s batch and found about a cup of dried cherries in one package, a cup of dried cranberries leftover in another package and about one cup of raisins in another bag. You can see what went into yesterday’s granola.
The sky really is the limit with this recipe which is what I love. I plan on buying another dehydrator this spring and I’m eager to add dried fruits that I’ve harvested locally and from my own garden (dried strawberries and raspberries would be a nice flavor pop!).
Enjoy!