Roasted Banana Granola Recipe

I’ve been meaning to take a stab at homemade granola for awhile and it finally happened last night. I’m moving apartments next week (SoHo - YAY!), and we have a ton of random food in our apartment that I’m attempting to get creative with and use in the next week. There are a lot of great things about granola, but what I really love is how you can throw just about anything you like into it and most of the ingredients are things you usually already have in your pantry.

If you haven’t figured this out already, I will put bananas into anything possible, so I decided to make ‘Banana Bread’ Granola. The Minimalist Baker was my recipe inspiration (click here for her recipe). I just tweaked/added a few different ingredients.  It was super easy and quick and the best part - it made my apartment smell amaaazing.

The final product tasted like a crunchy fusion of banana bread and oatmeal cookies also known as my heaven. 

DRY INGREDIENTS:
2.5 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup shaved almonds

1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup craisins

WET INGREDIENTS:
1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 tbsp Williams Sonoma Graham-Crack Butter (Any Speculoos Spread would work)

2 bananas pureed (about 1 cup)

There are only a few easy steps for this recipe:
1. Heat oven at 350
2. Put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl.
3. Simmer and mix all of the wet ingredients (minus the banana puree) over low heat. Once mixed, take off the heat and mix in the banana puree.
4. Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and stir it all up.
5. Spread your mixture evenly (thickness can range from completely thin to about 1 inch thick) onto a baking sheet.
6. Cook for 25-30 minutes. I mixed the granola in the middle of the baking process to ensure even crisping and some crumbles.
7. When you take it out of the oven, stir it up to release some heat, and let it cool completely either on the baking sheet or a separate bowl.

Dry ingredients before:

Wet ingredients mixed:

Dry & wet mixed together before the oven:

The granola right out of the oven:

The three servings I immediately consumed: 

Then with Almond Milk - yum

 

What’s great is it’s gluten-free, vegan, and packed with flavor and nutrition.  It’s crunchy, nutty, salty, sweet, and you should make it. I like it with almond milk, but it’d be delicious over yogurt, in a smoothie, or all by itself (how I’m eating it right now). Enjoy!