If you are looking for a super sweet, clumpy, “cookie-like” snacking kind of granola, this is not it. I have made it that way, and it is absolutely delicious – but, I think misses the point. If you want to make that kind of granola, double the oil, triple the honey, and add some brown sugar into the liquid mixture, ensuring it dissolves. Cinnamon is a nice addition with this kind of snack….
But, in my own lifetime, that kind of “prairie in a bowl” would have been absolutely unheard of prior to the past 20 years. Cereal in a box was standard for the children of my generation, and we were the first. However, in the winter, homemade porridge was a constant in any Alberta home: urban, or rural. Granola was a product of the “hippy generation” in the late 1960′s and early1970′s. Our parents never made it, but we did. It was a statement about getting back to the basics and about living and eating healthy. It was a movement away from commercialism and toward the ability to be an independent consumer, able to produce one’s own food – or as much of it as humanly possible. And I still like the idea of that.
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12 cups of slow cooking rolled oats
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2 cups of sliced almonds, bark on
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1/2 cup poppy seeds
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1/2 cup sesame seeds
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2 cups raw pumpkin seeds
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2 cups raw sunflower seeds
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1/2 cup freshly ground flax seed
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1/2 cup wheat germ
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1/2 cup bran
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1/2 to 1 cup hemp hearts
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2 cups unsweetened, dried cranberries
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2 cups unsweetened, dried blueberries
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1 cup unsweetened, dried cherries
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1 cup dried apricots, chopped
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1/2 cup honey
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2/3 cup canola oil
This is the fun part: dumping everything in a bowl and mixing it all together.
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Preheat the oven to 200, and use convection, if you have it
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Heat the 1/2 cup honey, and combine thoroughly with the oil
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Place the first 10 ingredients into a huge bowl, and toss with the warm liquid until all i coated
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Use parchment or silpats on three large cookie sheets, and spread 1/3 of the mixture out evenly on each sheet
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Place all three sheets into the oven and rotate every 20 to 30 minutes, turning in the oven, as well
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After 2 hours, the oil and honey mixture should be dried, and the small seeds stuck to the bigger mosels
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Place all ingredients back into a large bowl, and all all of the fruit
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Combine to mix together, and let cook
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Pack into containers that seal well
This will keep fresh for several months (at least three, if necesary). I eat 1/4 cup in the mornings with a healthy dollup of my homemade yogurt.
In the early 1970′s, granola was introduced commercially in Alberta. I learned how to make this when I was a student at the University of Alberta and it has been an integral part of our family early mornings ever since. We never tire of it, though the hemp hearts are certainly a new addition… and certain parts of the recipe has changed over time as I have learned how to make it healthier (blueberries instead of raisons…no more coconut, etc.).
It is SO perfect with homemade yogurt. Yummers!
so i want to make this since you brought me the dried fruit… but i just need to go buy the seeds etc. i copied and pasted the above recipe and hope I get to it.
Oh yeah Valerie!!!
This looks like a good one!
I do not know if I have a container large enough for 12 cups of oats!
Kelly – I figure if I am going to make it, make it big. Mom and dad love it, and so does my daughter – so I usually share. But, you get the idea if you compare it to your 6 cup recipe and divide everything else in half.
I am making this on the weekend – Thanksgiving granola
i am going to try it NOW…i love how i wanted to try in 2009 and never did. i am a slacker. mercedes suggested homemade granola in cute gift bags as thank you gifts for the bridal shower. one question: for steps 7) Place all ingredients back into a large bowl, and all all of the fruit, and
Combine to mix together, and let cook do i put the total mixture back on the cookie sheets and into the oven, or let cook just in the bowl that i mixed them together in?
Lauren!
Thanks for noticing my error!
You only cook the first part – once you add the fruit and the remainder of the seeds and nuts you do not cook anymore.
momsey
XO
i did it! i made it! and it is wonderful!
Lauren recently posted..socal outtakes
Congratulations, Lauren!
Did you write about it on your site?
XO
Momsey
[...] love being hostess. Coffee, juice, buttermilk biscuits with homemade jams and homemade granola with Bles Wold yogurt were served (not homemade, this time). The participants that come are always [...]