Granola Recipe

For some time now, my sister-in-law Kelli and I have been experimenting with granola recipes. I can recall several phone calls back and forth - "last time did you do this, or that?...okay, call me next time you make it and let me know..." We've combined several different recipes to come up with this one, and I think you'll like it.

I thought we had finally stumbled upon the perfect granola recipe until I did the recent detox. And I happened to have some pure maple syrup left over (not to be confused with pancake syrup, which is made mostly of high fructose corn syrup and vanilla). Now, I think I have the perfect granola recipe - for my taste anyway. Kelli, if you're reading this, I haven't had a chance to tell you of the maple syrup substitution. Read on!

Here goes:
1/3 c. honey
2/3 c. oil
1/4 c. real maple syrup
1 1/2 T vanilla

5 c. rolled oats - not quick-cooking

1 c. chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, macadamias - or a mixture)
1/2 c. sunflower seeds
1/4 c. wheat germ
1/4 c. ground flaxseed meal
1/2c. powdered milk

1-2 T cinnamon (optional)

1. spread oats on baking sheet and bake at 350 for 10 min. (I use a jelly roll pan)
2. combine first 4 ingredients in small bowl and stir
3. combine last five ingredients, add oats, stir well
4. gradually add wet ingredients, stir to coat. Around three different times add the wet ingredients and stir well. Sometimes I press down on everything to make sure it's spread throughout the dry ingredients.
5. spread all into the baking sheet and press again. At this point, if you are using cinnamon, sprinkle a generous amount over the whole conglomeration (hee hee, I thought that would be a fun word to use in a recipe!)
6. bake 10-20 min, depending on your oven. Stir every 5 min until it's uniformly brown...don't overbake!! Cool in the pan undisturbed and break into chunks.

I store this in a ziplock bag in the fridge and it keeps a long time.

notes:
1. you can pretty much add whatever you want as the dry ingredients - if you don't have wheat germ or flaxseed meal, use more sunflower seeds - or nuts, or oats or whatever. For me, the key seems to be in getting the right proportion of wet to dry ingredients. Also key: the right mixture of wet ingredients. Some recipes use mostly honey, some use brown sugar, etc. I thought this particular mix of honey/maple syrup/oil went well together.
2. for a long time I used brown sugar instead of maple syrup and it was still delicious. however, if you decide to do this you need to liquify the brown sugar. Just place all of the wet ingredients (including the sugar) in a saucepan and heat on low heat until the brown sugar has dissolved, then proceed with the recipe.

FYI - this is my favorite breakfast. I serve it with homemade yogurt and mix in chopped fresh fruit and it's yummy! (I'll post how I make homemade yogurt another time - something that also took me forever to figure out!)