How To Make a Slow Cooked Granola Recipe

I love discovering new-to-me little luxuries that elevate day by day life with out depleting my checking account. This month’s hyperfixation? Utilizing my sluggish cooker to bake heat, nutty, cinnamon-spiced granola.

The arrival of the autumn season has formally reignited my ardour for this breakfast meals—served alongside greek yogurt and contemporary fruit—and I’ve began each morning with a giant bowl of the stuff since September kicked off.

I needed to dial up my recipe in essentially the most hassle-free manner potential, and headed to the web to search out the perfect hacks for making granola that do not require a lot time (or cash, or legwork). I ended up discovering an excellent methodology from one in all my favourite wholesome recipe bloggers of all time, Erin Clarke of Well Plated, who likes to make slow-cooked granola. I feel Clarke’s granola-making method is genius as a result of it permits you to toast up a giant batch of oats, coconut flakes, nuts, and so forth with out utilizing (learn: making a large mess of) your oven in any respect.

The most effective time to meal prep sluggish cooker granola, IMO, is after I’m making dinner the diner earlier than. Merely toss your substances within the sluggish cooker, set, and neglect—simply give it a toss each thirty minutes or so to maintain the warmth evenly distributed. Main bonus: Choosing a slow-cooking course of not solely makes issues low-maintenance but additionally prevents your substances from burning.

For those who’re out there for a brand new sluggish cooker, we’re large followers of this sleek $50 Hamilton Beach cooker that also makes rice and veggies, however your Instantaneous Pot will work, too!

Find out how to make sluggish cooked granola at residence

All it’s a must to do is solely grease up the underside of your slow-cooker with a bit of butter, oil, or cooking spray of selection, toss in all of the substances of your favourite granola recipe, and prepare dinner over excessive for 2 to 2 and a half hours. If in case you have the power, giving the substances a fast stir each half-hour will guarantee every thing toasts evenly. Plus, your kitchen will replenish with the granola’s nutty, spicy aromas alongside the best way that can fill your kitchen with the perfect fall aromas.

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One of the crucial underrated facets of creating granola in a slow-cooker is you can make a large batch directly with minimal clean-up. Based on Clarke, granola may be saved in an hermetic container for as much as two weeks, excellent for meal prepping or for serving up at your subsequent at-home brunch. She additionally notes you can freeze granola for as much as three months in case you gained’t have the ability to devour all of it in time—simply omit any dried fruit you propose so as to add till serving. To freeze, place the granola in an hermetic container and press a sheet of plastic wrap excessive, eradicating as a lot air as potential.

Discover Nicely Plated’s nutrient-rich sluggish cooked granola recipe under. And remember you can customise it along with your favourite nuts, kind of sweetness, and the addition of different spices—nutmeg could be scrumptious!—to realize your final morning ritual.

Erin Clarke of Nicely Plated’s Gradual Cooked Granola Recipe

Components
4 cups old school rolled oats
1 1/4 cups uncooked nuts or seeds, comparable to almonds, walnuts, pecans, or pepitas
1/4 cup floor flaxseed meal or further 1/4 cup uncooked nuts
1 tsp floor cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 massive egg whites at room temperature (use further 1/4 cup coconut oil to make vegan)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup or honey
1/4 cup coconut oil melted and cooled, or very mild olive oil
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried fruit chopped into items if massive (I used low sugar dried cranberries and apricots)

Directions
1. Spray the underside and sides of a 5-quart or bigger sluggish cooker with cooking spray. Place the quaint oats, nuts and/or seeds, flaxseed, cinnamon, and salt within the sluggish cooker and stir to mix.

2. In a small bowl or massive measuring cup, whisk the egg whites till frothy. Add the maple syrup (or honey), coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Stir to mix, then pour over the dry substances within the sluggish cooker and stir with a wood spoon till the substances are evenly moistened.

3. Cowl the sluggish cooker, leaving the lid barely askew in order that steam can escape. Cook dinner on excessive (leaving the lid askew) for 2 to 2 and a half hours, till the nuts are toasted and the granola feels dry to the contact, stirring the granola each half-hour. Make sure that you allow the lid askew after every stirring.

4. Flip off the sluggish cooker, then stir within the dried fruit. For max crispiness, unfold the granola out onto a baking sheet to chill utterly. The granola will proceed to crisp because it cools. You can too let it cool within the sluggish cooker, nevertheless it is not going to be as crisp.