Almond Spiced Granola is loaded with oats, almonds, and cashews, and spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Mixed with honey for that sweet and salty flavor that is sure to be a breakfast staple!
A Breakfast Staple
Almond Spiced Granola has been a favorite in our house for years. We always have it on hand to top many variations of breakfast. Use it to top yogurt, oatmeal, and on plain old cereal with milk, like cheerios or chex. We add it in trail mix, use it to top ice cream, and just eat it by the handful. Once you’ve made homemade granola, you may never go back to store-bought. It truly is just that much better! Crunchy and full of spiced sweet and salty flavor! With homemade granola you can control your ingredients. Healthier too, check the label of your bag, often full of unnecessary sugar and mostly oats, with only a few nuts. Homemade granola is only sweetened with honey, but maple syrup is a great substitute, try it both ways!
Tips for Perfect Granola
Granola is an easy recipe that is quick and easy to throw together. Simply combine all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. You can decide how big or small to chop the nuts, depending on how you like them. You can also sub some extra oats for some of the nuts to make the recipe more affordable. Melt your oil and honey in the microwave to help it combine. One batch of granola makes 2 sheet pans worth and I’ve found that parchment paper is so important in keeping your big clusters and not letting the granola stick to the pan. I reuse my two sheets of parchment paper over and over for granola, go green!
When your granola is in the oven, time it for the full 75 minutes and don’t stir it! I used to stop and stir, but I think it is a common mistake. When the timer is up, turn off the oven, but leave the granola in the oven for a few hours until it is cooled. Leaving your granola alone is what gives you the nice big clusters. Add your dried fruit or raisins at the end, and store it in jars.
Granola Makes a Perfect Gift
Every Christmas we make batches of granola and gift them in pretty jars. It’s become one of our staple Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen. Grandparents, teachers, everyone loves granola! It’s more useful than the cookie giving, and the kids really feel like they contributed to the gift. Every Christmas, we pair our Granola Gifts with Almond Biscotti! The kids love making it as much as their grandparents love eating it.
Tips and Lessons for Cooking with Kids
Granola is the perfect starter recipe to have the kids help, no matter how young or old they are. Even at one or two years old, they love to measure, stir, smell and taste!
- Let kids do it all! They can measure, count, add, smell, stir. You don’t have to worry about them leaning over the hot stove.
- Your kids are never too young or too old to start, as long as they can sit on the counter or pull up a stool.
- Check out kid’s cook books at the library, my kids were super excited about them.
- Think of all they can learn beyond the recipe. Teach them where food comes from, and where does it go (garbage, recycling, compost). Math and measuring, family heritage and grandmother’s recipes. Safety skills like teaching little kids to stay away from a hot stove and use a knife safely.
- Clean your counters really well before you start. If they stir like crazy and half your oats end up on the counter, just scoop them back in the bowl.
- Allow extra time! Consider this a fun kid activity, not we need dinner on the table in 20 minutes!
- All messes can be cleaned up, and a failed recipe is not the end of the world.
- Teach your kids to cook and to eat right, learn which foods “help us grow big and strong and which foods are just for fun.” Cooking is an important life skill that is taught very little in school. It is as important as teaching them to swim, ride a bike, manage their money, and get along with others. It will serve them well when they are under their own roof.
- Have fun and take pictures of them!
Almond Spiced Granola
Ingredients
- 5 c oats
- 1 c almonds sliced, chopped, or left whole
- 1 c cashews chopped or left whole
- 1 c coconut
- ½ c pumpkin seeds
- ½ c sunflower seeds
- ¼ c flax seeds
- 2 t cinnamon
- 1 ½ t ginger
- ½ t nutmeg
- ½ c coconut oil melted
- ½ c honey (or maple syrup)
- 2 t vanilla
- 1 t kosher salt
- ½ c raisins or any dried fruit (optional)
Instructions
- Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl
- Combine melted coconut oil, honey, vanilla and salt in a glass measuring cup and warm in the microwave
- Add wet to dry and mix well. Transfer to 2 parchment paper lined baking sheets (I reuse my parchment paper over and over every time I make granola–go green!)
- Bake at 250° for 75 minutes. When the 75 minutes is up, turn the oven off but leave the granola in the oven for hours or overnight, this gives you nice clusters
- Add dried fruit if desired and store in an airtight jar
- **Note** Granola is an easy recipe for substitutions. If you don't have cashews, any nut will do, like walnuts or pecans. Maple syrup can replace the honey. Olive oil can be subbed for the coconut oil. Chia or sesame seeds can be subbed for the flax seeds. Or you can use more oats in place of some of the nuts to make the recipe less expensive. Use what you have or make it your own, just keep the proportions of wet to dry the same.
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