A Favorite Basic Natural & Delicious Granola

After hunting around for ages for a simple & flexible granola recipe... after trial & error came up with this:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

7 cups oats

1/2 to 1 cup turbinado sugar (if you are using honey - go lighter... and mix in with melted butter, then add to dry ingredients - honey will make your granola less crunchy)

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup nuts

2 teaspoons sea salt

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 cup melted butter

and some extras I've been including lately:  chia seeds, wheat germ, wheat bran... to taste

In large Pyrex bowl measure ingredients & add one at a time, mixing after each addition. Bake for one hour - stirring every fifteen minutes.

Cool completely.

Store in airtight container. If it's going to be around longer than a few days, you might want to store in airtight container in fridge. It usually doesn't last long for us.

Variations:

Maple Walnut

Add 2 to 3 teaspoons maple flavoring to melted butter, and replace pecans with walnuts.

Fruit & Nut

After baking for one hour, add 1/2 to 1 cup dried fruit of choice. Don't bake the dried fruit - add to bowl after baking!

I like Craisins, Raisins, Banana Chips.

Other dried fruits you can have fun trying: blueberries, dates, pineapple, apricots, etc.

Now, for a great tip from a very nice older Mennonite lady - you can put the cooled down granola into dry sterile hot canning jars & put dry sterile canning lids on those - dry, not wet. When the hot jars & lids cool, they will seal.

So you can store on shelf unopened for some time.

If the granola is not cool, or if the jars and / or lids are wet,

there will be condensation which is not good.

Great for gifts!