Have learned a little bit about granola after making it several times. Ingredients are essentially free-form, having too much salt or too much oil are the most likely problems. Too much esp. iodized salt can really ruin an entire batch, and it need not be an excessive amount of salt to do so. Other good ideas are heating up honey in order to help remove it and to mix the liquids.
Stirring the granola in the oven is grossly overrated. This does nothing to prevent clumps because the granola is going to be moist when you remove it from the oven unless you burned it to a crisp anyway. Clumps only form after it is out of the oven! Depending on the oven, however, stirring may be useful to bake the granola evenly. In my oven the granola in the corners tends to get a lot more heat than the rest, but stirring once in the middle is usually enough to get an even bake.
Coffee Flavored Granola
- 1200g rolled oats
- 600g honey
- 200g vegatable oil
- 2 espresso shots
- vanilla extract, salt, cloves, cocoa
I added too much salt, unfortunately, recommend under 10g for this level of oats. Not particularly sweet, and the coffee was not really noticeable.
Coconut Granola
- 1200g oats
- 600g honey
- 146g veg oil
- 12g sea salt
- 2tbsp vanilla
- 1tbsp cinnamon
- 453g walnut
- 198g coconut gratings
Baked at 300F for about 45min, stirring once. Yields 2100g granola (2 gallon ziploc bags). Has a nice pleasant flavor, coconut and walnuts and honey are noticeable but none is too strong. Coconut flavor definitely does not jump out at you. Still might be too much salt, and not enough vanilla to really taste. Cinnamon also unnoticeable.
Coconut Granola 2
- 1200g Oats
- 700g honey
- 8g salt
- 200g veg oil
- 400g Coconut flakes
- 24g vanilla
- 450g walnut
Baked at 285 for about 50mins. Coconut flavor not really distinct despite doubling coconut weight. Tastes pleasantly sweet, also could use more nuts. Right amount of salt. Very uneven baking, some is pale white some caramel colored, but all equally dried out?!
Coconut Granola 3
- 1420g Oats
- 493g honey
- 203g blue agave syrup
- 198g coconut flakes
- 250g unsweetened coconut milk (only the fat skimmed from the top)
- 10g salt (dissolved in water)
- 110g veg. oil
- 50g vanilla
Baked 50min at 285F. Agave syrup tastes like butter, but not so noticeable in end-product. Coconut flavor also subtle despite using coconut fat. Vanilla also subtle, otherwise a middling batch.
Vanilla Nut Granola
Trying to get some serious vanilla flavor and taking advantage of an abundant nut supply.
- 2200g oats
- 550g walnuts
- 550g almonds
- 340g agave
- 800g honey
- 350g veg. oil
- 120g vanilla
Baked at 275F for about an hour for each sheet (6 sheets). Found rotating them in the oven helps a lot to keep them evenly cooked. But the vanilla doesn’t really shine through. We may need to try vanilla bean or some other kind of vanilla to make it work.