There aren’t a lot of cereal options when you’re eating breakfast gluten-free.  We ate Chex and Trix pretty regularly for a couple years, but once we found regular access to Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free quick oats, we got a lot more comfortable buying and using oats routinely.  Hence:  granola.  It takes a while in the oven, but it’s not a lot of work to make at all.

Jocelyn’s done a couple granola posts already (and she gives some good tips for the general procedure there, too), but for this recipe I set out to make something similar to Udi’s granola, just with more nuts (and hence a bit more substance).  I find Udi’s granola a bit oversweet, so this version pedals back the honey taste and adds just a tiny touch of allspice to give it more depth.

We dry the granola in the oven on warm for four hours total, but in less humid climates you probably don’t need to go nearly so long; tweak the time and see how it goes.  🙂  You might not want to do this whole recipe at once if you can’t fit three fairly large cookie sheets in your oven, though.  🙂

Honey-and-Oats Granola

Yield:  A cereal-box-ful, or more.

Ingredients:

• 11 1/2 cups quick oats (or, one 32-oz package of the Bob’s Red Mill stuff)
• 2 1/4 cups oat flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• scant 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 1 cup pecan pieces
• 1 cup honey
• 1 1/4 cup canola oil

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to warm.

2.  In the absolute-very-largest mixing bowl you have, whisk together the oats, oat flour, salt and allspice.  Mix in the raisins and nuts.

3.  Drizzle the canola oil over the mixture, then mix until evenly distributed (I pretty much always end up using my hands to go this), then do the same with the honey (again, hands).

4.  Lightly grease three cookie sheets (preferably with lips, so you don’t have to worry about spills), and spread the mixture in an even layer.  It shouldn’t be more than 1/4″ thick at any point.

5.  Dry in the oven on warm for 4 hours (or however long it takes), taking the pans out to break up the granola into clumps halfway through.

6.  Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container.