Peanut Butter and Honey Granola and Tips On Making Great Granola

This delicious granola is only slightly sweet, which is the way I like my granola. The peanut butter gives it a comforting but not overpowering flavor. It's fantastic as breakfast cereal with milk. Charlotte, who is super picky selective, loves this granola and loves when I pack it in her lunchbox. She loves peanuts so I made sure to leave the peanuts whole and chop the other nuts finely so she'd only notice the peanuts. I'm sneaky like that.

Granola is simple to make and VERY easy to adjust to your family's taste and what's in the pantry.

Peanut Butter and Honey Granola

"Glue"

2/3 cup honey

2/3 cup olive oil or melted coconut oil

1 cup peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

"Add-Ins"***

1 cup sunflower seeds

2 cups chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc.)

2 Tbsp. chia seeds

8 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 cups quick oats (very important to use quick oats if you want clusters in your granola)

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup peanuts

***The "add-ins" can be changed almost endlessly as long as the amounts stay the same. Don't like chia seeds? Use sesame seeds. Don't have any sunflower seeds? Use pumpkin seeds. The only thing to keep in mind is to NOT add dried fruit to the granola at this point. It will burn in the oven. Dried fruit is only added after the granola is baked and cooled. ***

#1 - Put the "glue" ingredients into a microwave safe bowl or into a saucepan on the stove. Warm the ingredients just enough to make them easy to stir together. You don't want to make them super hot.

#2 - Add "glue" ingredients to the "add-ins" in a HUGE bowl.

#3 Stir together the "glue" and the "add-ins" until everything is well coated. Divide the mixture between 2 greased half sheet pans (with a rim). Press the mixture into the pan firmly. This the key to creating clusters.

#4 Bake pans at 250* for about 1 hour (rotating pans every 15 minutes). DO NOT STIR THE GRANOLA! This is how you create clusters. Watch the granola carefully toward the end of the cooking time. You want it to be golden brown... not deep brown. Take it out as soon as it reaches golden brown. Let it cool completely before you break up the granola and store it in air tight containers.

Yield : A LOT!! Enough to feed an army. You can cut this recipe in half and only make one sheet pan of granola but it stores really well and it's really delicious so I'd recommend you just make a full batch and share with friends.

See those great clusters? You'll get them every time and with any granola recipe as long as you follow my 3 tips (some quick oats, pressing into the pan, and no stirring).

Enjoy!