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Granola is great. It’s also very expensive. But there’s one surefire way to make it not expensive — make your own. And you can even make your own super easily by making it in your crockpot. It’s true — Slow Cooker Granola simplifies matters by giving you crispy, toasty granola (from just a few ingredients) and reduces the risk of it getting TOO toasty. (That’s happened to me in the oven a time or two.) You can make it your own with other dried fruit or nuts or you can make it just like this, but just promise me you’ll make it. It’s too simple and too good not to!
First things first, the ingredients:
For granola, you want rolled oats. Not quick-cooking oats, not steel-cut oats, not instant oats — rolled oats. The old-fashioned kind. Aside from that you want oil, a sweetener, and some fun add-ins for flavor. Here we’re using coconut oil, honey and some flaked coconut and your choice of nuts or seeds. (I used sliced almonds.)
This is simple:
You’re going to take four cups of rolled oats and combine them in a slow cooker with the rest of your dry ingredients.
Then, you’ll melt the coconut oil and pour it into the slow cooker along with the honey and some vanilla extract and just stir until everything’s well coated.
Then, the key:
You’re going to cover the slow cooker, but not all the way. Covering it all the way would create steam and would give you more of a soft oatmeal consistency. We want to toast those oats! Leave the lid askew by an inch or two, set the slow cooker to high, and let it work for 30 minutes.
Stop by every 20 to 30 minutes to give it a stir until it smells nice and toasty. This should take two to two and a half hours. At this point, spread it out on a baking sheet to cool and give it a stir every once in a while while it’s cooling.
Once it has cooled, it should be beautifully crunchy and you can get to topping yogurt or a smoothie bowl or whatever else you might have in mind. This will store in an airtight container for about a month so it’s very easy to keep on hand in the pantry all the time.
And if you get tired of making the same old kind again and again, you can switch things up. You can swap maple syrup for honey, you can use chopped pecans and dried cranberries instead of coconut and almonds, you can add a dash of cinnamon, you can up the vanilla… The options are endless, really!
Slow Cooker Granola
Yield(s): Yields about 6 cups
5m prep time
2h cook time
Diet: Vegetarian
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup nuts and/or seeds (or a combination)
- 1 cup flaked coconut
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup honey
Preparation
- Coat the insert of your slow cooker with nonstick spray.
- Add oats, nuts or seeds, coconut, and salt to slow cooker and stir to combine.
- Melt coconut oil, then pour into slow cooker, followed by honey and vanilla. Stir until ingredients are well coated.
- Cover slow cooker so that the lid is slightly askew, leaving a 1-inch to 2-inch gap. Cook on high for 30 minutes, and then stir well, making sure that no granola is sticking to the sides.
- Keep cooking until granola is golden, 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring every 20 to 30 minutes.
- When cooking time is up, spread granola out on a large sheet pan and let sit until cool, stirring occasionally, so that granola stays crispy.
- Store in an airtight container for up to one month.