I first made this grain free granola to take with me on a family vacation with loved ones who can’t consume gluten for medical reasons. Now, it’s one of my go-to granola recipes anytime.
If you’ve never made homemade granola, know this:
- making homemade granola makes your entire house smell amazing while baking
- it’s often cheaper than buying store-bought, and almost always better tasting
- it makes a large batch; you can either put extra in a pretty jar and give it as a gift, or freeze it for 3-6 months if you don’t feel you’ll use it all right away.
This particular version is full of all kinds of delicious textures, thanks to coconut flakes, slivered almonds, and seeds like hemp and chia. You’ll notice that I’ve left room to mix and match with nuts and seeds some. Why? Because granola is a great vessel to use what you have and need to use in your own pantry. Cleaning out the fridge and making stirfry fans, meet cleaning out the pantry and making granola.
As with any recipe, feel free to put your own spin on it and let me know how it goes.
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Apricot Cherry Grain Free Granola
Description
This grain free granola is the perfect homemade granola full of textures, flavors, and nourishing ingredients
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 3 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tbsp flaxseed meal
- 4 cups nuts and seeds (my recommendations: hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, pecans, pepitas, cashews)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar (you can also use cane sugar)
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 3 tbsp coconut oil (or use olive oil)
- 1/3 cup maple syrup (you can also use date syrup, agave, or honey)
- 1/4 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup dried cherries, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Position your rack in the center of the oven, and prepare a large baking sheet.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the coconut, nuts, seeds, sinnamon, cardamom, coconut sugar, and sea salt.
- In a small dish/pan either on the stove or in the microwave, combine and warm the coconut oil and maple syrup. Pour onto the dry ingredients and mix well with a rubber spatula (you’ll need this to scrape the bowl, too).
- Spread the mixture out evenly onto the prepared baking sheet (if you only have a smaller one, you can just use two) and bake for around 20 minutes. If you know your oven runs hot, keep an eye on it at around 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, add apricots and cherries, then stir and spread back out into an even layer.
- Increase the heat to 350 degrees F and return to the oven for around 5 minutes, or until everything is very fragrant and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool completely. This cooling process is essential for a crisp and cluster-y granola.
- Store in an air-tight container and it should keep for a few weeks at room temp, or freeze it for 3-6 months. If you go the freezing route, it’ll need to sit out for 1-2 hours before consuming.
Notes
- if you don’t like coconut or are allergic, you’ll want whatever you substitute to bring a similar textural element. Crushed nuts work well here, especially macadamia
A few other pieces of granola wisdom:
- if you’re looking for a non grain-free granola recipe with oats, check out this Hazelnut Cardamom Cranberry Granola.
- nut, spice, and seed storage: if you have the room, I highly recommend storing these in a refrigerator, especially if you buy in bulk. It’ll keep them fresher and keep them from going rancid like nuts like to do.
- if you wanna make a parfait, a good place to start is this granola paired with either unsweetened Greek yogurt or whipped cottage cheese, some razzleberry chia jam, and a drizzle of honey or date syrup.
- this is also the perfect topping for my cherry mandarin smoothie bowl recipe
- change this recipe up based on what part of your cycle you’re currently if you’re someone who seed cycles (flax and pepita from menstruation to ovulation, sunflower and sesame from ovulation to menstruation).
If you make this and enjoy it, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below, or even see a photo of it if you tag me on Instagram (that always makes my day).
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This granola is amazing! It’s easy to make, grain free, and delicious! The apricot-cherry combo is delightful! Will definitely make again!