HOMEMADE GRANOLA RECIPE WITH CLUSTERS

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One of the hardest parts about trying to lose weight is my sweet tooth. Even after I have a rich, filling meal, I need something sweet. Just to tease my palate. Or add to my muffin top. (If I could only snack on that…)

I love granola. It’s crunchy, chewy, sweet, and salty at the same time. But it’s usually expensive to buy and has quite a bit of fat. So I decided to make some homemade granola myself. I scoured the internet for granola recipes—and there are quite a few—but I finally settled on this one because of the clusters.

If you have ever made granola from scratch, you know how it doesn’t usually form clusters. And those clusters are usually the best part of granola. So I found this recipe for How to Make Homemade Granola on The Prepared Pantry. I changed it up a little, and I still have to play with the clusters—my granola still didn’t really get good clusters—but it was amazing. Toasty and nutty tasting, crunchy and chewy, just the way I like it.


I also ran across this recipe for homemade granola on Babble.com that includes ginger, which sounds delicious too. I'm going to play around. But for now, this was a total winner:

Ingredients

4 cups rolled oats 
½ cup sunflower seed
¼ cup oat flour (I ground this up from rolled oats in my magic bullet with the grinder attachment. You could use a coffee grinder)
½ cup raw almonds
½ cup honey
¼ cup oil (I used canola, but I may play around with coconut oil or almond oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract (you could also use almond or coconut, I suppose)
¾ cup dried fruit

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together except the dried fruit. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. It won’t look like the liquid will go a long way at first, but it will. Keep mixing until all the pieces look and feel coated.

Spread the granola on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Then, take it out and mix it up on the pan to prevent burning. Add in the dried fruit and put it back in the oven for 12 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let the granola cool on the cookie sheet. It will get crispier as it cools.

Store in a sealed container. It should last about 10 days.

Tips for making homemade granola:

• Don’t use quick oats. I’m not sure if you can use steel cut oats.
• Try substituting sesame or flax seeds for the sunflower seeds.
• Instead of honey, you could use maple syrup or a syrup made from ½ cup of brown sugar boiled with a few tablespoons of water (or a combination of all of those).
• Add spices like cinnamon or nutmeg for added punch.
• Add shredded coconut for a tropical taste.
• Add tiny chocolate chips to satisfy your chocolate cravings (I’m totally trying this next time).
• If you use raisins, they will blow up like grapes while baking. They’ll shrivel back up and be extra chewy once they cool.
• You can store the granola in the fridge to keep it fresher longer. You can even freeze it.
• This recipe actually didn't make clusters like I thought it would. I tried again and only added a few tablespoons of oil, and it was much more clustery.

How to Eat Granola:

 

Eat it with greek yogurt and a teaspoon of preserves or straight with milk. Grab a handful or put some in your child’s snack trap. It's a great meal when you don't feel like heating up your kitchen, and it's a great snack to grab for the beach.

How do you like to eat your granola? Leave a comment below.