1 cup pecans or walnuts or your favorite nut, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon flaky sea salt, like Maldon (I personally like it a little salty, so I use 1 teaspoon)
¼ cup melted unrefined coconut oil or olive oil
⅓ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup brown rice syrup or honey (brown rice syrup is stickier, though)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a rimmed “half sheet” baking sheet pan ( I used an 18 x 13) with unbleached parchment paper.
In a large bowl, stir together the oats, coconut flakes, seeds, nuts, and cinnamon.
Take 3 cups of the oat mixture and pulse in a food processor until finely chopped. Transfer back to the bowl with the rest of the dry mixture. Stir in the flaky salt.
In a small bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup, brown rice syrup and vanilla. It is really important to mix the oil and syrups so that everything is well blended otherwise the syrups may burn. Add the oil and syrup mixture to the oat mixture and stir to coat well.
Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared pan and spread out in an even layer. Try not to allow the edges to be too thin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until just starting to turn golden brown. Try not to stir at all. The mixture will not be crunchy yet. Turn the heat off but leave the pan in the oven for an hour or even longer. If your oven is designed to hold heat even after the oven is turned off, open the oven door until the heat drops to 250 and then shut the door. Oven is turned off though. You have to know your oven, so make sure you don’t burn the granola. Remove from the oven and allow to cool at room temperature before breaking into clusters.
Notes
*If you use gluten-free oats, you will have a gluten-free granola.
Recipe by Pamela Salzman at https://pamelasalzman.com/big-cluster-granola-recipe/