Recipe: Apple Pie Granola

The other day I made my own granola. (I know, there is nothing more granola than making homemade granola.) Most recipes for homemade granola throw in a bunch of chunky dried fruits and seeds. Personally, I prefer my granola to have a more consistent texture all throughout rather than a potpourri of chewy, crunchy, hard, and things that make me need to floss immediately after. So, this recipe will give you chunky granola that smells like apple pie and is on the chewier side throughout—the kind you don't need to dissolve in milk first in order to bite into it. I adapted some proportions from here, and used this technique to make the granola chunk together. This photo is from when I turned out all the ingredients onto the baking sheet before smoothing out and baking, when the dried apples still had beautiful red tones that turned golden brown in the baking process.

Important but not pictured!: Tray should have been lined with parchment paper.

Ingredients
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups walnuts or walnut pieces
1 cup dried apples
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/6 cup vegetable oil
1 egg white

Directions
Preheat your oven to 300° Fahrenheit. Line your large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, which I clearly neglected to do above. This will salvage a handful of your precious granola from being lost to severe pan-sticking.

Chop your walnuts and apples to the desired consistency. (Do not use super crunchy apple chips for this recipe since you are baking the fruit into the granola. I got my dried apple pieces from Rainbow Grocery, where they are a soft, moist consistency like other dried fruits.)

Toss together the walnuts, apples, oats, both sugars, salt, and both spices in a large bowl. Add the oils and the maple syrup and stir thoroughly to combine. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white until it is frothy throughout. Add this to the mixture and fold carefully to combine.

Pour the mixture onto your lined baking sheet and flatten it out, making sure everything is firmly packed together but evenly spread. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and allow it to cool completely. Then break it into the desired chunks.

| Photo Credit: Me. |