What is nice about making your own granola? Well for one thing...cost! Browsing the grocery store selection at $6-10 a bag was more than enough to make me look at an alternative. And for another thing...you can choose what goes in it. :) We usually get our ingredients in the bulk/by-the-pound area of the store and it winds up being almost dirt cheap to make this in large quantities. And the kids love it as a snack or cereal in the morning.
STOVETOP GRANOLA:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup butter
2 tbsp. honey
1/3 cup brown sugar
and roughly 1 to 1 1/2 cups worth of add-ins (nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, chopped dates, chocolate chunks...whatever you wish)
1. Heat oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add oats and cook & stir until starting to brown and crisp, about 5 min. Spread on a cookie sheet to cool for a few minutes.
2. Melt butter in the same pan over med. heat. Stir in honey & brown sugar; cook stirring constantly, until bubbly. Return oats to pan. Cook & stir for another 5 minutes or so. Pour on cookie sheet to cool.
3. Once cool, break into bite-sized chunks and transfer to an airtight container. Stir or shake in the extra add-ins you choose.
Enjoy!!!
In the photos above, I had DOUBLED the recipe, so that shows how much a double batch would make. And I used dried cranberries, chopped dates and raisins. I didn't use nuts or choc. this round. Also if you wanted a vanilla hint to this, you could add it during the butter-melting stage (about 1 tsp of vanilla extract). P.S. I highly recommend a cambro bucket for every cook's kitchen! (that is what I store my granola in when I'm not using it to rise bread doughs).
