nutty (and fruity) granola

Who knew granola was so easy to make? I came across Ellie Krieger's "Nutty Granola" in "The Food You Crave" and decided to ad-lib a bit. 

 I had some dried fruit that I wanted to use so here is what I did: 

3/4 cups oats 

1/2 tablespoon ground flax seed 

2 handfuls of shelled sunflower seeds 

1 handful of pecans, chopped 

1 handful of almonds, chopped 

5 apricots, chopped 

2 dried figs, chopped 

1 handful of goji berries 

1 handful of 60% chocolate chips 

1 pinch of salt 

20 grinds of fresh cinnamon 

2 Tablespoons of maple syrup 

Mix everything and add syrup. 

Mix until it is well coated with the syrup. 

Spread out onto baking parchment and bake in a 300F (150C) oven for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Put parchment onto a wire rack and let cool. 

Store in an air tight container. 

NOTES: Ellie's recipe calls for rolled oats, but I am not certain about the oats that I found here. 

I am thinking they are more quick cooking rather than rolled. 

Putting the chocolate chips were good but got messy when I tried to stir the granola while baking. 

Next time I will skip putting in the salt (I found a clump of salt when I tasted the granola...blah!).

This is definitely worth making again. 

It wasn't overly sweet.

I added some to my morning banana and yogurt and it was delicious.

I think this will make good gifts too.