Homemade Granola

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to make homemade granola. I am pleased to say it is delicious! A little sweet, but not too much.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup flaxseed
• 1-1/2 cups chopped nuts (or so - doesn't have to be exact)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients together - everything but the butter, syrup, and vanilla. In case anyone was wondering, I used almonds and walnuts for my chopped nuts. The walnuts were pre-chopped, so they blend in. I chopped up the almonds, which is why some of the pieces are really big.

Melt the butter, syrup, and vanilla together. You can do this in the microwave or on the stovetop. Stir into dry ingredients until everything is moistened. Next time I might use just a smidge more syrup, because I like the maple-y flavor, but otherwise, this turned out really well.

Spread onto 2 jelly roll pans (cookie sheets with sides) and bake at 300F. Stir after 10 minutes, then after another 10 minutes, then after another 10 minutes. Continue baking and stirring every 5 minutes after that until you reach your desired crunchiness. I did a total of 40 minutes for mine, and it's a bit crunchy, but not too much.

You can reuse your oats container to hold some of the granola, and you'll just have to eat the rest! I got the idea and the baking temperature/timing for this recipe here, although I modified it based on what I had in the cupboard.

Yum!

Update: For a variation, I've been using 1/2 cup honey instead of the syrup, which is also delicious. I'm looking forward to trying a peanut butter variation one of these days too. I'll keep you posted.