Cranberry Almond Granola

The perfect mixture of sweet, sour, and salty.

I made a pretty hefty batch as you can see. You can easily half the recipe if you want a smaller amount. (And yes, that is bacon grease on the left, but no I did not use it in this recipe. Even though it's the stuff of the gods.) 

Ingredients:

- 6 cups rolled oats (whole, not quick oats)

- 1 1/2 to 2 cups slivered almonds 

- 3/4 to 1 cup sunflower seeds

- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1/2 cup honey OR pure maple syrup OR a mixture of both

- 1/2 cup vegetable oil

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 cups dried cranberries, chopped if desired

Preheat oven to 250*. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Stir together the next three ingredients (honey/syrup, oil, and vanilla) then pour over dry ingredients. Stir until the moisture is evenly distributed.
Pour onto flat baking sheets. Make sure the granola is not more than 3/4 inch deep on each tray.
Bake for 70-80 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes to make sure it all cooks evenly.
When there is about ten minutes left, stir in the cranberries.

Remove from heat when it looks like it needs five more minutes. It will brown up nicely and get crispy after you remove it from the oven as it cools, and if you leave it in right up until it looks perfect, the remaining heat will turn it at least a shade darker.

I like my granola chunky, so if you do too, let it cool in the pans without stirring. After it cools and gets crispy, you can break it up into whatever size pieces you like.

Store in an airtight container.

Pour into a bowl and serve with coconut or almond milk. Or normal milk, if you're normal like that.