I decided to try making granola in my slow cooker. We really like granola, but I do not enjoy heating up the oven during the summer. This seemed like the perfect solution!

First, I tried the granola recipe from 52 Kitchen Adventures. We didn’t like it as much as our regular granola recipe. The dried fruit (cherries) became so hard we couldn’t even eat them. It definitely needed less than the three hours suggested. So I count it as a fail since we didn’t eat much of it.

But I did learn a bit about how to do the granola in the slow cooker through that experiment. So the next time I made it, I kept careful track of the details so I could share my own recipe. I considered the second batch a success and will definitely be doing this again!  🙂

Easy Granola in Slow Cooker

Ingredients

• 4 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup sliced almonds OR 1 & ½ cups chopped pecans
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup cooking oil
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Sprinkles of sesame seeds and/or wheat germ as desired (optional)
• 1 & ½ cups dried cherries, cranberries or raisins (optional)

Directions

1. In a bowl mix the oats, nuts, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. (Add sesame seeds, wheat germ also, if desired).
2. In a small saucepan, warm the oil and honey over low heat. Whisk or stir in vanilla.
3. Carefully pour liquid over oat mixture. Stir gently with a spatula.
4. Put granola in slow cooker and cook on High for approximately 2 to 2.5 hours. (Time will depend on your slow cooker!)
5. Stir every 15 minutes for the first hour and a half. Watch very carefully the last half hour to hour and stir every 5 to 10 minutes. It will get brown VERY quickly once it starts to brown. Turn setting to Low near the end if necessary.
6. Remove promptly and cool granola on a jelly roll pan.
7. Seal granola in an airtight container or self-sealing plastic bags. Store at room temperature for 1 week or in freezer for 3 months.
8. Add fruit when serving (as desired).

Makes 9 cups (24 servings).

Enjoy!

You can see all of my recipes under Sallie’s Favorite Comfort Food Recipes. If you do try one of my recipes and like it, please come back and let me know in a comment. I truly do appreciate it when people do so!