If you are a regular visitor here, you know that we love granola at our house, so I set about finding a worthy grain free, gluten free, paleo style granola recipe to replace our old standby recipe.
I started by replacing the rolled oats with sliced almonds and then adding unsweetened shredded coconut to form the base of the recipe, after that I played around with different ratios of oil and sweetener until I came up with a lightly sweet and very crunchy mixture. For the final step I added the usual suspects of dried fruits and other nuts giving me an end result that was toasty, sweet, crispy and very tasty! Like any other granola, it can be used as a cereal, a fruit topper, a yogurt mix in, or whatever else you normally do with granola.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sliced almonds
- 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1 cup walnuts (or other nut of your choice), chopped
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit of your choice)
- 1/2 cup raisins (or other dried fruit of your choice)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup honey (or other liquid sweetener of your choice)
- 2 tsp cinnamon (I like lots of cinnamon!)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- generous pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees
- In a large bowl mix sliced almonds, shredded coconut, salt, cinnamon and chopped walnuts. Add coconut oil, honey and vanilla extract to the bowl and mix well.
- Spread the mixture out onto a large sheet pan and cook for approx 30 minutes, stirring well after 15 minutes. Watch your granola carefully while it bakes as it may take longer or shorter for your oven to fully toast the mixture. You should take it out when the almonds and coconut have toasted to the shade of brown that you prefer. Don't worry if it doesn't seem very crunchy when you first take it out as it will crisp more as it cools.
- When you have removed the tray from the oven, add in your dried fruit and mix it around on the tray with a spatula.
- *Optional: After the granola has cooled completely, add 1/2 cup of your favorite chocolate chips.
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