Crunchy Granola

Good lord! No wait, not the Neil Diamond song but delicious golden crunchy granola goodness.

Granola has to be one of the yummiest ways to start the day, and its so easy and inexpensive to make. Some premium brands can charge up to $8 for a small box of granola! But once you realise how easy it is to make yourself, how cheap the ingredients are, and how tasty it is, you’ll never go back!

Crunchy Granola

Ingredients:
– 4 cups rolled oats
– 3/4 cup coconut (dessicated, shredded or flaked)
– 3/4 cup brown sugar
– 1/4 cup water
– 3 tsp vanilla extract
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 130 degrees celcius. Combine the brown sugar and water in a saucepan and cook over a low heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Add the vanilla and salt and stir well. Place the oats and coconut in a bowl and stir to combine. Add the melted sugar mixture and stir until it is all thoroughly mixed and the oats are all coated. Spread the mixture over a baking tray lined with baking paper, and cook in a preheated oven for 1hr or until golden. Leave to cool on the tray.

This is a great base mix for granola, and you can change it up however you like. I like to cook the granola as above and then add some nuts and dried fruit before serving, that way I can change up the flavours depending on my mood that morning. One day I might have walnuts and dried cranberries, another day I might have slivered almonds and dates, and another day I might have fresh banana and macadamias. I like mine with milk, but its also equally good with yoghurt.

Tips:
If you want to use raw nuts then add them to the mixture before cooking in the oven so that they get nice and toasted.
You can also play around with the sugar mixture depending on what flavours you like, try using maple syrup (use half the amount of sugar and half maple syrup), or even add some cinnamon.
The recipe above can also be easily doubled to cook in bulk, just use two trays when cooking.

Enjoy! x