Crunchy Goodness

I recently got the book, The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making, from the library.  It has so many wonderful recipes including how to make your own yogurt, cheese, butter.  Plus many other wonderfully tempting recipes that I really shouldn't be making right now, like a recipe for some toaster pastries with Nutella inside.  Oh. My. Goodness. Yum.  However, I chose to make something that was more nutritious and something hopefully that my girls would eat.  Mary E. has been a huge fan of the version of this granola that I made without the almonds.  This is really saying something because that girl won't eat much of anything, unless it has chocolate of course.

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Granola 

(This recipe was adapted to fit our family's needs)

10 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

2 cups raw sliced or roughly chopped almonds

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

3/4 cup canola oil

1 cup maple syrup

1 1/2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract (yes, tablespoons)

1/4 cup honey

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, and whisk the wet ingredients in an other bowl.  Pour wet ingredients over the dry.

Line two jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and spread granola in an even layer. Bake for 30 minutes. Shuffle the granola and switch the trays and rotate them.  Bake for another 30 minutes and shuffle/switch/rotate.  Then bake for a final 30 minutes.  

At the end of the full 90 minutes, turn off the oven and leave the granola there for up to 6 hours.  It will crisp and harden as the oven cools.

Enjoy your weekend!