This granola is something you can feel good about eating and letting your kids eat as well. It is great as a breakfast cereal with some raw milk and as a topping for yogurt also. The oats and rye flakes are “soaked overnight”, making them more easily digestible and unlocking vital nutrients. You can read more about soaking grains in this article or in this amazing book by Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.
If you’ve never read about how store-bought cereals are made, I highly recommend this article from the Weston A. Price Foundation…it has made me rethink things and for this, I no longer buy any store-bought cereals.
- 7 cups organic thick-rolled oats
- 1 cup rye flakes
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 can (14 ounces) organic coconut milk
(or 1 1/2 cups buttermilk)
- 2 cups filtered water
- 4 Tablespoons raw coconut water vinegar or raw apple cider vinegar (like Bragg’s)
- 1 to 1 1/4 cups raw honey or maple syrup
(use any combination you wish…I use 1/2 cup maple syrup and about 3/4 cup raw honey)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
Add-Ins: (choose any or all of the following to suit your taste)
- 1 cup organic raisins
- 1 cup dried coconut flakes or chips
- 1 cup chopped almonds (soaked & dried using the NT
method)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- any other dried fruit or nuts
Mix oats and rye flakes with the melted butter, coconut oil, coconut milk (or buttermilk), vinegar and water in a large bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a cloth and let sit for 12 to 24 hours.
After the soaking, preheat oven to 200° F.
Place honey, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla in a glass measuring cup in a small pot of warm water on the stove. Bring water to a gentle simmer, stirring honey mixture until melted and mixed thoroughly.
Combine the honey and oat mixture, mixing to completely incorporate. Spread the mixture out over two parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for 4-8 hours, or until granola is dry and mostly crisp; after a couple of hours in the oven you may want to slightly break up the granola and also fluff it up (stir it around) to allow for faster cooking/drying time.
When granola is mostly crisp, turn off oven and leave baking sheets inside with door closed until completely cooled. The granola will get slightly crispier as it cools.
Mix in any add-ins you like, such as: raisins, dried coconut, sunflower seeds, other dried fruit and/or nuts. Store in an airtight container. Serve with chilled raw milk.
Makes 10-cups of granola (without add-ins).
How do you store it? How long is it shelf stable or how can I extend it without it getting mushy… Freezing?
This is a homemade “natural” product so will not last as long as store-bought granola’s. With that said, this granola should keep for at least 1 month, possible more, stored in a air-tight container/canister in the pantry or cupboard. I do not think freezing it would be a good idea as it might “cause” it to go mushy.
why do you used canned coconut milk, is it any different from the kind you can buy in a tetra-pack? and also can the oven temp be set higher?
Lilly, thanks for asking about that.
Most people do not know that the coconut milk you are speaking of, in the tetra-pack, is not true coconut milk. It is in-fact a coconut milk “beverage”. I do not personally care for it because it contains too many “ingredients” and usually contains sugar.
Here is a list of ingredients in the popular brand of tetra-pack coconut milk beverage:
Coconut Cream (Water, Coconut, Guar Gum), Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Phosphate, Carrageenan, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D-2, L-Selenomethionine (Selenium), Zinc Oxide, Folic Acid, Vitamin B-12.
In my opinion coconut milk should not contain added sugar or vitamins (which are generally synthetic). And carrageenan is another problem ingredient to look out for on food labels (trying researching it, as it is too much to get into here).
True coconut milk, in a can, contains usually only 2 to 3 ingredients like – coconut milk, water, guar gum. So for this reason I stick with the coconut milk in a can. Though with all that said, if you desired, you can use the tetra-pack coconut milk/beverage in the granola recipe… it should still “work”.
About the oven temp, I try to keep it fairly “low” for two reasons – 1) I do not want the heat so high that I kill everything in the granola, I want to try and maintain some of its integrity. 2) I do not want the heat too high that the granola burns before I know it.
Hope this has answered your questions. Thanks again for asking
Have you ever tried making this in the slow cooker? I’ve been searching for a recipe using soaked oats but finished in the slow cooker instead of the oven to simplify the process. There are lots of recipes for slow cooker granola but I’d like to find one that successfully also incorporates the soaked oats.
Jennifer,
I am a little confused. I do not think it is possible to make “granola” in a slow cooker. I think it would just be “oatmeal” (porridge). Granola is cooked and “toasted” in the oven so it will be crunchy like it is meant to be. If oatmeal/porridge is what you are referring to, then yes you can cook soaked oats in a slow cooker. But I do not think this is the recipe you are looking for to do that.
I always thoughts so too, but recently I’ve found many recipes for crockpot or slow cooker (crunchy) granola. If you do a google search you will see what I mean (didn’t know if you wanted me posting links here?).
Oh really? Wow that is something I never would’ve thought of. Thank you for letting me know. I will do a search and see what you mean… very interesting.
Questions about this recipe. Why do you add the butter and coconut oil to the oats for the soaking process? And if I used buttermilk or yogurt would I also need vinegar? Also should I add some wheat flour to the oats to better release the bad stuff (sorry the name eludes me right now)? And finally are Rye flakes the same as rolled rye?
If you do not add the butter and coconut oil in the soaking process their wouldn’t be enough liquid for a proper “soaking”.
If you use buttermilk then the vinegar is not needed in the recipe.
The oats are low in phytase which helps is the neutralization of Phytic Acid, this is why we add the rye flakes (also known as rolled rye). Rye is high in phytase. If you are not going to use the rye then you would need to add some whole wheat or another grain that is high in phytase.