Homemade Granola

As a kid, one of our favourite family activities was making granola – we could hardly wait for it to be done! We first mixed together the dry ingredients, then added the honey and oil, then spread out the sticky mixture onto cookie sheets (and of course conveniently getting some “stuck” on your hands), then waited for it to cook (why do things take so long when they smell SO good?) and finally getting to try some! (After waiting long enough so it didn’t burn our mouths!)

As I was looking through Emily of One Lovely Life’s blog for recipes to try for the Secret Recipe Club, I saw that she had quite a few granola recipes. (I made her Fall Fruit Pie and it was delicious!) I was suddenly reminded of my childhood activity of making granola and called up my mum to find how how she used to make it. This is tweaked from the original recipe – I used gluten free oats, rice bran instead of wheat bran, added some quinoa flakes and I used some applesauce to keep the honey content lower. We used to also add sunflower seeds, which I didn’t add because I didn’t have any. You can probably add some cinnamon, other nuts or dried fruits – it’s completely up to you!

Homemade Gluten Free Granola

4 c. GF rolled oats
1/2 c. rice bran
1 c. shredded coconut
1 1/2 c. chopped almonds
1/2 c. quinoa flakes
1/3 c. oil
2/3 c. honey (more if you want things to stick together more)
4 – 5 tbsp. applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 300F.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients.
3. Measure out the oil first and then measure the honey on top of it. This helps you from having to scrape honey out of the measuring cup.
4. Pour wet into dry and mix. Add more honey or applesauce to get the desired degree of moisture.
5. Divide granola between two cookie sheets and spread out to an even thickness.
6. Bake for 15 minutes then use a spatula to flip the granola over and respread it out on the cookie sheets. When you return the pans to the oven, switch pan locations and rotate pans so that they cook approximately evenly.
7. Bake for another 10 minutes or until slightly less done than desired (it will continue to cook a bit once it’s removed from the oven.)
8. Put on cooling rack and loosen granola from pan. In another 5 – 10 minutes, repeat.
9. Once cooled, store in glass containers or in plastic bags.
10. Enjoy for breakfast with fruit, on yogourt or added to another cereal!

Did you make anything regularly with your family growing up?

Recipe Shared at: Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Gluten-Free Wednesdays.