Gluten Free, Grain Free Granola
by Kayla Howard
Granola is something that I'm really picky about. It needs to be crunchy, toasty, not terribly chewy and most certainly clumpy.
Clumpy has been the more illusive quality when it comes to my homemade attempts at granola making. I've tried recipes after recipe without finding just the right results.
This week I decided to start watching what I ate a little more closely. Over the past 1-2 years my weight has increased by about 10 pounds so I guess it's finally time in my life to stop eating 3000-4000 calories in a day and 10 cookies in one sitting. [grin] That's a blog post for another day however…
In my effort to change my eating habits, I decided to reduce the amount of flour I consumed since that tends to be a culprit of many calories and can tip my diet a little heavy to the carbohydrate side. I've run across some interesting research about making wheat bread, gluten free–which again, is another blog post. So, to stick to topic here, I needed a high protein, filling, crunchy something to eat with yogurt or for breakfast.
But I didn't want very many carbs or sugars.
And I don't like nuts. No kidding. I'm still a kid about that.
That makes it a little tricky to create a granola high in protein, low in carbs and palatable to me.
I started Googling recipes that were grain-free and as usual, began putting together "better" ideas in my mind than what I was finding. For once in my life, when I went to my kitchen to experiment, I wrote down everything I did—and even took pictures too!
So now I bring you a grain free, gluten free granola that even people who don't like nuts will eat.
Kayla's Super Food Granola
- 2 cups Almond Flour (ground almonds)
- 1/2 Sunflower Seeds
- 1/4 Pumpkin Seeds
- 1/4 Almond Slices
- 1/2-3/4 Maple Syrup (or honey)
- 1/4 c. Coconut Sugar (could use raw cane sugar, or more syrup)
- 1 t. Vanilla
- 1/4-1/2 t. Salt
- 1/2 + c. Raisins
- 1 t. fresh ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 Butter, melted
- 1-2 egg whites, whipped to stiff peaks
Begin by mixing the dry ingredients well in a large bowl. I used salted and roasted sunflower seeds, so needed less salt. Adjust the salt according to whether or not your other ingredients have salt.
Melt the butter, then mix in the maple syrup. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well. Whip the egg whites, then fold them into the mixture.
Spread all on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to the lowest setting, mine goes to 170. Lightly stir the mixture, then allow to bake for another 2 hours. Lightly stir the mixture again, being careful not to break it up into crumbs, (in other words, leave it as clumpy as you like), then bake for another 1-2 hours. It's very, very flexible at this point, as long as you get it pretty dry.
Let cool, then store in an airtight container. ENJOY!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This looks really good, Kayla! I've been meaning to try making a grain-free granola again and hadn't gotten around to it yet. Thanks for sharing your recipe!