My Favorite Granola with Lots of Dried Fruit
TheWimpyVegetarian
- Serves
- about 3 cups
I have struggled for years to find granolas that I like that don't have any nuts in them. Both my husband and I have nut allergies, and as dymnyno suggested earlier today: it kind of takes the fun out of it if you have to have an epi pen nearby. But oddly, I hadn't really thought to make my own. God knows why when I make my own ketchup, brown sugar, ricotta cheese, preserves, and mayonnaise! Go figure. So yesterday, at long last, I started to experiment with granola and granola bars. My husband and I love this granola I made; the granola bars, not so much. We tried the granola on yogurt and on its own for a 4pm-I-need-a-healthy-munchie-with-some-sugar-it-in-snack. It was perfect with it's mixture of salted roasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and dried fruit all mixed in with molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom. I'm making a MUCH bigger batch tomorrow....
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup wheat germ
- 2 tablespoon granulated white sugar or agave nectar
- 2 tablespoon roasted sunflower seeds
- 2 tablespoon salted roasted pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoon molasses
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used safflower oil)
- 1/2 cup dried fruit, minced (I used a combo of dried apricots, currants and tart cherries)
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Directions
- Step 1
Preheat the oven to 250F. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients except the dried fruit and mix well with your hands.
- Step 2
In a small bowl, mix the honey, molasses and vegetable oil together until well combined. Add to the dry mixture and mix well with your hands until everything is well coated with the honey-molasses-oil mixture.
- Step 3
Spread evenly in a baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes. It's important to stir the mixture every 8-10 minutes pulling all the mixture from the edges and corners into the middle of the baking sheet and re-spreading the mixture. You might also want to rotate the cookie sheet after each stirring.
- Step 4
It's done when the mixture starts to darken a shade or two and you can smell the spices in the mixture. Remove from the oven and immediately fold in the dried fruit. Keep folding for a minute so that the dried fruit is warmed by the mixture.
- Step 5
Let dry until crispy and store in sealed baggies or jars.