Vanilla Almond Granola

Vanilla Almond Granola

A chunky, crunchy, snacking granola.  I created this granola to help satisfy those cravings for something crunchy to snack on.  

Ingredients

4 cups Rolled Oats
1 1/2 cups Slivered Almonds **
1 1/2 cups Peanuts **
2 cup Shredded Sweet Coconut **
2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

3/4 cup Wheat Germ*

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

2/3 cup Water

2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

1 tablespoon Almond Extract

1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Coconut oil ***

1 cup Peanut Butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, salt, wheat germ, and brown sugar.  Mix thoroughly.

In separate bowl combine and stir in the water, vanilla and almond extract.  Slowly add while stirring to the oat and nut mixture. 

In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and peanut butter.  Heat until coconut oil is melted and the peanut butter is soft.  Stir to thoroughly combine syrup, oil and peanut butter. Slowly pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, while stirring. 

Divide into two equal batches spread each batch into a 9 x 12 cake pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 250° stirring every 30 minutes. 

Here I have formed he granola into chunks before baking.

*The Wheat Germ totally optional I have included it to make a chunkier granola.  Others options are flour, oat flour, coconut flour or almond flour.  I have been experimenting with different ingredients to bind the granola for the ideal chunky granola.  As I make improvements I will update this blog.

**The peanuts are optional you can substitute your favorite nut or omit the peanuts. For a breakfast granola I leave out the peanuts and increase the almonds and coconut.

***While I have only used coconut oil in this recipe, any good cooking oil should work.