Saturday, October 9, 2010

Pumpkin Spice Granola

I love Oats. Oh, yes I do. Hot oatmeal, overnight oats, granola, oatmeal cookies, I love it all. I like to buy the 25 pound bag of oats at Costco! So when I saw THIS recipe for Pumpkin Granola, I knew it was going to be in my breakfast future very very soon.


About 20 minutes into baking this, the whole house started to smell delicious. Like fall, like a delicious, spicy, cinnamon fall!! I added chopped almonds instead of pepitas, and they added a great crunch. I also added dried cranberries, but since cranberries are like candy to my son...he picked most of them out of the bowl and hoarded them for himself! I have actually made this recipe twice, the second time I added almonds and sunflower seeds and 1/2 cup of ground flaxseed to the wet ingredients. So so so yummy!!

I loved eating this with vanilla greek yogurt for breakfast and I may or may not have added it to a bowl of ice cream for dessert after the kids went to bed. It was that good.

Pumpkin Spice Granola
adapted from Two Peas And Their Pod

5 cups rolled oats
1-2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
¾ cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cups chopped almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, spices, chopped almonds, sunflower seeds. Mix well.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, applesauce, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into oat mixture and stir until the oats are evenly coated. They will be moist. Evenly spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and stir. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the granola is golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and stir in dried cranberries. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

I hope you are all having a great weekend...Thanks for stopping by!

11 comments:

Sue said...

I must try this! It sounds wonderful, Mara! Love granola, love pumpkin:)

Mona Pendleton said...

YUMMY! My son is a vegan & he would LOVE this recipe! Thanks for sharing Mara! Have a great weekend :)

VanessaB said...

that looks/sounds amazing. i'm going to have to make this. Jack just ate an entire box of granola in one day! ha.

Jodi said...

oh my goodness that looks so good!!!!! I am going to have to try it!! yum!

Meg Luby said...

who doesn't love oats? and trust me, we are all loving them so much more with your most recent post. thanks for posting, love your blog :)

-m
http://clutzycooking.blogspot.com/

BethieJ said...

YUM YUM YUM! I used all my pumpkin pie spice.. so NOW I must get some and make this up! it sounds FABULOUS!!!
Hope your weekend was GREAT Mara!

B said...

Oh how yummy looking!!!

cookies and cups said...

this sounds awesome!

Rebecca Keppel said...

mmmm, when we lived in San Francisco there was a market that sold pumpkin granola--so good :)

IamDerby said...

Your blog is making me hungry (again!)

Michelle H. said...

OMG!! This sounds & looks so yummy!!
I love granola I will have to try this!!
TFS!!