Vanilla Almond Granola

Let me start off by saying, mine did not turn out like the original. At all. Still, this vanilla almond granola is delicious and would make a great treat for cereal, trail mix, etc. I found the original post from MyGlutenFreeKitchen (they used gluten-free oats but I used old-fashioned). Along with 4 cups of oats, you'll need:


* 1 cup of sliced or slivered almonds (you can buy them pre-sliced)
* 1/3 cup of packed brown sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon of salt
* 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
* 1/3 cup of butter or vegetable oil
* 1/4 cup of honey
* 2 Tablespoons of sugar
* 4 teaspoons of vanilla extract (not imitation extract)

Start by preheating your oven to 300 degrees and laying parchment paper down on 2 cookie sheets.

Combine the oats, almonds, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, honey, and sugar. Whisk together until the sugar has completely dissolved. After about 30 seconds, remove the pan from the heat and add your vanilla.

Pour the butter/honey/sugar/vanilla mixture into the bowl of oats and stir thoroughly. Pour the oats onto your cookie sheets and bake. Now the original post says to bake for 25-30 minutes but after 20 minutes, my almonds were burning so I took them out. Be sure to stir them a couple times on the pans while they're in the oven so they're all baked evenly.

Now this is where my granola didn't follow orders... while it's cooling, it's supposed to clump up. If you stir often while it's cooling, it'll supposedly form smaller clumps. Mine didn't clump at all so I decided to add pretzel sticks, peanuts, and chocolate chips to make it trail mix. Perhaps you'll have better luck with the clumping but either way, it's still delicious!

TOTAL COSTS: About $25

$1.99 for oats

$3.99 for almonds

$.99 for salt

$4.79 for cinnamon

$.99 for butter

$4.29 for honey

$2.69 for sugar

$4.99 for vanilla

I made my own brown sugar - see my instructions here

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 hour

20 minutes to prep

20 minutes to bake

20 minutes to cool

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5

When I think of granola, I think of clumps of oats. I managed to get maybe 3 or 4 clumps in the entire batch. Perhaps it requires more of the butter/honey/sugar/vanilla mixture, maybe less time stirring while in the oven or while it's cooling, maybe less time in the oven, it's hard to say. There are a lot of different variables here so be prepared to do a little trial and error!