Lpink,

Homemade granola is a staple in our house.

Yes, you can certainly substitute wheat bran (we do also!).

Crunchier? Well, there's LOTS of stuff you can add to granola - some will add to the crunch factor. Sunflower seeds (raw, unsalted) & pumpkin seeds came to my mind first followed by more & different types of nuts - cashews, peanuts, pecans, walnuts...any kind you like.

You could also dehydrate it a bit longer than recommended for more crunchiness.

Other things we add, depending on our mood of the day, are:

Applesauce
Powdered Milk (when it's all mixed in you'll never know it's there but it will bump the nutrition)
Maple Syrup
Dried pineapple, papaya, mango, banana chips, dried cherries, cranberries, etc.
Peanut Butter, smooth or crunchy
Rolled Rye Flakes (really good mixed with oats)

Granola is one of those things you can just about toss the kitchen sink at & still be OK. Spices can also be anything you like. Have fun & enjoy! DH keeps a Lock 'n' Lock in the car full of granola. Many days, it's been breakfast, lunch and/or dinner when he was commuting back/forth between NY & CT.

/tricia

The fruit in granola recipes can affect the crispiness of the granola during storage. Ever make "gorp" and notice how the nuts get soft from the raisins during storage? Personally, if I add dried fruit it's at the time of serving, not in the granola. I also vacuum-seal my homemade granola in a FoodSaver Canister (or a canning jar) in order to keep it fresh and crunchy.

Granola recipes are a dime-a-dozen with a multitude of ingredient choices and you'll have to try a number of them until you find one you like. The recipe I make all the time is a high-protein version I came up with years ago, loaded with nuts/seeds and low on grains, and you could easily make half a recipe. I came up with this recipe because hubby never liked other recipes because they only had a token amount of nuts in it. This is a breakfast and snack favorite at our house.

NUTOLA
1/8 c. (2 T.) sesame seeds (kasha is another good choice)
1/2 c. walnuts
1/2 c. cashews
1/2 c. pecans
1/2 c. raw almonds
1/2 c. raw sunflower seeds
1/2 c. unsweetened coconut flakes
2 c. old-fashioned oatmeal (can use quick oats as well)
Mix all together in a large bowl or container.

Stir together:
3 T. coconut oil, melted in the microwave
1/4 c. agave nectar (or honey)
2 T. maple syrup

Add liquid ingredients to the nut mixture and stir to coat evenly. Place ingredients on a jelly roll pan. Bake in a 300-degree F. oven for 30-40 minutes, stir with a wooden spoon every 10-minutes or so. A serving is 1/4-cup: protein-3g, net carbs-10g, calories per serving-147. Great with yogurt or kefir.

-Grainlady

I've never made granola that had that much juice in it. How do you get rid of all that liquid? I also never add dried fruit until the time of serving, and lately I've been using TJ's dried wild blueberries.

If you store it in a vacuum sealed jar, that will help as well. You are probably in a damper climate than I am, as mine never goes stale and stays crunchy.

Lars

Lori's granola recipe is the bomb! Few ingredients and very tasty. Small batch is what I describe the size. It lasts me a week if I am just eating it for breakfast. It stays crunchy to the end.

:)

Here is a link that might be useful: LoriJean's granola

That seems like a lot of liquid in the recipe, with the apple, orange and lemon juice! The only liquid I use is honey and oil, although I have tried a recipe that combines a fruit mash (such as applesauce) mixed with puffed rice and forcefully squeezed and pressed before baking. It does get very crisp - you have to break the clumps apart to combine with the baked granola, but it's an extra step that I don't always like to take.

Maybe I mean "crispy?" Anyway, that's what I thought about the water and those juices. I tried another recipe today, it's in the oven now. I think I'm going to experiment with this one and NOT do the lemon juice or the apple juice. Maybe add some brown sugar. And I'm going to use dried blueberries. Maybe keep them out until serving. I now limit my dried fruit consumption to dried blueberries. I thought they would taste good with the orange.

Crispy, crunchy granola to me comes from lots of sugar and oil. Which I don't use that much of but have been told by other good cooks that their granola has more of those ingredients and is chunkier/ crispier.

Well, I made two batches of granola. The first one was from a different recipe. It turned out very yum, but was addictive and actually a little too sweet. But it was easy peasy to make. Here's the recipe, it came off a blog called "Cookie Madness" which I definately bookmarked. Very nice blog.

Clumpy Granola (from "Anna" at www.cookiemadness.net)

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds (and whole if you like)
1 cup pecans
1/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Line two large rimmed cookie sheets (or roasting pans if that's all you've got) with parchment paper. If you are making half, you can use one cookie sheet. Don't try putting it all on one cookie sheet or it won't cook properly.

In a large bowl, stir together the rolled oats, almonds, pecans, coconut and sunflower seeds. Toss in salt and stir to evenly disperse salt.

In a microwave-safe measuring cup, stir together the brown sugar, maple syrup, honey and vegetable oil. Heat on high for 1 minute, then stir to dissolve sugar slightly. Stir in vanilla. Pour hot syrup mixture over granola and stir until evenly coated. Dump oat mixture out onto the two cookie sheets, spreading as evenly as possible and pressing down slightly so that oats are in a thin, closely packed layer

Cover loosely with large pieces of foil. Bake for 1 hour, 1 pan on lower rack and one on upper. When you smell the granola (after about 40 minutes), check it to make sure it's not browning too much. If it's covered, it should be fine. Also, the granola on the lower rack will cook quickly, so after 40 minutes, swap racks. After 1 hour, remove the foil. Cook for another 15 minutes or until it is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely. Granola will crisp as it cools, so don't worry if all of the granola doesn't seem crisp after 1 hour and 15 minutes. When cool, break the bigger clumps up into smaller clumps.

This makes a little over 2 1/2 pounds

Note: You may want to try this first with half a batch baked on middle rack of oven. When baking two pans, you run the risk of burning the pan on the bottom rack, so if you are doing two pans, watch bottom pan closely and swap spaces.

Lpink's notes:
I only made a half batch so didn't have to fuss with the tray switching. I also covered the baking pan with another one on top so I didn't have to use aluminum foil.

I didn't use the coconut, I'm not that ga ga over the taste and it ads unneccesary fat. I also used some different nuts.

The second time I made it I tried to take some of the flavor notes from that "Eating Well" recipe and add it to the other recipe. I subbed orange juice concentrate for the maple syrup, and used less brown sugar. I also added cinnamon, ginger, corriander (I didn't have cardamom), dried blueberries, dried organge peel, wheat germ and ground sesame seeds. I also subbed walnuts for the almonds and pecans. The second batch was more difficult to manage. It took longer to "dry out" and it was difficult to get it dried out without burning. Also, the flavor was no where near as good. I ended up mixing the two batches. I haven't actually tried the Eating Well recipe, but it just seems like with all that liquid you won't end up with a crunchy granola. But the "Cookie Madness" recipe has lots of sugar. I'm still searching for that elusive perfect point between too much sugar and what makes it just right. One thing I know for sure, most commercial granola is even sweeter than the sweet stuff I made.

just a side note to lpinkmountain . . . I can wholeheartedly vouch for Cookie Madness' Anna's blog recipes. She and I were finalists at the 2006 Pillsbury Bake-Off together. At the awards ceremony, I sat in the front row as she was called to the stage . . . where I watched her win a MILLION $$$! She posts some fantastic recipes on her site, tinkering with them until they're perfect :)