Grain Free “Granola”

In my search for grain free options, I stumbled upon this idea. I have attempted making granola bars before with various ingredients and have never found the right combination for a bar with a great consistency. Or any consistency for that matter. Every “bar” recipe I’ve tried before turned into mushy crumbles. With some inspiration from around the internet and Pinterest, I was able to create this lovely “granola.” Some pieces turned out to be bar like, but most of it turned out to be a great granola. It has a great flavor, great texture, and knowing that I put only wholesome ingredients makes me feel really great about having this available for me and my husband to have something quickly available. There is a lot of time required to make these – but it’s not a lot of hands on time, so pick a day off you have and make these while you do something else around the house.

The flavor is so ridiculous that I had to hide some to photograph because my husband was gobbling it up! We ate it as a dry snack and with almond milk as a yummy cereal. The first cereal that doesn’t go mushy! Lovit!!!

I based my recipe off of this one, and know that you could switch out any nuts and seeds for others if you’d like.

Grain Free “Granola”

makes about 4 cups

1C almonds

1C pecans

1/2C sunflower seeds

1C of golden raisins or various small dried fruit of choice

1C shredded coconut

1/2C maple syrup

1/4C coconut oil

1/2t salt

1/2t vanilla extract

a few dashes of cinnamon

First I put 3/4 of the nuts and seeds with the coconut in a food processor

and pulsed several times until it was a fine chop.

Then, I roughly chopped the remaining nuts and seeds and preheated the oven to 200 degrees.

Stir the two nut mixtures together with the dried fruit. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the coconut oil with the vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and maple syrup.

Once the mixture begins to boil, promptly remove from heat…

and add it to the fruit & nut mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

Press into a pan lined with parchment paper.

Press into the pan well with the wooden spoon, greased fingers, or another piece of parchment paper. Set in the oven for 3-5 hours. The time will be determined by how thick your mixture is in the pan. If the mix hasn’t had time to dry out enough, it will be moist and crumbly. A few hours into the dehydrating process, most of the mix will be bar-like if you’d like to make nut bars out of the mix. Continue dehydrating to create crunchy “granola.”