It’s back to school time and a jumbo batch of granola just came out of the oven. Since I last posted a granola recipe here (13 years ago!) I have made some important changes to the recipe. I have stopped adding oil or any kind of sweetener such as honey or maple syrup to my granola. The nuts and seeds contain plenty of healthy oil in whole food form. All the sweet we need comes from fresh chopped fruit which we stir into our bowl when we eat.

For every 6-8 cups of oats, I add 1-2 cups each of 3-4 kinds of nuts or seeds, plus 2 cups of wheat germ. I stir it all together with a large wooden spoon. On top of this I will spread 1/2 – 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Then I dissolve a spoon of salt in a small cup of water and sprinkle this as I use my hands to make clumps. Then it is ready to spread out on a large baking sheet and go into the oven. I usually bake at 300 for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Depending on how thick or thin the layer of granola is spread on the baking sheet, the last 10 minutes could be with the oven off, in the remaining heat. I think mine is usually an inch thick. Next time I will try to measure. Maybe.

Today I did a double batch, that is 12 cups of oats and therefore used two large baking sheets. In my oven they don’t both fit on a single rack so I had to put one below the other. Out of what was perhaps an abundance of caution for the lower baking pan, I reduced the heat to 250 and baked for 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes. Once cool I put it all into clean dry jars ready for Khiyali to take when she goes away to college this weekend.