Recipe: $4.50
Per Serving: $0.29
Granola is kind of my thing.
Long ago when I worked in an office, I used to fill a coffee mug with low-fat yogurt and cranberry-almond granola, and put it in my cup holder. I'd eat it at the office, rinse it out, and then drink copious amounts of green tea throughout the day. Then I realized that the granola I was buying was very misleading. It was in the bulk (read: unpackaged) section of Henry's (Sprouts), looking all healthy and innocent, until I read the bazillion grams of sugar per serving. Ugh. Hard-boiled eggs it was.
We actually found some awesome sugar-free bran granola in Peru last year, so I was back to eating it on the regular, with Zac joining in. And alas, we were hooked into a lifelong obsession with granola. After trying out the crunchy granola bar recipe, I started making granola almost every week, and some days it wouldn't even make it to the weekend. And you get about 7-8 cups of granola from this, which is more than what you'd get in a standard box of granola!
With just a little yogurt or milk, or even on its own, it can be breakfast, dessert, or a mid-day snack. It fulfills all meal requirements! I've varied it almost every single time I've made it, which is why you'll see varying pictures in this post, but below is our favorite method.
You can add whatever dried fruits, nuts, or even chocolate additions you'd like. It's really good with craisins and almonds, but craisins always have sugar added so we don't buy them anymore. This recipe calls for just 1/4 cup of honey and some dried dates for earthy sweetness, but if you want to change it up, your basic starting point includes:
- 3.5 cups oats
- 3 cups nuts and seeds
- 6 Tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- spices of choice
Homemade Honey Vanilla Granola
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Yield: 16 1x
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3.5 cups oats
- 2 cups sliced almonds
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 6 dried dates, roughly chopped (or 1/2 cup date syrup)
- 2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Melt butter and honey in small saucepan, then mix in the vanilla. (If using, add date syrup here.)
- In separate large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and spices (oats, nuts, seeds, spices, salt, flaxseed).
- Pour butter mixture over oat mixture, scraping out all the butter and honey from the saucepan and mix well.
- Remove pits and stems from dates and roughly chop, then spread throughout mixture and stir. (Try to coat them with oats so the date pieces don’t stick together.
- Spread out on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, and bake for 75 minutes (1h 15min) on about 275 F. (I have to do mine at 280 in two batches because my only cookie sheet is super small and my oven’s lowest temp is 280. Anywhere from 250-300 should work!.)
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Category: Breakfast, Snack, Dessert
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