Almond Maple Granola from Out of this World

It’s easy to make delicious homemade granola. This almond maple granola is packed with heart-heathy oats and almonds, dried cranberries and apricots and it’s one of the best things to eat for breakfast, scooped over yogurt or in a bowl with milk.

Two old friends, that I haven’t seen in years, are coming to stay with me for the weekend. The three of us were best friends starting back in the early days of our television careers, when we were all “paying our dues” at the  “Good Morning America” offices in Manhattan. We were researchers and our job was to figure out and arrange all of the details for a particular story from booking the interviews to arranging travel for the producer and crew. It was challenging and busy and stressful and we had a blast.  As I was thinking about this weekend and how nice it will be to have so much time to catch up with my good friends, I was inspired to make my favorite granola.

I like to almost burn the granola.  It brings out the best in the oats and the nuts and gives it a great crunch.  Having a fresh batch of home made granola for the weekend is always a good feeling.

Here’s the Almond Maple Granola Recipe. If you try this recipe I hope you’ll come back to leave a comment and a rating. I’d love to know what you think.

Almond Maple Granola

An easy recipe for healthy, crunchy granola with oats, almonds, apricots and cranberries.

• Author: by Lisa, adapted from Cooking Light
• Yield: 8-10

Ingredients

• 4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup roasted salted almonds, chopped roughly
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• Oil or cooking spray to coat the baking pan
• 1 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º
2. Combine dry ingredients: oats, almonds, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a small sauce pan combine honey, maple syrup, water, oil, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and pour the heated mixture over the oat mixture. Stir to combine everything.
4. Lightly oil a jellyroll pan and spread oat mixture onto it. Bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through.
5. Pull the pan out of the oven, toss apricots and cranberries into the oat mixture and bake for another 10 minutes until everything is nicely browned. Granola will not be crunchy until it cools. Cool completely. Enjoy!
6. Note: Granola can be stored for a week in an airtight container.