Holy Granoly

I've been making this granola for several years now. It's a modified version of Megan's Granola on AllRecipes.com. Once Jennifer entered our family, I started making it gluten free instead so I can share it with her.

This recipe is a great way for us to use up the dark honey we harvest each September. It's a little intense in flavor kind of like a mild molasses.

This granola is soooooooooo yummy!

Granola

• 8 cups rolled oats
• 1.5 cups oat bran
• 1.5 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup sunflower seeds (the cheapest ones are in the snack packs at the store--they're salted so I just rinse them in a sieve first)
• 1 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds (I pulse whole almonds in the food processor)
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans (again with the food processor)
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 brown sugar
• 1/4 maple syrup (it's okay to use maple flavored syrup like Log Cabin)
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 (or more) cups dried fruit, such as cranberries, raisins, chopped apricots or apples

I used to make the granola all at once, but then we had Eddie so now I break it into parts over a whole day: measure out dry ingredients, make sauce, bake, cool, mix in fruit and package for storage...and then the dreaded clean up.
Here are all the dry ingredients.

The sauce calls for what seems like a lot of oil. But per serving it's only 1.5 teaspoons. I omitted the oil once and it stuck really badly to the foil. 

I always use my giant restaurant supply store bowls when making granola--it makes a lot!  Here it is uncooked.

I stir and rotate the pans every 6-7 minutes to prevent burning.

Dave and I like having some clumps mixed in with the loose granola so I try to cook at least 1/3 of the recipe a little longer than the rest to preserve some clumps. Even better is to use extra sauce in one portion for better clumping.

You can use any dried fruit in the granola--we usually add raisins and cranberries.

Half gallon jars are about as tall as a cereal box so it'll slide right into the cabinet next to our other cereals.

Enjoy!