Description
If you need a special homemade gift for someone, a cute bag of this delicious Gift Bag Granola is perfect!
Just to clarify, this recipe is NOT trying to be healthy and is NOT THM friendly. Just in case you missed the 2 cups of brown sugar. Instead of trying to adapt this one to be healthier, try my favorite basic THM XO granola or this Candy Bar Granola recipe.
I made a double batch of this recipe to fill 6 good-sized bags.
Ingredients
- 1500g quick oats (18 cups)
- 2 cups white or wheat flour (almond flour might work too; can use flaxmeal or chia seeds for a small part of this to make it more interesting – maybe 1/4 cup each)
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1 1/2 cups oil of choice (I used 1/2 cup of melted salted butter + 1 cup of canola oil for good flavor without breaking the bank. I wasn’t trying to be super healthy, obviously. My MIL uses coconut oil. Feel free to mix and match as you like.)
- 2 cups brown sugar (again, if I’m making this granola I’m not trying to be healthy)
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon salt (can decrease this to 2 teaspoons; I like mine on the salty side and always eat it with milk)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon maple extract
- 6 ounces mini semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Whisk the wet ingredients together. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir until everything is homogenous. (A very large bowl and a very large spoon make this much easier!)
Spread onto 2 half sheet trays and bake at 325* for 20 minutes. Stir, switch out the pans on the oven racks for even baking, and bake for another 20 minutes. Stir again. If the granola appears fairly dry and golden brown, you’re done. If it still looks wet keep baking at 10 minute intervals, stirring after each interval, until it’s dry. (It will continue to dry out as it cools.) I usually bake for 20, 20, 10.
Take the granola out of the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Stir the granola a bit to create some chocolatey clumps of goodness. Let the granola cool completely before transferring to an airtight container.
To create cute granola gift bags, I used the “giant” 12 inch tall brown paper lunch bags from Walmart, drew festive designs with metallic Sharpies, and filled them half full of granola. I folded the top of the bag over twice and stapled it. Then I stapled the middle of a length of red and white striped ribbon along with the corner of a gift tag to the top of each bag before tying the ribbon into a bow. CLICK HERE for some printable gift tags and CLICK HERE for some printable recipe cards with this granola recipe in case your friends ask for it or you want to provide ingredients for allergy reasons.
