For busy mornings, one of our favorite go-to breakfast foods is homemade granola. It’s easy to make ahead and gives us a nutritious start. Since you’re probably not interested in making enough for two meals for 10, this recipe is half of what I make.
This is one of those easy and very flexible recipes. Add more or less of what you like and make additions or subtractions according to your family’s taste.
If you like a sweeter granola, add more honey. But my family prefers to pass the honey jar over their own bowl just before eating…regardless of how much honey I add.
The granola will cook for over an hour, and you’ll be returning every 20 minutes to give it a stir. If I’m not staying in the kitchen, I’ll set the timer on my phone and leave the room, maybe even step outside. Still it’s amazing how forgiving it is when time gets away from me and I return much later than planned.
My original recipe called for adding chopped dried fruit to the mix just before the last 20 minutes of bake time. We find that we prefer to top our granola with dried raisins or dates at the time of eating. They are a bit less chewy this way. Of course, our favorite toppers are fresh fruit…bananas, berries, and even peaches. Enjoy!
Homemade Granola
- 6 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut
- ½ cup pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup chopped almonds
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup coconut oil, in liquid form
- ¼ cup honey
Heat oven to 250 degrees. A convection setting is ideal if available. Grease two 9×15 pans.
Combine dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix together oil and honey. Stir oil and honey mixture into the dry ingredients until dispersed evenly. Place into pans.
Stir granola in the pans every 20 minutes while baking. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes.
***During the cooling process you may notice the amount of granola in the pans is subject to diminishing. This is not the indication of a faulty recipe, but rather the eagerness of opportunistic breakfast eaters.
