Making the Perfect Granola at Home

Food is not just fuel and we do not eat merely to survive. Diets would be much easier if that were all we ate food for. Good food satisfies our hunger. Good food lifts our energy. Good food makes us happy. Good food feeds our brain. And good food is welcomed by the body because it promotes its highest inclination, that of staying strong and healthy.

My taste buds used to change every 3 to 6 months or at longest, every year. I would lose desire or taste for my favorite meals and snack. My borderline obsessive health discovery journeys have sped that up as I look and test to find the very right ways to feed my body and do justice to my cravings. Incidentally, over 2 years ago, I lost all craving for granola, one of my favorite snacks and meals.

I did not just give it up. I tried every type of granola I could get my hands on. I tried nearly all brands at the Whole Foods, the Trader Joe’s, the Fresh Markets, the small Mom & Pop shops, and then I just stopped.  The granola was either too sweet, lacked the perfect mix of ingredients, or worse, it was stale and hard, never fresh. One day, my husband and his brilliant curiosity in the kitchen changed all of that. After a bit of trial and error, he made the most delicious granola and I was once again a granola lover. In this post, I am sharing this fabulous granola recipe.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups nut mix containing (1) Walnuts, (2) Pecans, (3) Sliced almonds
1 cup shredded unsweetened Coconut
3/4th to 1 cup of raw unheated unprocessed honey (Highly Recommended: Carlisle honey)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 pinch kosher Salt
6 1/2 cups Rolled Oats (Recommended: Fresh Market brand)

Tools:

Large Cover pan
Unbleached Parchment paper
Measuring cups
Measuring and Liquid drainer for honey (See 3rd image below)
Spatula

After you lay out all your tools and ingredients on the kitchen counter, follow these instructions as precisely in the order listed:

First: The Mixing instructions:

1. Stir all the nuts, oats, cinnamon, salt, coconut together
2. Mix them really well with the spatula
3. Pour in all of the honey to the mixture
4. Stir extremely well with the spatula

Second: The Baking instructions:

1. Cover 1 (or 2) large baking pans with 1 layer of thin Parchment paper
2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
3. Pour the granola over the pans spread it out evenly and flat
4. Put in the baking pan(s) in the oven
5. Bake at 300 degrees for 40-42 minutes. (41 was the magic time for us)
   Note 1:  The longer you can let it bake without burning, the browner and more delicious it gets.
   Note 2:  In this example, we used a single baking pan. If you use 2 large baking pans to spread the granola much thinner, it may change the baking time slightly.
6. Every 5-10 minutes, open the oven and stir the mix without taking it out. This prevents the likely burning of granola which may happen if left untouched the entire bake time.
7. After removing it from the oven, add the raisins and mix it all in with the spatula

Now let the granola cool for 30 minutes after you remove it from the oven. After it cools, the granola becomes really crunchy. You can then pour it all into a sealed Tupperware and refrigerate. The last step keeps it extremely fresh for well over 2 weeks. While you wait for the granola to cool, here is a crude cost breakdown to help you determine if this is worth your while and your troubles. Of course no decision should be made until at least you have tasted the granola once!

Cost Breakdown of Ingredients:

$1.50 Almonds
$2.25-2.50 Walnuts
$4.00 raw Honey
50cents Coconuts
$1.85 for Rolled oats
$1.00 for Raisins
75cents for Pecans
Total: ~$12

These ingredients make about 10 cups of granola.

This granola recipe is a prime candidate for modifications. One time, we added orange zest (simply grate the outer peel of an orange). This was added in Step 1 as we mixed all the main ingredients together.

We recommend that you put your own spin on it after getting the hang of this;  for example, experiment with other nuts and berries. This is just a baseline to get you going. Enjoy and Bon Appetit!