Homemade Granola

[Jeff]

We like to make this at and for Deer camp. Its good for you. tasty and easy to make. We use it for snacks instead of cookies. (well, thats a lie, along with cookies  ;)) we also use the crumbs and smaller pieces for an excellent cereal. You can get creative and add things like nuts and other grains, ot at the end stir in some mini chocolate chips and or nuts. The basic recipe is what I like. 

I'll add some photos when this batch cools.

Homemade Granola

Ingredients

3- Cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
1- Cup Packed Shredded Coconut
3/4-Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/2-Cup Shelled Sunflower Seeds
2- Tbsp Honey
1/3-Cup Canola or Olive Oil
1-Tsp Vanilla
1/4-Tsp salt
1/3- Cup Water

UPDATED!!

In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients. Oats, Coconut, Brown Sugar, Sunflower Seeds and salt. Then add, cooking oil, honey, vanilla and water and mix well. Put into 9 by 13 pan and put on the center rack of a preheated oven at 300 degrees for 60 minutes. Stir well every 15 minutes. Stir once at 20 minutes, then at 45 minutes press mixture firmly in the pan, at 60 minutes, remove from oven and press granola once again down flat in pan and allow to cool for at least 30 to 40 minutes. Granola will cool into a solid bar. Break up in pieces and store in a gallon ziploc bag. You can use it for snacks or breakfast cereal.  You can add your own creative optional ingredients as you like.

[sawguy21]

Granola is touted as a 'health food' which usually turns me off. The health food nuts drive me nuts.  : I have to admit that the bars are a DanG good snack, lots of energy and not sweet like candy or chocolate. Yours sound really good, well, except for the coconut.

[Jeff]

 This batch really tastes good. 

[Corley5]

That looks good 8)  Some M&Ms would add color ;) ;D

[Jeff]

This batch was a chewy granola. You can leave it in longer to get crunchy which makes for good cereal.

[SwampDonkey]

Fortunately, I'm not allergic to anything. And I like granola. I once compared Quaker brand Granola cereal to a touted 'better for you' cereal. I compared what you actually benefit from in both brands and the Quaker was way ahead of the other. The other brand tasted stale and like dried Kraft pulp you get as samples from a pulp mill.  ;D ;)


Jeff do you make a parfait on occasion? You know, sprinkle some granola in the bottom of a cup, some yogourt, some fruit, some more granola, yogourt, fruit. Dig in. ;D At the store I sometimes get it half price on Friday morning. I don't make it home because I usually have a serving of fruit, cereal and yogourt in the morning. That's if I don't have a buckwheat pancake instead.  ;D I don't buy blueberries or strawberries in winter. The blueberries are about $6 a cup full.  Gotta be about the most expensive fruit I ever seen. :

[Jeff]

No yogurt for me. 

[Reddog]

That looks good 8)

It tasted good to Greg.  ;)

[Jeff]

Yup, Wally stopped by today for a visit and got a sample right out of da pan. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah I know Jeff.

My uncle always curled up his nose to when I had some at the house. Just one of them things that the old timers never had or tried. A few years later and he's eating it like it's going out of style. As soon as I try to rib him about it he says, 'Oh I've always ate yogourt'. Yeah right!! :D ;D

Oh course if your allergic that's not fun.

I use the Bifidus Lactis (B L) Regularis by Activia. I see it for sale in the US as well.  ;) I don't buy those cheap brands with all that bean gum and aspartame in it. That's why I don't eat boughten ice cream.  That's just nasty stuff. Whose idea was it to substitute bean gum for custard and creme? Real ice creme is over $6 a pint in stores.  Milk products are high here and regulated by a milk marketing board. :

[sawguy21]

No yogurt for me. 

I hate the stuff. Like eating paste.

[Roxie]

Now SwampDonkey, I can help you with the expensive blueberry dilema.  Is everybody watching, I'm about to make a suggestion to Swamp.   

