Crunchy Granola

Summerlea's Note:

This is a healthier trail mix-style granola with many crunchy clusters. The fat is lower than many recipes and it has lots of healthy grains, nuts and dried fruit.

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 8 1/2 c s ...

• 4 cups old fashioned oats
• 3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
• 3 tablespoons wheat germ (oat bran, etc)
• ½ cup chopped almonds (substitute as desired)
• ½ cup chopped pecans
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup honey (maple syrup or corn syrup also work)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg white (2-3T in volume)
• 1 cup dried fruit (berries, raisins, chopped apricots, etc)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 300°F.
2. Mix oats, flax, wheat germ, almonds, pecans, salt and brown sugar in a large bowl. Wisk to combine the oil, honey and egg white, then pour over the oat mixture. Stir well until ingredients are evenly coated. It may seem too dry but keep stirring.
3. Spray oil on a jelly roll pan and add the granola mixture. Bake 20-30 minutes, until the edges are browned and it smells toasty. To make clumps don't stir during baking. Cool and allow the granola to harden. Break into smaller pieces and add the fruit. Store airtight for two weeks.
4. The dried fruit may hydrate the granola so it loses some of its crunch. If so just pop it back in a 300F oven for about 10 minutes.

Reviews

[DinnerBelle]

To me, this is the perfect granola: crunchy and not overly sweet. My teenager needs something he can eat on his way to the school bus stop for his 6:30 am pickup, and this recipe gives him more protein and less sugar and salt than commercially available granolas or bars. To nudge things even further in the right direction, I use Splenda brown sugar blend and add an extra egg white. To get the granola crunchy through and through I flip it in the pan after 20 minutes (by placing an identical size pan over top and flipping them over) and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Unlike Summerlea, I don't let it cool in the pan, but remove in as big pieces as I can with a spatula and cool the chunks on a rack. This inevitably causes some breakage, but lets more moisture evaporate for additional crunch.