granola

Granola is so super expensive. Jason could eat an entire $7 box of it in one sitting. I figured out how to make it home made so he can have endless amounts of it.  Like the Star Bars this is a base recipe. 


Granola

2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1 cup oat flour
1/2 tsp table salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 TBSP honey or real maple syrup
2 cups of mixed dried fruits, nuts, and seeds (examples: a bag of trail mix chopped up, apricots, cherries, raisins, blueberries, cranberries, gojis, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc)
2 tblsps Milled Flax (to be added after baking)
1 scoop Protein Powder (to be added after baking)

TIP: I never buy oat flour. I just dump some oats into my food processor, blend for about a minute, and then I have oat flour! It's so much cheaper this way and is so easy-to-do. 
Preheat oven to 275F. In a large bowl, combine the oats, oat flour, salt, cinnamon. Stir to combine. Add the syrup/honey and stir well until evenly distributed. 
I like little, crunchy nuggets of granola when I eat it. To make the nuggets, grab a small handful of the granola mixture and firmly squeeze it in your fist to make glob. The mixture should hold together fairly well. Over a rimmed sheet pan, gently break the blob into smaller nuggets. Repeat with the remaining mixture. When finished, you should have a single layer of larger nuggets, smaller nuggets, and loose pieces of oatmeal. Don't move the granola once it is in the sheet pan or the nuggets will fall apart. Some people do not like larger nuggets of granola. If you prefer granola with loose pieces of oats, just dump the granola directly onto a sheet pan after you have mixed everything together. Just give the sheet pan a quick shake to evenly spread everything out.
Bake the granola for 20 minutes. Take the sheet pan out of the oven and very, very gently stir the granola. You, after all, do not want to break apart the nuggets you made earlier. Put the sheet pan back in the oven for another 8 minutes or so for a lightly toasted granola. If you like your granola really toasted, you can leave it in for several more minutes. Remove it from the oven and leave it in the sheet pan until it has cooled completely. The granola will get crispier as it cools. Toss with your desired mixed dried fruits, nuts, and seeds. Sprinkle in protein powder and flax. Store in a sealed container.
After you make this the first time, make a note to yourself and decide if you would prefer the next batch to be sweeter or less sweet. If you want sweeter add some brown sugar. We actually prefer granola less sweet so I dont add any sugar besides the honey. Others have preferred more sugar in theirs. You decide!