Adventures in Granola Making

I love granola. 

I'm not exactly sure when the idea first struck me, but I've had plans to make granola from scratch sitting in the back of my mind for a long time now. 

Today, with a bit of a break in the heat and nothing else on the to-do list, I decided to give it a go.  There are literally hundreds of recipes online, but I decided to start with a source I know well, and gave this recipe a try. 

We only had a few of the ingredients on hand, so I had to make a quick try to the grocery store to pick up the rest.  I'll admit I became a bit overwhelmed at the store.  I wasn't sure which oats to buy and the selection of nuts and seeds had me filling up my bulk food bags and then emptying them as I found something I thought would work better.  (I ended up going with raw and unsalted.)  At nearly $7.00 for a cup of pumpkin seeds, I chose to leave them out and I didn't find sesame seeds until after I had checked out (they were by the sushi stand, naturally). 

In the end I used:
-large flake 100% whole grain oats
-sunflower seeds
-almonds
-whole wheat flour (I couldn't find whole wheat pastry flour)
-cinnamon
-sea salt
-coconut oil
-maple syrup
-apple juice
-pure vanilla extract
-pure almond extract

I'm happy to say that I would consider my first foray into granola making a success.  I wouldn't mind if it were slightly sweeter, but a handful of raisins seems to do the trick.  Jen and The Bean seem to have enjoyed it too.  It's a good thing, because I doubled the batch! 

Note: For anyone who's interested, I would guess that the total ingredient cost was about $10 for about a gallon/ four litres of granola.  I haven't done a price:volume comparrison, but granola is pretty expensive, so I'm guessing that I probably saved a little by making it myself.