How to Make Grandma’s Homemade Granola: Healthier and Tastier too!

My wife’s grandmother apparently makes some yummy granola and we decided to try it since we trying to get healthier lately. Here’s the ingredients that the original recipe calls for (we actually halved the recipe to test it):

  • 6 cups oats
  • 1 cup oil (apparently you can use any type of oil, we used Nature’s Way Extra Virgin Organic Coconut Oil, 32-Ounce

Nature's Way Extra Virgin Organic Coconut Oil, 32-Ounce

  • 1 cup honey
  • 1 tsp Rodelle Pure Vanilla Extract, 8-Ounce

Rodelle Pure Vanilla Extract, 8-Ounce

.

  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup nuts (we used Jansal Valley Raw Slivered Almonds, 1 Pound

Jansal Valley Raw Slivered Almonds, 1 Pound

  • other ingredients as desired (e.g., seeds, dried fruit, etc)

We also choose to add 1 cup of pumpkin seeds. The first time we tried this we also added 1/2 cup of flax seed but omitted them during our second batch because we thought they, in part, made it taste funny.

The recipe is really simple to make. Just mix all the dry ingredients together then add the wet ingredients and stir together:

When thoroughly mixed, spread out evenly on a baking sheet (we used a metal pan the first time and a stoneware pan the second time). If you mixed the full recipe then you’re probably going to want to cook it in two batches:

Now here comes the slightly hard part, cook at 300 degrees F for somewhere between 25-35 minutes or so, checking and stirring every 10-15 minutes but you REALLY have to watch it near the end (even every 5 minutes) as you can easily burn the granola as we did the first time.

In fact, I believe the metal baking pan we used was a big contributor to burning it. My wife planned on checking the granola every 15 minutes (because she was told it may take up to an hour) and since it didn’t look even remotely done at 15 minutes she let it go until 30 and found that it burned a bit. It’s not bad enough that I won’t eat it but you can tell.

As such, watch it closely if you use a metal pan. For our second batch we choose to use a The Pampered Chef Small Bar Pan (Stoneware)and found that after 20 minutes it still wasn’t close to being done. We ended up cooking it for 35 minutes total and it was a bit more wet/sticky than I would have preferred but I got overruled which turned out to be a god thing because it eventually hardened up when cooled. Here’s what it looked like right out of the oven:

And here’s a comparison of the original “burned” granola that was cooking for 30 minutes on a metal pan versus 35 minutes on a stoneware pan:

Obviously, there’s a bit difference in color! … and taste. Store in a container in the fridge. Try it. I bet you’ll like it. We do.