Tropical Granola

Beth at you know what you oughta do was tweeting about her yummy Easy Vanilla Granola recently and since I’ve seen so many bloggers raving about homemade granola, I decided it was time I gave it a try. And I’m so glad I did. It really is so much better than granola from a box. It has a softer texture and my husband says it’s more like an oatmeal cookie.

One of the reasons I hesitated making granola in the past was because I didn’t want to buy a whole box of an ingredient I might not use again. But recently I’ve fallen in love with the Winco bulk foods section. For some reason I use to think of the bulk foods section as a place you go only when you want to buy a huge amount of something. But it finally dawned on me that it’s also a great place for buying just a small amount of something when you just need a little bit for a recipe.

My tropical granola version is below, but I’ve made this five times now and we love it just as much with other dried fruits. Thanks Beth for sharing your recipe. It’s become a weekly habit for us now.

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Yield: approx 6 cups

Tropical Granola

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut (or sub sweetened)
• 1/2 cup dried tropical fruit (or sub any dried fruit)
• 1/4 cup of flax seed meal
• 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3 tablespoons citrus honey (or sub any honey)
• 4 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

1. In a large bowl mix oats, brown sugar, coconut, dried fruit, flax seed meal, and salt.
2. In a saucepan heat canola oil and honey until warm. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla extract. Pour this mixture over the oat mixture and mix thoroughly till everything is completely coated.
3. Spread this evenly on a parchment or silpat covered cookie sheet. Bake at 300º for about 20 minutes until slightly golden brown. Don't stir during baking.
4. Cool completely and break into pieces. Store in an air tight container.

I’ve been having so much fun baking with the Citrus Honey I brought home from my Caribbean cruise. It has a subtle, but very noticeable hit of lime. I’m thinking I might have to order some if I can’t find a place to buy it locally. Pirate O’s sells the Tortuga Rum cakes, but not the honey.