Almost Crack Granola

At home Manservant does not allow this amazing, sweet and salty, crack granola on the counter.  Why crack granola? Because it truly is addicting. One handful after another, with or without milk, it’s hard to stop eating this stuff.  Made with maple syrup, brown sugar and olive oil, this incredible oat granola, filled with fruits of your choice is hard to stay away from. You may think it odd that it contains salt. Think again. The combination of salty and sweet is what puts this sweet and salty granola so over the top. I kid you not. You could decrease the salt, but then it tastes like all the other granolas. Ordinary. Just granola. At least in my humble opinion, which is very humble indeed.

Throw in your favorite combo of dried fruit (of which mine are apricots and cherries) and you have granola that is fit for a king and queen. In my humble opinion… as the queen of this space, this granola with the sweet and salt thing going for it, is hard to resist. I never thought I’d be sharing a recipe for granola; but I guess one can’t have a blog without a recipe for granola. At least from what I’ve seen. It seems everyone who’s anyone has a recipe for granola and many have more than one.

So what finally made me cross the bridge into granola land? I have no idea. But I’m glad I did. And anyone that has tasted this, is glad I did, too! A few weeks ago, which seems like forever, I brought this up to the mountains to eat for breakfast. We had been invited to spend a weekend with friends and I offered to bring breakfast. I did bring some awesome scones, which I’ll supply you with later, and some great homemade jams. Plus this granola. Which we ate for breakfast. And which we ate by the handful while walking out the door, with another handful when walking in the door. It’s good granola and I’m not one to wax eloquently about oats, but these are worth it.

I remember when making granola and homemade yogurt used to be part of everyone’s repertoire- at least the repertoire of college campuses in the 70’s. I never got into it back then and always partook of the few ready made varieties. Of course I could have gone into the few health food stores and dipped the scoop into a bin and probably met a few granola heads on the way. But I didn’t. I liked pizza and beer too much; which meant I didn’t eat breakfast too early. But I did make a pretty good gorp with lots of M and M’s for our weekend hikes; probably using Quaker Oats granola out of the box.

More ways to get some oats:

Banana Blueberry Baked Oatmeal

Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal

Oatmeal Crunch (Perfect as an Ice Cream or Yogurt Topping!)

Coconut Oil Granola with Pineapple and Cashews

The Best Oatmeal Cookies

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(This is an updated post from 2014)

Almost Crack Granola

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review

• Author: Abbe Odenwalder
• Prep Time: 15 Minutes
• Cook Time: 45 Minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 5-6 Cups 1x
• Category: Breakfast/Snack
• Method: Bake
• Cuisine: American

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Description

This amazing sweet and salty, almost crack granola comes from the best restaurant in the world. Sweet and salty makes this incredibly addicting!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 3/4 c oats
• 1 c nuts (I use sliced almonds)
• 1/3 c pepitas or green pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 c chia seeds
• 2–3 t coarse kosher salt (I use Morton’s) Do not use table salt. It will be way too salty!
• 1/3 c brown sugar
• 1/3 c maple syrup
• 1/3 c olive oil
• 1/2 c sliced dried apricots
• 1/2 c dried cherries
• 1/2 c golden or dark raisins

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 300.
• Stir oats, nuts, pepitas, chia seeds and salt in a large bowl.
• Heat brown sugar, maple syrup, and olive oil in a large measuring cup in microwave for about 1 minute or until the sugar dissolves. Pour over oat mixture in mixing bowl and stir well.
• Place on a parchment lined 15 x 10 jelly roll pan and pat into one layer. Bake at 300 for about 30-40 minutes, stirring as necessary until light to dark gold, (your choice) however the less you stir the more clusters this will make. When baked to your liking, remove from oven.

Sprinkle and lightly press dried fruit on top of granola but do not stir it in. Wait until this cools and then break into pieces while mixing in fruit.

Feel free to mix up your fruit/nut combo. The original recipe also contains coconut flakes. Imagine that with macadamias and dried pineapple. Hmm. Time for a new batch!

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