cocoa coconut granola

I've been reading more blogs lately and one that I ran across recently - everybody likes sandwiches - is luscious.  I was reading some of the back posts the other day and exclaimed to M, "I like everything she writes about!"  So I decided to try my hand at the cocoa coconut granola that she posted a few months ago.  I'd kind of been wanting to try making some granola sometime, but I just don't eat that much granola so I'd been putting it off.  But a week or so ago I gathered all my ingredients and went for it.  It's quite good!  Cocoa-y, nutty, flavorful and not too sweet.  It's not quite as crunchy as I wanted it to be, which is probably due to my getting annoyed with having the oven on in this miserable heat and not letting it dry out long enough.  The only change I made was to leave out the cardamom.  Next time, I might leave out the nutmeg too...I'm not big on the spicy.

Cocoa Coconut Granola
from everybody likes sandwiches

• 1/4 c cocoa
• 4 1/2 c rolled oats
• 1 c shredded coconut
• 1/2 c sunflower seeds
• 1 c roughly chopped almonds
• 1 t kosher salt
• 2 t ground cinnamon
• large pinch each nutmeg & cardamom
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/3 c agave nectar
• 1/4 c honey
• 3/4 c applesauce
• 2 T olive oil

Preheat oven to 300°. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. In a small saucepan, combine agave nectar, honey, apple sauce and olive oil and heat just until extra runny,  then pour over dry ingredients. Mix until everything has been coated with the wet sticky stuff. Pour into a large glass baking dish or several walled cookie sheets and place in the oven, turning over occasionally so that everything dries out evenly. After 40 minutes to an hour, remove from oven and cool on counter. Store in a tight lidded container.

Comments

[Alexis]

I'm going to leave out the spices and make this for my kids!