Nutty Granola

Homemade granola is a super special breakfast treat, sure to kickstart your day in a positive, happy direction!  Our recipe is called “Nutty Granola” for a really good reason: it’s chock-full of nuts!  We toss in pecans, walnuts, almonds, and pistachios plus sesame and pumpkin seeds, but you can swap those out for any nuts and seeds you like best! We sweeten it with a little bit of brown sugar and agave syrup, which also helps to make it nice and crunchy! Spiced with cinnamon and cardamom, this is not only fun to make, but fun to eat and makes a great gift to bring to friends and family!

Agave syrup can be substituted with honey or maple syrup, but we really love the way the agave works in this recipe. It allows for some crunchy clumps of granola to remain even after baking and cooling. You can always break them down, but everyone goes for the clumps! We like to cook this at two different temperatures. First, we bake it at 325 F for 20 minutes, just to get it perfectly browned, and then we reduce the temp and allow it to bake for another 35-40 minutes at 180 F to get it to the right level of crispiness and crunch.   

We also use quick oats instead of old fashioned oats, because it makes the finished granola more tender. Feel free to sub in old fashioned oats, and if you do, please let us know what you think!

And, finally, we don’t bake our granola with dried fruits, because they can get really hard and dried out. But, if you do want to include dried fruits, I recommend re-hydrating them first by letting them soak in boiling hot water for about 20 minutes before wringing out excess moisture and adding them to the granola mix. 

Nutty Granola

Servings 3 Quarts
Prep Time 20 minutes
Bake Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 18- ounce container quick oats approximately 5-6 cups
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1 cup pecan halves
  • 1 cup walnut halves
  • 1/2 cup raw pistachios
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds
  • 1/4 raw pumpkin seeds pepitas
  • 1/4 raw sesame seeds
  • 1/2 cup canola oil or your favorite cooking oil
  • 3/4 cup agave or honey
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray two baking sheets that have rims (so the granola won’t fall off while cooking).
  • Mix the first five ingredients together in a large bowl and stir well. Add nuts and seeds.
    Add oil, and toss thoroughly to coat as much of the oats and nuts as possible.
    Add the vanilla to the agave or honey, and mix well.
    Pour the agave over the oats and nuts and stir with a spoon to mix well, so that everything is coated with the agave mixture.
  • Turn granola onto prepared baking sheets and bake for 20 minutes at 325 degrees.
    Turn oven temperature down to 180 degrees and continue to bake for approximately 45 minutes to one hour longer, until granola is slightly browned and crunchy.
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  • Remove from oven and cool completely on the baking sheet before transferring to airtight containers.
    You will find that you need to break up large pieces of granola as you transfer it. Store with other cereals.
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