DIY Cereal

Granola.  Otherwise know at this little place here as cereal.  It's what's for breakfast when we aren't having something cooked (eggs and toast, coffee cake or pancakes, biscuits and gravy).  I stopped buying breakfast cereal at the store a long, long time ago. I didn't like a) the price per box, b) the fact that my four kids could eat an entire box in one day (really blowing the grocery budget!!), c) all the artificial ingredients, preservatives, etc in the commercially made cereals, d) how hungry we were within a short time of eating a bowl of cereal.  Right about that time, I was reading Rural Renaissance  by John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist, and in the book they shared their granola recipe.  I tried it, and we were hooked!

Granola, not just for breakfast; it's also what's for a quick snack, a crunchy topping on yogurt or ice cream, or even the occasional lunch.  It's easy to make, easy to store, and easy to digest. Bonus: no preservatives and it's very filling!!

Granola is a nebulous thing; there are many combinations of ingredients and everyone has their own favorites.  With nuts or without.  Sweetened with honey, brown sugar, and/or maple syrup.  Seeds?  Sesame and sunflower, optional.  Oats are a must.  Dehydrated fruit, if you like.  

Granola is not a difficult thing to make; in fact, if you have an oven and a big pan (or a couple 8" x 11" or 9" x 13" ones), you should give it a try.  Try it, you'll like it!

Here's my basic granola recipe:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Grease your baking pan(s).  I use butter wrappers to grease with; there's usually just enough butter left on the wrapper once you take out the stick to grease a pan.  I haven't bought non-stick pan spray in about 10 years since I learned this trick.

In a small sauce pan, combine
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 Tbsp water
heat over medium heat, stirring, until it simmers.  Do not let it boil.  Then stir in
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

While your honey mixture is heating, in a large bowl, put
6 cups oats (oatmeal aka rolled oats, old fashioned oats, etc)
1 cup chopped nuts (I use a combination of walnuts and pecans, but use whatever nuts you like)
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Pour the simmered honey mixture over the ingredients in the bowl, and stir together well until all the oats, nuts, seeds, etc are coated.  Put it all into the greased pan(s), and bake for 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.  The stirring is important, don't skip it, it keeps things from getting burnt.  At the end of the 60 minutes of baking, remove pan(s) to a cooling rack (or racks).  Let granola cool completely, stirring occasionally.  The more often you stir it, the looser and more free-flowing it will be.  For chunkier granola, stir less often during the cooling process.  Once totally cooled, store in an airtight container.

Here's a recipe I was given by a friend, that I am still playing with to get it to the consistency I want. 

Pumpkin Granola
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin (cooked and mashed or pureed, not raw!)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3 cups oats

Preheat oven to 250 degrees (I think next time I'll try it at 275, actually).  Grease/butter your baking pan.  Put everything except nuts and oats into a saucepan and heat on med-low heat until butter and sugar have melted and everything is blended together.  Pour this over the nuts and oats, stir to coat, then pour into baking pan.  Bake 60 minutes, stirring every 15 min. Remove from oven. Cool completely, stirring occasionally.


The pumpkin granola is a delicious twist, but so far it keeps coming out a bit wetter than I'd like.  Which is why I'm thinking of upping the oven temp. a bit.  Or, it could be because I'm using homegrown pumpkin, versus pumpkin from a can sold at the store.  My pumpkin is always runnier than store canned pumpkin (possibly because it's pumpkin, not squash. Trivia: did you know the 'pumpkin' sold in cans at the store usually is not pumpkin, but squash?). But since this recipe has no oil, there's not any liquid to reduce to make the granola less moist (unless I cut out the melted butter. . . )

As I stated above, granola is kind of a nebulous thing. There's no one hard and fast method of making it, or ingredients to put in.  Make some.  Play with the recipe a bit if it comes out wetter or drier than you'd wanted.  Decrease the cooking time if your oven seems to cook it faster (it should brown a little, but not past golden).  Add some spices.  Subtract some nuts if you're allergic.  Use less or different sweeteners or oils/fats.  Make it yours, but definitely make it!