Granola - Home Made!

I love granola and yogurt together.  They are perfect.  Creamy and crunchy.  What could be better?

I've never made granola before.  My mom had some that she had made and I borrowed her recipe and tweaked it a bit to fit me.  That's the beauty of this recipe - you can adjust it to fit your liking.

Here's what you need:




What, you want measurements?  Oh, fine.  Here you go:

• 3 cups old fashioned (not quick cooking) rolled oats
• 3/4 cup wheat germ
• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used at least 3 because I like vanilla)
• 1 cup coconut (I used sweetened - are you surprised?)

I should point out that the recipe calls for adding 1/3 cup chopped dried apricots, 1/3 cup dried cherries, but I prefer granola with just nuts, so that's what I did.  Please feel free to tweak this recipe to fit your tastes.

Preheat the oven to 275. 

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Combine oats, wheat germ and nuts and put on baking sheet.  It should look like this:



Bake this, stirring once, for about 20 minutes. 

While that's baking, mix together the apple juice, brown sugar, oil and vanilla extract. 

After the oats, germ and nuts have baked for 20 minutes, take that out and pour over the liquid and mix well.  This is the time to add the coconut and any dried fruit if you are so inclined. 



Raise the oven temp to 350 degrees, and bake for 20 minutes, stirring half-way through.  Be careful not to let this burn.

Here's the final product.  It's so amazingly good!

 

While we were on vacation last month, I found a new yogurt that I am addicted to.  Luckily for me, I found a store here that sells it as well.  It's Noosa yoghurt.  It's super creamy and yummy.  It comes in tons of flavors, here's just a few.  (And Noosa doesn't know me - I just love their yoghurt.  I've even left the house late at night to get some so that I'd have it for breakfast the next day.  I'm even currently trying to get my local store to carry it.  It's that good!)



Yum, I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow!



Enjoy!