Cooking for Students Granola

Granola

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Cooking for Students

Granola is a popular breakfast food for a reason. Not only is it sweet and very filling but it is one of those foods that can be eaten at any time and can be served in so many ways. You can eat it with yogurt, soften it with milk, take it with you as a snack and so much more. The texture alone is amazing but once you add nuts, fruits and spices like cinnamon, plain granola is transformed into something customized to your liking. Of course there is the option of purchasing granola but doing so is a waste of money. You can make more than twice the amount for a quarter of the price.

What’s in it?

  • 1 ½ cups rolled oats
  • ¾ cup dried fruit (your choice)
  • ½ cup seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, and or sesame seeds are good options)
  • ½ cup mixed nuts
  • ½ cup honey
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • Pinch of cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt

*Makes about 12 servings

How’s it made?

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. Lightly grease with oil or coat with cooking spray.
  2. Roughly chop the mixed nuts but leave a few larger pieces to give the granola some additional crunch.
  3. Add the mixed nuts into a large bowl along with the rolled oats, dried fruit, seeds, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.
  4. Give the mix a quick stir to incorporate the spices and salt.
  5. Add the oil to the mix as well as the honey. To make the honey less sticky combine it with the oil to make it more runny. It has to be evenly distributed throughout the granola.
  6. Stir with a fork and break up any lumps that form.
  7. Spread the granola mixture in an even layer on the baking sheet. Try to get the layer as thin as possible.
  8. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Be sure to stir the granola once or twice during cook time for even baking.
  9. Once golden brown in color, remove the granola from the oven and transfer to a bowl.
  10. Allow to cool completely then eat.

Once you put in the time you have a delicious batch of granola ready. All it needs is some fresh fruit and milk or yogurt for serving. To make things even better this granola can be stored in a container for up to a month! Yes, a whole month!