my favorite chunky granola with pecans and flax

I absolutely love granola in fact I have memories of eating it as a child with big juicy raspberries and half and half that still make my heart skip a beat. I've tried to make it for years and never had much luck. I always burn it, I couldn't get it right. Chris and I both like our granola pretty "naked" without all of the dried fruit that usually comes with the store bought kind so this past summer I decided it was high time to figure out this situation since it's so much more cost effective to make your own.

This is a combination of three different recipes one of which was given to me by my friend Katie out of an old Mennonite cookbook. That gem of a recipe used traditional milk powder to achieve the chunky texture so I experimented with some soy milk powder I had on hand. I think this is the yummiest simple granola around. It's vegan/gluten free sweetened with maple syrup and has ground flax seed for added fiber. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Chunky Granola with Pecans and Flax:

6 cups of rolled oats
1 cup of chopped raw pecans
1/4 cup of ground flax seed
1/2 cup of milk powder (I used this vegan soy milk powder)
2/3 cup of maple syrup
2/3 cup of olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
sprinkle of cinnamon
dash of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil. Dump the rolled oats on the tray and bake for 10 minutes then remove from the oven and stir in the nuts, flax seed, and milk powder. Add the syrup, oil, vanilla, cinnamon and salt and stir to combine. Return to the baking sheet and bake for another 25 minutes or so stirring every 5-7 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before breaking up into chunks.

Hope you have a wonderful labor day weekend friends! xoxo