Maple Nut Granola

The first time I made granola at home, I couldn’t believe how simple it was to put it together.  Throw your favorite nuts, seeds, oatmeal, a bit of oil or butter and a sweetener like maple syrup or honey together for a fantastic and healthy treat.  Such a good and handy snack to have at home. You store it in an airtight container and it will last for several days. Also makes for great giveaways to neighbors or friends. Put it in a little fancy box and that makes for a really healthy gift. 

The advantage is, you choose what goes in it, have control of how sweet you like it and pick your favorite type of nuts to use.  Once you have the base ingredients, you can create your own variation. No more store bought granola for me.

What is in a basic granola?

Granola is usually has a base of old fashioned oats. With that base, you can add other dry ingredients like nuts, seeds, dried fruits, chocolate chips etc.. You can go nuts using your imagination.

• The Sweetener – Brown sugar or Maple syrup or Honey, any of these work well. I like mixing brown sugar with maple syrup in this version.
• The Fat – We need some fat to give it that nice crispiness. You can use canola oil, butter or even olive oil.
• The Spices – You can use spices like Cinnamon, Cardamom, nutmeg, orange zest.. So many options.

Always add a pinch of salt, it goes a long way to bring out the flavors in the granola..Now we just mix them all up and bake.

Dry Ingredients = Rolled Oats + Nuts + Sugar + Dried fruits

Wet Ingredients = Veg oil/Butter + A Sweet Syrup (Maple Syrup/Agave/Honey etc..)

How do you make Maple Nut Granola?

The sweetness and flavor in this version is from Maple syrup and the dark Brown sugar. Together it creates a dense maple flavor to the granola.  I use many different types of nuts here, but you can pick just a couple and  double up the amounts.

Key Tips:

• I highly recommend using the best quality maple syrup you can get your hands on.. If you can get hold of a Grade B bottle of goodness, use it.
• For the nuts, use them as soon as your buy them. Old nuts stored away for while do taste bad. Use raw nuts as you will be roasted them with the granola.
• For the sugar, using dark brown sugar adds a more dense molasses flavor to the granola. If not regular cane sugar or light brown sugar works well here too.
• If you are adding dried fruits or chocolate chip, add them to the granola when backing is done.  We don’t need to bake these.

For the Dry Mix

• 5 cups of Old fashioned Rolled Oats
• 1 cup Walnuts
• 1 cup Pecans
• 1 cup Slivered Almonds
• 1 cup Sunflower seeds
• 3/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 1 Tsp Salt

First we mix all our dry ingredients together – oatmeal and the nuts and seeds (sunflower or pumpkin)

I use them all – 1 cup each of Walnuts, Pecans, Slivered Almonds, Sunflower Seeds together. If you choose to add Pistachios, add them on to the 2nd half of baking. Pistachios tend to roast fast and may turn brown quickly.

Mix in the nuts to the oatmeal with ¾ cup brown sugar and 1 tsp of salt.

The Wet Mix..

• 3/4 cup Maple Syrup
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
• 2 Tbs of Butter
• 1/2 cup Water

For the maple syrup mix, whisk ½ cup maple syrup with ½ cup oil, 2 tbsp of butter and ½ cup of water.

Putting it together..

Preheat oven to 275F. Add the Maple Syrup Mix to the Oatmeal Nut mix and stir well. Line a baking tray with parchment and spread it evenly on a baking tray. Bake at 275F preheated oven for 45 mins.

After 45 mins, stir granola around and turn the baking tray around and then back into the oven for another 45 mins.

Adding the Dried fruits..

Once you pull our the granola from the oven, add about 1.5 to 2 cups of raisins to it. You can use dried cranberries or cherries instead of rasins if you wish to do so, but raisins go well with this recipe.

Let the granola cool completely. Store it in an airtight jar for a couple weeks, that is if it lasts that long, ha!  At home, we are usually all over it when I pull it out the oven, and get through a batch in 2 to 3 days.

Also a really awesome way to make your house smell great!

Bonus:

Mix this 1 cup of the granola with Vanilla ice cream & top if off with wild blueberries for an awesome dessert!

 

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