Homemade Christmas Granola -the perfect gift for Christmas: make cranberry and mixed fruits and nuts granola , or chocolate chip and coconut granola for the holidays.
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Christmas is a time for entertaining, and I always love a brunch. The last few times I’ve made granola, my friends and family have loved it. I usually make a plain oatmeal granola with just some nuts in it, but for Christmas I thought it would be fun to make some with the flavours of the holidays added in. This Christmas Granola is the best granola!
Make It Chunky
The key to a great chunky granola that has little clusters is to not over stir. After the first 30 minutes of cooking it's time to stir the granola, so that the top and edges don't burn. On that initial first time stir, make sure there are still some big chunks, and don't over do it with the stirring or you'll break up all the clusters. You will have to stir the mixture another 4 times, to create beautiful crunchy granola without burning it, so be sure to take some care.
My youngest daughter loves all things chocolate, and I thought that nothing says Christmas like cranberries. So I made a couple of versions of my regular granola, with some fun additions for the holidays.
Chocolate and Coconut Granola
For the chocolate one, after the granola was cooled I added some chocolate chips and coconut flakes. It was a hit...big hit. Any chocolate or combination of chocolate would be great; try white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate chips.
Cranberry Granola
For the cranberry version, I added dried cranberries, along with some other dried fruit -chopped dried figs, and raisins, and more flaked coconut.
Depending what your family loves, you could add in any dried fruit, or nuts...or chocolate.
Gingerbread Granola
Love the taste of gingerbread? Increase the cinnamon to 1 ½ tsp, add ¾ teaspoon ground ginger, and a pinch of cloves to the existing recipe for a great hit of holiday spices and a real gingerbread flavor to the granola.
More Variations
You can choose any combination of nuts that you like, as long as it totals 3 cups. I typically choose pecans, walnuts, and almonds. You might also like to add pumpkin seeds, green pistachios, sunflower seeds, or macadamia nuts.
Perfect For Brunch
I love to serve it with yogurt, honey or maple syrup, and fresh fruit. Or try it with smooth cottage cheese. It is also great with milk as a cereal. Or try it even as an ice cream topping.
Along with our Christmas granola, I made up a batch of my husbands famous pancakes - find the recipe here.
I love this kind of easy entertaining, this holiday granola perfect for a no-fuss Christmas get-together.
Christmas Granola Gift
Another great idea would be to make up a batch or two of this homemade granola for gift giving. I find food gifts are the kind that anyone would love. Make a big batch and package it up in an air-tight container like mason jars, or cello gift bags and add some cute ribbons and cute gift tags and you have the perfect christmas gifts for spreading a little holiday spirit. You could even add a recipe card with the recipe on it to your edible gift. This time of year especially handmade gifts are always the best gifts.
Recipe
Christmas Granola
Ingredients
- 1 lb. quick rolled oats
- 3 cups chopped raw nuts I used almonds, walnuts, and pecans
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- dried fruit I used cranberries, chopped figs, raisins and flaked coconut for half, and chocolate chips and coconut for the other half
Instructions
- To start with put half your quick oats (8 oz.) in a food processor and grind into oat flour.
- Combine in a large bowl the oat flour, quick oats, nuts, cinnamon, and nutmeg and stir.
- In a small pan combine sugar, butter, and water and heat over a medium heat until it boils, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt and vanilla.
- Pour the melted butter wet ingredients mixture over the dry ingredients, and stir to fully combine. Let it sit 10 min.
- Pour granola mixture onto a large cookie sheet in an even layer, and cook in a 300 degree oven for 25-30 min. Stir the mixture and keep cooking for a total of 1 ½ hours, until crunchy and dry, making sure to stir every 15 min. so the edges don't burn. Be careful not to over stir, you want to have some chucky clusters of granola.
- When it's finished cooking, let it cool completely, and then add in the dried fruit, and/or chocolate chips. Store in an airtight container, like a glass jar.
Nutrition
With homemade Christmas granola for giving or enjoying yourself, life really is a party!
More Breakfast Inspiration
You might also like our Jelly Donut Pancakes here.
Also check out Easy Food Processor Scones here.
You might also enjoy Pumpkin Waffles here.
Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist says
Our very favourite granola recipe. We make this all the time. I know your family will love it too!
Suzanne says
This looks so good! What a great recipe to make for friends on the weekend!