Get some quart sized, zipper closed, Ziploc freezer bags, and during the summer when fruit is inexpensive, put your blueberries in the baggies and put them in the freezer.  BAM!  Fruit whenever you want it. 

Blueberries, raspberries and strawberries are the easiest fruits to freeze, because you don't have to do anything to them except bag them.  If you rinse them off before you freeze them, just make sure they are dry when you put them in the bag.  If they are over ripe and might stick together, you can put them on a cookie sheet in a single layer and freeze them on the tray before you bag them.

I am real lucky that I get homemade yogurt from the Amish.  Ingredients:  Culture, Milk & Vanilla.  It's the best yogurt on earth. 

[SwampDonkey]

Little does Roxie know that I freeze about 10 - 1 gallon freezer bags full of raspberries from my personal patch. And I also have strawberries from fathers patch. However, I eat the fresh blueberries in season when they come out in the 10 lb boxes for $10-12 and don't like frozen blue berries. ;D The last time we did the frozen blueberry thing, we picked about 20 gallons of blueberries and froze them and they sat in the freezer for 3 years and were tossed after the 3rd year.  :

[SwampDonkey]

I tell ya something there Mr Brokaw, I mixed up a batch to. I modified the ingredients a bit, but tastes pretty good just the same.  ;D Ain't had a chance to cool yet and I've been fish'n it outta the pan already.  ;D

[Jeff]

 :D

This last batch is about gone as the kids were around yesterday. I'll be making some more for Christmas presents. We cant afford to buy much this year so Tammy has been sewing stuff with material she has on hand and I have been doing some wood burning. The granola can be made for less then a buck per batch if you buy the ingredients right.

[Jeff]

I've bot an experiment going to try a more natural ingredient in the granola other then the brown sugar for a more "heart smart" version.   I left out the 3/4 cup of brown sugar and instead added 1/3 cup of Nailhead's U.P. gold maple syrup. I increased the honey from 2 to 3 tbsp, and used olive oil instead of the canola.

I'll letcha know how it turns out. I just put it in da oven.

[SwampDonkey]

Can't imagine the syrup hurting the granola, might be a little more moist if anything. I like nailhead's syrup because it's boiled down further and more old fashioned good taste. A lot of these syrups on the market have to go by a grade and I find some of it has very little taste. Now if you ruin that portion of syrup, you can just forward the remainder of the unfettered bottle on to me to use on my buckwheat pancakes.  ;D

[Jeff]

Well, this batch is only cereal. It wont hold together but really tastes good. The brown sugar must be the binder.

[Reddog]

Never pictured you as a granola cruncher Jeff. Next you'll be hugging trees.   ;)  :D

I would think the brown sugar is what binds it. I wonder if the olive oil did anything diffrent?

[Jeff]

I was trying to come up with a tasty version for a friend.     

is hugging tree stands close?

[Furby]

I don't recall "hugging" to be what you were doing when that step broke, but maybe I missed that part.

[Jeff]

hanging upside down and hugging was part of it I assure you.

[Furby]

 :D :D :D
If you say so!

[Bow Saw]

     Hey Roxie's method for freezing berries is the best one yet! I freeze a variety of blueberries as each matures at a different time, some store better than others.  We use those frozen  blueberries in smoothies or pies also.  I substitute tapioca for the thickening agent in the pie recipe.   :P
     SD, the blueberries should have been consumed within a year, otherwise they lose their flavor quality. It's unfortunate that you spent all that time picking, cleaning, and freezing that much, only to throw away. That was an expensive deal! Nutritionists claim that blueberries have antioxydents that take care of the free radicals.  In lay man's terms, blueberries have healing properties to boost the immune system.   
     Jeff, glad to see your neat granola recipe.  I really appreciate how you're experimenting with the ingredients to make it heart healthy! I'm sure some of those grains & nuts have antioxydents also!  8)
Mrs. Bow Saw   

[SwampDonkey]

Throw some dried cranberries in. I would assume they have antioxidents also. They are the same genus as blueberries and huckleberries. Vaccinium  ;D