Where did all the Granola go?

 This is a phrase I often say out loud to myself.  My kids love when Dad makes granola.  They can smell it a mile away and look in the kitchen to proudly announce that "Dad's making granola! :)"  He has come up with his own recipe that I can not duplicate.  In fact one day out of the blue my youngest pipes up "Mom, you don't make granola right.  It's not very good."    He was right, the one time I tried to make Dad's granola it was not very good.    This time however I think I actually beat Dad's version.  

This was a lot.  It filled my 19x13x2 inch pan.   Therefore you can see why two days later when I went to get a bowl of granola for breakfast and was greeted with this empty bucket (Of which there were at least two-8 cup containers full after I made it) I said the famous phrase.

I suppose you could substitute your favorite nuts or fruit or what have you in this.  I stuck to stuff I had and stuff my kids would eat, thus no fruit.  

Granola

9 cups rolled oats
2 cups chopped or slivered almonds
3/4 cup ground flax seed
1/2 package (14oz) sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 cup pancake syrup (real maple would be nice but I'm too cheap)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 teas. salt
1-2 teas. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. vanilla

Heat oven to 275 deg.  Mix first 4 ingredients or dry stuff together in large bowl.   Mix remaining ingredients and pour over dry stuff and stir together well.  Spray large baking sheet to help not stick, spread granola in pan and place in oven.  Bake for about 60 min, stirring every 15 min.  If it still hasn't browned up increase heat up to 300 deg. and watch closely. It will brown up but do not overbake. Granola will crisp up as it cools.  Do not try to bake it until it is crunchy.  If you add dry fruit like cranberries or raisins I think I would add these in the last few minutes and not cook them long.

I made this twice this week to get the recipe down because the first time I didn't measure anything.   The second time I added 1/2 cup sesame seeds (wasn't real thrilled with that) and cut down on the sugar from the first time, this is what I wrote in the recipe.  If you would like it sweeter you can use more sugar, I'm sure my kids liked it better that way.

*Update*  DH wanted the new version to be sweeter, my daughter liked it better, my youngest didn't notice anything, my oldest didn't comment, I liked it better simply because it didn't have more sugar not necessarily because it was less sweet.  I didn't like the seeds as commented earlier but I think this bag of sesame seeds is a bit off flavor anyway.