Granola. It's.....GREAT!

Since I haven’t posted a recipe in a while, I figured I share one of my favourite breakfast recipes: Granola!  This recipe is for a coconut granola base and you can add goodies to it after. The recipe is pretty forgiving so you can even change up some of the ingredients in the base.
 

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of old-fashioned rolled oats
• ½ cup of chopped almonds (or another nut of your choosing.  Pecans, walnuts…the choice is yours)
• 1 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut
• ¼ cup of honey
• ¼ cup of packed brown sugar for convenience but I normally use a mixture of molasses and coconut sugar.
• 2 tblsp of coconut oil (you can use a different type if you don’t have coconut.  Vegetable perhaps)
• 2 tblsps of real maple syrup (the last time I made this I didn’t have any so I used agave but you could just use more honey)
• 1 ½ tsps of vanilla extract
• 1 tsp of cinnamon (or to taste – I usually add more)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees         

Combine dry ingredients (oats, nuts, and coconut in a bowl).

Combine honey, sugar, oil, maple syrup, and cinnamon in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.  Stir

Combine dry mixture with syrup and mix.

Place your granola on a shallow baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  You’ll need to stir the mixture occasionally or it’ll burn.  I tried leaving it for 10 minutes without stirring and that’s max.  Try mixing every 7-8 minutes.

Take out of the oven.  Cool and then enjoy.

You can add all sorts of delicious goodies to your granola.  Some of the things I've added (after cooking) are: bran buds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, flax or chia seeds, dried fruit, chocolate chunks, the SKY'S THE LIMIT!

Since I don't have a picture of the granola to share with you, and because my blog has been lacking some Arthur, here's a picture of my handsome fellow perched on my shoulder like a parrot.  He likes to climb all over me when we're in the car.

 

Happy Baking!

Alex & Arthur