Cranberry Chocolate Granola

The simplest high fiber gut friendly granola. Have it as it, put in yogurt overnight for a bircher muesli or top it with milk or yogurt for a quick high fiber gut friendly breakfast.

My son loves this delicious healthy granola! It's naturally sweetened with maple syrup (or honey). Just add oats, coconut oil, nuts and dried fruit.

So easy to make and store. Without the preservative, flavour enhancers, colours of commercial ones..

Ingredients

• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (use certified gluten-free oats for gluten-free granola)
• 3/4 cup raw nuts and/or seeds (I used 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (if you’re using standard table salt, scale back to ¾ teaspoon)
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup melted coconut oil or olive oil ( do not use butter you can replace with any other unflavoured oil)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried fruit, chopped if large (I used dried cranberries. Half covered in chocolate and half as is)

• Totally optional additional mix-ins: ½ cup chocolate chips* (ive added this)

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, nuts and/or seeds, salt and cinnamon. Stir to blend.
3. Pour in the oil, maple syrup and/or honey and vanilla. Mix well, until every oat and nut is lightly coated. Pour the granola onto your prepared pan and use a large spoon to spread it in an even layer.
4. Bake until lightly golden, about 20 to 25 minutes, stirring halfway (for extra-clumpy granola, press the stirred granola down with your spatula to create a more even layer). The granola will further crisp up as it cools.
5. Let the granola cool completely, undisturbed (at least 45 minutes). Top with the dried fruit (and optional chocolate chips, if using). Break the granola into pieces with your hands if you want to retain big chunks, or stir it around with a spoon if you don’t want extra-clumpy granola.
6. Store the granola in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 to 2 weeks, or in a sealed freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. The dried fruit can freeze solid, so let it warm to room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

EXTRA add ins : I melted a little chocolate for 20 secs in the microwave and stirred in half the cranberries till they were lightly coated, then just kept them in the refrigerator to cool till the granola was ready.
add the chocolate chips, dried fruit and chocolate covered cranberries only once the granola has cooled completely

Recipe Notes
Chunky Granola Tips

Some of you, like me, love big clumps in your granola. Here are my tips to achieving the best clumps:

• Your oats need to be a little crowded in the pan so they can stick together, but not so crowded that they don’t toast evenly. I recommend using the basic pan that came with your oven for this granola recipe. It’s the perfect size and the rimmed edges make sure no granola falls overboard.
• Be sure to line the pan with baking paper or parchment paper so the sweetener sticks to your oats rather than the pan.
• For maximum clumps, gently press down on the granola with the back of a spatula after stirring the mixture at the half-way baking point. Then put the pan back into the oven to finish baking.
• Don’t bake the granola too long—just until it’s lightly golden on top, as described. It might not seem like it’s done yet, but it will continue to crisp up as it cools. Over-baking the granola seems to break the sugar bonds.
• Lastly, let the granola cool completely before breaking it up. I’ve even left it on the pan overnight, covered.

Even with all those techniques in place, I occasionally end up with a batch of granola that isn’t as clumpy as my others, for reasons that I can’t explain. It’s always delicious, though!