Homemade Granola Variations by Caleb White

For today's recipe post, we have a guest, my husband, Caleb! This granola is delicious, and a double batch doesn't last a week in our house. What I love most about this post is its tone : ) Enjoy! -SMW

Homemade Granola Variations

Guest Post by Caleb White

Recipe #1, Vanilla Honey Pecan

My new hobby, which I picked up during the pandemic, is making homemade granola. "Why make your own granola?" you might ask. There are 2 main reasons:

1. It's an easy recipe to test out some creative variations (which lets you change things up a bit when every day, or every breakfast, starts to look the same).
2. You can make really delicious granola for a fraction of the cost of the premium store-bought granola.

Never made granola before? Don't sweat it, just stick to the basics of this easy recipe (link:https://www.thekitchn.com/granola-recipe-258376#post-recipe-12752) the first 1 or 2 times before you get too creative. The real piece which takes some practice is learning when the granola is done cooking. There are a few contributing factors for knowing when it's done including how much of the oat mixture you have on the pan, whether you pre-heated the baking sheet, and the consistency of the mixture. So, my suggestion is to bake the mixture for 10 minutes, take it out and stir the mixture, then bake another 10 minutes. Then, take it out and stir it every 3-4 minutes until you think it's done. If you want crunchy granola, you'll have to watch for the edges of the granola getting a bit crispy without letting it start to burn.

Ta-dah!

Some fun variations I like to do of this recipe:

1. (Our favorite so far) Vanilla Honey Pecan: Instead of sliced almonds, chop up some pecans, add a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, and skip the dried fruit.
2. Almond peanut butter chocolate chip: Take some whole almonds and throw them in a strong blender to "chop" them up instead of slicing them, and add 3-4 Tablespoons of PB Fit (peanut butter in powder form) to give it a nice peanut butter flavor. Then, when there are around 4 minutes left of bake time, sprinkle a handful of chocolate chips across the granola tray.
3. After making recipe #1, for a dessert variation of this recipe, whip up some instant chocolate pudding (which works just fine with oat milk) and enjoy a small bowl of chocolate pudding, a nice spoonful of vanilla honey pecan granola, sliced bananas, and a spoon of cool whip (or coconut cool whip, if you need a dairy-free alternative). Yum!

Have some great granola ideas that I should try out? Add a comment!

Caleb White is a father of two living in Madison, WI. His interests are languages, travel, the outdoors, and learning. He works as a software developer. He grew up in Brazil, but has lived in the US since attending Wheaton College (IL).