Make Your Own Granola!

Granola is one of my favorite breakfasts and snacks, and I am currently on the hunt for the world's best homemade granola. However, buying bags and bags of "Organic Granola" can get expensive; why is something that's so simple so much money?

I began to make my own granola and discovered it was so simple! I can control what goes in it (extras in the granola, flavor, sugar), and it becomes significantly cheaper. I eventually made so much granola that I became known by a few as the Granola Guru.

As a very unofficial guru, I'm going to share my most basic granola recipe that I encourage building off of. Make substitutions, add new ingredients, and most of all, enjoy~

Step 1: Ingredients

For the basic base, here's what you'll need:

1/2 cup honey

1/4 vegetable or coconut oil

1 tbsp vanilla

4 cups of oats

Nuts of your choice

Dried fruit

Cinnamon

I'll be making substitution suggestions all throughout this instructable, so if you have any questions on substitution specifics, drop a comment below!

Step 2: Wet Ingridients

Take your honey, oil, and vanilla and mix them together in a small sauce pan over low heat.

The heat helps the honey and oil mix well together, but you are really only trying to achieve a warm mixture. Also, if you want a stickier and clumpier granola, sway your honey to oil ratio in favor of honey! I know it looks like a honey sugar headache going in, but it gets spread out.

Once mixed, set aside.

Other good wet ingredients to consider adding and mixing in can include maple syrup, peanut butter, nutella, and coconut oil.

Step 3: Dry Ingridients

In a bowl, toss 4 cups of oats with nuts and anything extra you want in your granola. If you are adding any dried fruit, I recommend adding that at the end so the fruit doesn't burn.

I like to add almonds, pecans, cashews, and walnuts. I also add some chia seeds for an extra protein and power kick! I usually don't measure out the nuts and end up eyeballing it, but if you are wanting to measure, about 1/2 cup nuts should be good and you can add from there.

Some people swear by toasting the oats first, but I just bake the granola for longer/make them crispier at the end to make up for not toasting the oats.

Step 4: Mix Together and Bake

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees for baking.

Pour your honey sauce into the bowl with your dry ingredients and mix together. Toss the oats until every single one has a coating of your sauce. If you used a greater honey ratio, it might be harder to coat every oat with your mixture, but do your best!

Transfer the oats on to a baking sheet or dish lined with parchment paper (which I unfortunately didn't have, but trust me when I say you want it) and put in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Check on your granola every now and then and make sure it's not burning. If you are using a sugar heavy sauce base, remember that sugar burns easily!

When the oats are golden brown at the top, mix them around, and put back in the oven till the next layer is also golden brown. If you like crispier granola, put your granola under a broiler for about a minute.

Step 5: Add Extras and Enjoy!

Once out of the oven, let the granola cool for at least an hour. If you don't mix it right after taking it out of the oven, it will be a lot chunkier as the honey will make the oats stick as the cool. It depends on how you like your granola if you mix it during cooling.

When it's cooling, add your fruit to the granola. I like to add cranberries, cherries, and some dried fruit (dried apples with cinnamon are really good!) You can also add chocolate chips to your granola- if you want the chocolate to melt around your granola add it when its warm and if you want solid chocolate chips, add them when it's absolutely cold.

Serve your granola over yogurt, with honey, with milk, or just plain! No matter what you do, it's a delicious way to start your day or even end your evening.