Sometimes the simple things are exactly what you need. Homemade granola doesn't sound like any big thing, but once you've made it yourself it's hard to go back to the store bought stuff. Also, if you have never tried browned butter, now is the time! It adds one teensy step to this granola, but the browned butter is what makes it so good. We’ve included a link below with more details, but the very simple version is: melt butter on the stove and cook it until it turns brown and smells like toasted nuts. We rarely make granola the same way twice, but this is a good base recipe to play around with. Feel free to add different nuts, a dash of cinnamon, or toss in whatever dried fruit you like after it has cooked. Beware; if you cook the dried fruit, it will turn into nasty little bits of gravel, so make sure to add it at the end.
Enjoy!
Recipe Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups of old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup of sliced almonds
- 1 cup of shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
- ½ teaspoon of salt (Kosher)
- 4 tbs butter, browned
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey (We used maple.)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Drop of almond extract
- ¼ - ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips or an equivalent amount of dark chocolate chopped into small pieces (Depending on how much you like chocolate.)*
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small pot brown the butter. You will know it is done when it starts to smell nutty. Do not skip this step! It’s what makes this granola so good. Looking for some more direction? [Check out this link on basic butter browning][1] technique from The Kitchn. Once the butter is browned, remove from the heat, and stir in both extracts and the maple syrup.
In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, almonds, coconut and salt. Stirwell. Pour the butter mixture over the oat mixture and stir until the whole thing is evenly moistened. (<--- Gross word, but I couldn’t avoid it.)
Spread evenly on a baking sheet in one layer. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to ensure even browning. The granola is done when everything looks brown and toasty.
Remove the pan from the oven, and evenly sprinkle your desired amount of chocolate over the granola. Let stand for a few minutes until the chocolate starts to melt. Use a spatula to stir the granola into chocolaty clumps. Let cool.
*Note: We use mini-chips in our recipe because they melt quickly and form tasty chocolate-oat clusters. A larger chip or chunk will still taste good but won’t create as many clusters, and that would be sad.
Soon this will be warm, toasty, and begging to be doused in melted chocolate!
Add some fruit and yogurt, and you've got dessert for breakfast. How can you go wrong?
