Cherry Almond Granola

I promised Anna at Thimbleanna that I would post my Cherry Almond Granola recipe. It is really delicious over vanilla yogurt, but is also good in a bowl with milk. Sam takes baggies full of the stuff and eats it plain on his way to work.

This recipe came about after many, many batches of varied ingredients and this ratio seems to work the best. You can, of course, make this with different nuts (pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.) and dried fruits (dried apricots, raisins, dates, etc.) and vary the amounts. You can also make a 1/2 recipe, if this seems like too much.

Cherry Almond Granola

1 stick (1/2 c) butter, margarine, or vegetable oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons regular salt
6 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup sweetened coconut

1/2 cup unsalted slivered almonds
1 1/2 cups dried cherries

1/2 tsp cinnamon, if desired

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray and set aside. In large bowl, melt butter/margarine in microwave. 2 1/2 minutes on defrost works with my microwave. Stir in brown sugar, honey and salt; mix until combined. Add oats, coconut, wheat germ and almonds; mix until well coated. Spread mixture evenly over the two coated cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes, or until a light golden brown. Rotate the cooking sheets during cooking to get even browning. After the initial 15 minutes of cooking, add cherries and bake an additional 5 minutes. The cherries I used were huge, so I chooped them up to up my cherry per bite ratio. Remove from oven and carefully loosen the granola - I try to be careful to not break the granola because I like to get some clusters. Once cool, store in air tight container, or Ziploc bag.