Tropical Fruit Granola
Granola is something my husband always looks forward to for breakfast. His day hasn't started yet if he hasn't eaten a bowl of hot cereal with a sprinkle of granola on top. And if we are traveling, it's so easy to put a zip lock bag of granola in our suitcase, with some powdered milk for a quick breakfast. There's nothing better than knowing you're still getting a good healthy meal, even while away from home! This recipe makes a large batch–filling two cookie sheets in the oven, and making about a gallon of granola. If you won't use it very fast, put half of it in the freezer. It'll keep for a long time!
Ingredients
MIX in a large bowl:
- 13 cups old fashioned rolled oats (if you buy the oats from the grocery store, this will empty one large container.)
- 2 cups chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 2/3 cup almond flour (grind dry almonds in the blender OR food processor.)
BLEND until smooth:
- 1 1/3 cups dates pitted, packed.
- 1/2 cup water hot. Soak the dates in it before blending.
- 2 medium bananas very ripe.
- 1/4 cup maple syrup increase, if bananas are not fully ripe.
- 2 Tbsp sorghum molasses
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 2 ½ tsp vanilla flavor
- 1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil optional for oil-free.
ADD during middle of baking:
- 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
ADD after cooled:
- 2 cups dried tropical fruit, diced in small pieces pineapple, papaya, mango
Instructions
-
COMBINE oats, nuts, seeds, and almond flour in a large bowl.
-
BLEND dates, bananas, and other ingredients until smooth. You may need to stop it to help it along with a spatula–it's very thick.
-
POUR blender mixture into the oats and MIX well.
-
DIVIDE between two cookie sheets and place in the oven.
-
BAKE at 200F for 6 hours OR overnight.
-
REMOVE from oven.
-
ADD tropical dried fruit dices, if desired.
-
STORE in airtight container for one month OR freeze to keep it fresh longer.
Recipe Notes
I use time bake and set the time to start in the middle of the night and stop when I get up in the morning. That way I can take it right out of the oven and let it cool. The house smells SOOOO good when we wake up in the morning!