Nut, Fruit and Coconut Granola

I never thought I'd make my own granola, it was something that you pick up at the store, hard and slightly tasteless.

Lately my local grocery store has been having a revolving door policy with their granola - some weeks they have it, other weeks I'm told it's been discontinued. Then it shows up again a week or two later.

This is one of the "It's been discontinued." weeks, unfortunately we'd just run out. Then I remembered the Homemade Granola recipe from Sweet Pea's Kitchen blog, which looked divine.

My budget doesn't stretch to the cashews, maple syrup, dried blueberries and dried cherries in the original, and as my youngest child has a severe anaphylactic peanut/tree nut allergy I don't have many nuts on hand in the house. Checking in my kitchen pantry, I found some whole hazelnuts I had from Christmas and just ground them up to varying sizes. 

Nut, Fruit and Coconut Granola

Sweet Pea's Kitchen

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup chopped hazelnuts (chopped on my mini Cuisinart, so they were of varying sizes)
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed Demerara Sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup dried blueberry flavoured Craisins

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, cinnamon, and Demerara sugar.

In a separate medium bowl, combine honey, oil, vanilla extract, and salt. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture and stir well to combine.

Spread onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add dried fruit and mix until combined.

Stir in bowl frequently as it cools to avoid it clumping up.