I love making granola but for some reason it makes the most sense to me in the Fall. This version, flavored with pumpkin and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, is a real toasty treat.
Domestocrat’s Pumpkin Maple Granola (yields roughly 9 1-cup servings)
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw slivered almonds
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
3 tbsp. flax seeds
1 cup dried cranberries (I used the orange flavored ones from Trader Joe’s)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 tbsp. pumpkin puree
1 tsp. cinnamon (I use King Arthur’s Vietnamese cinnamon)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Pinch of salt
Mix the first 5 ingredients (oats, almonds, coconut, flax seed, cranberries) together in a big bowl.
Mix the rest of the ingredients (syrup, oil, pumpkin, vanilla, spices) together thoroughly in a small bowl. It’s alright if the coconut oil is a little chunky, it’ll melt down in the oven. I loosened mine up slightly in the microwave before mixing it into the pumpkin mixture though. It doesn’t look super appetizing but trust me, this will be tasty.
Spread the dry ingredients out into an even layer on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Spoon the pumpkin mixture on top of it. You can combine the two together with a spoon but I highly recommend just using your hands. Make sure every dry piece is coated.
Bake on 325 for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take it out of the oven and stir the bottom layer up to the top. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes and repeat the stirring until all of the granola becomes dry, crispy, and browned. This took about 45 minutes total for me – 5 rotations of 10 minutes, stirring up the mixture in between each rotation.
Toasty, earthly, nutty, slightly sweet, Fall spiced. In other words, yum.
Spoon over greek yogurt for a delicious, healthy, and hearty breakfast.
Domestocrat 