Sunday Make Ahead Recipe: Aunt Beulah’s Granola

At a recent family reunion, we spent some time talking to an aunt that I really hadn’t known all that well before that weekend. (In my defense, I have 22 aunts and uncles, and we are spread out over the entire United States and I didn’t grow up near them, and I lived across the country from most of them at a time before airfare was deregulated and flights cost $800 a ticket.) Turns out, this aunt is quite interesting (as most people are when you get to know them) and on top of everything else, writes a weekly column in her local newspaper. She casually mentioned that she was thinking about starting a blog. We told her about our blog, and said when she was ready to set it up, let us know.

Labor Day weekend, we went to visit my Aunt and Uncle on the other side of Colorado. Mr. 1500 and I helped my aunt set up her new blog, AuntBeulah.com, which is about living well after retirement.

For breakfast on Saturday morning, she offered us some homemade granola, and it was amazing! Also, astonishingly simple to make. For some reason, I have always thought that granola is a difficult thing to make.

My Aunt Janet got the recipe from her sister, and tweaked it to this, which I happily share with you. Caution, it makes 20 cups! But if you spend the hour and a half in the beginning of the month to make this, you should have breakfast for a full month.

Aunt Beulah’s Granola

11 cups of old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup wheat germ
4-8 ounces of coconut
1 cup sunflower seeds
3 cups chopped nuts

1/2 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 cups water
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey or molasses
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)

Chopped dried fruit (optional)

Preheat oven to 315. Measure oats, wheat germ, coconut, sunflower seeds and nuts into a large bowl. Stir together then set aside. Measure brown sugar, water, oil, honey or molasses, salt, cinnamon, vanilla and ginger into a small saucepan. Stir and warm over low heat until sugar is dissolved, DO NOT BOIL. Pour liquid mixture over dry ingredients and stir until evenly coated. Spread onto two or more large cookie sheets. Bake 45-60 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes. The longer you bake it, the crunchier it will be. Remove from oven and cool. Stir in any chopped dried fruit you wish. Store in an airtight container.

I use chopped dried pineapple, dried mango, candied ginger and banana chips in my granola. I also use pecans, walnuts and almonds as my nut mixture. I cannot eat this fast enough, and am already on my third batch. It is great plain, or on top of yogurt. Yum!