Balsamic Honey Granola is sweet and crunchy! Perfect with yogurt and your favorite fruit! The perfect breakfast or midday snack.
There are a lot of things over my lifetime that I wish I could go back and either fix, change a smidgen or erase from my mind without any likelihood of remembering. Like my Richard Simmons perm I sported in the third grade. Erase! Or the MC Hammer pants I had in 8 different colors and *gasp* patterns that I wore religiously every day in the 6th grade. Erase!
And let’s just say there are a few (read: a lot) recipes I’ve attempted to make in the early years of me recipe developing that I royally screwed up and destroyed. Crock pot Mac & Cheese for one.
Today I’m making over that recipe I’ve wanted to redo and share with you for like ever now.
Balsamic Honey Granola. I originally made this recipe not really thinking I should reduce the balsamic into a glaze and drizzle it over the granola. Nope… I just dumped it in with a bunch of brown sugar. Straight up soggin’ out my oats! Really? What was I thinking? Oh and let’s just say when I opened up my oven door I got slapped across the face with the vinegar gas {for lack of a better description} making my eyes burn… tear up and almost bringing me to my knees. I kid you not!
So I’ve taken this slight rendition of that recipe-gone-wrong and given it a face lift and I think you’ll like the results. I’ve come a long way with my cooking skills and so has my love for reduced balsamic vinegar! I still can’t promise you won’t get slapped in the face when you open your oven door… but I can promise you the best and crunchiest vanilla yogurt topping!
You really aren’t going to need THAT many dates. I kind of just dumped them in and when I chopped up 4 I thought… whoops.
In a large bowl add the oats and the germ.
Coarsely chop up a half cup of walnuts.
And add those in to the bowl.
Then I added in a quarter cup of sunflower seeds. Really you could add in anything you like! Pecans, pine nuts… the sky is the limit!
Kosher salt… ya know… stir.
In a sauce pot add in the vinegar.
Honey.
Heat.
Before that balsamic honey is at a boil… spray a medium-sized cookie sheet with your Misto {lightly greased with butter would work too!}.
Once that vinegar comes to a boil, reduce and let it simmer for a few minutes.
Remove off of the heat once it is thick and covers the back of a spoon.
Next, pour it over the oats, nuts and wheat germ.
Then, use a rubber spatula to coat the oats with all that goodness.
Next, spread the granola out evenly on the prepared sheet pan and pop it into a 300° oven for 10 minutes.
Then remove, stir and pop back into the oven for 10 more.
Repeat one more time for a total of 30 minutes in the oven.
Next, while the granola cools, I chopped up 4 dates.
And then sprinkled them into the granola. This is mainly to bulk the granola up a bit… try raisins if that’s more your thing!
Lastly, store the cooled granola in a container with a tight lid for up to a few weeks. Could be longer than that… but in my house it doesn’t last long. If you are planning on eating this straight out of the jar… I think it would benefit from a little vanilla added to the reduced balsamic honey reduction. Maybe like a half teaspoon vanilla should do the trick.
I prefer this Balsamic Honey Granola on top of my midday yogurt snack and I think the vanilla really helps to bring out the other flavors.
So crunchy. So healthy. So.darn.good.
Enjoy! And if you give this Balsamic Honey Granola recipe a try, let me know by snapping a photo and tagging me on twitter or instagram!
My cookbook Simply Scratch : 120 Wholesome Homemade Recipes Made Easy is now available! CLICK HERE for details and THANK YOU in advance!
My newest favorite midday snack!
Balsamic Honey Granola
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12
Serving Size:
1/4 cup
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 163 Total Fat: 6g Saturated Fat: 1g Trans Fat: 0g Unsaturated Fat: 5g Cholesterol: 1mg Sodium: 262mg Carbohydrates: 23g Fiber: 3g Sugar: 11g Protein: 5g
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Aww yum! This sounds super delicious! Love it!
I miss my parachute pants. And this granola wants to appear on my tongue.
What a unique and fabulous granola recipe! I love everything about it and will definitely be making this!
um i want this. and i’m actually super jealous of the mc hammer pants…my parents never let me have any! something about “they won’t be in style forever” or some crap like that 😉
Balsamic plus granola; I love it! What a great combo!
I loooooove balsamic! I make every dressing and sauce with it that I can. Never thought to use it like this!
Me too Averie! Love, love, love it!
Looks delicious!
Oh man I love this concoction of granola! I never would’ve thought to add baslamic honey. You’re a genius!
I love your creativity on this Laurie. Sounds wonderful!
You’re so lucky you had MC Hammer pants! I always wanted a pair, but 8 different colors…you’re the luckiest girl I know! His tour is making a stop in Reno, which is close to where I work…I don’t reckon I’ll be going to the concert but if I had a Richard Simmons perm and Hammer pants, I probably would be more inclined to go 😉 Your granola is fabulous, hun! 🙂
I can’t tell you how many times my nose hairs have been fried by that vinegar gas when I’m making a balsamic reduction – it’s like I never learn! The combination of balsamic and honey sounds so cool for granola. I bet this would be fantastic with strawberries and yogurt!
I never thought to use balsamic in granola before…this looks so good!
Every Friday, I share my favorite food finds in a series called Food Fetish Friday. I love this post so much I’m featuring it as part of the roundup (with a link-back and attribution) and I hope you have no objections. It’s a pleasure following your creations…
Your recipe sounds wonderful. I make granola in a large quantity for husband every single week as it’s the only thing he’ll have for breakfast, and at 67, and a commercial lobsterman, he says he’s still a “growing boy.”
One thing I add to my recipe, though, which makes it nice is applesauce. The natural unsweetened kind, two small little cups (from a 6-cup package) or about one full measuring cup per recipe. It keeps the granola moist, too.
I also use dried apricots chopped and raisins as well as chopped walnut and sliced almonds (lots of these).
Oh Hammer pants….my parents would not buy them for me!!
Love the do over on this granola, it sounds amazing with some vanilla yogurt!
I never would have thought to add balsamic vinegar to the glaze, sounds wonderful!
I have a vanilla-balsamic vinegar that would be perfect for this recipe! I’m on it. Oh, and the Hammer pants? Mine were white with multi-sized black polka dots. They looked awesome with my patent-leather combat boots. 😉
Luckily, I skipped over the Richard Simmons pants….BUT I just watched our wedding “video” from 25 years ago, and boy….what a LOT of hair at our reception! Including mine…ouch! Sorry, but I was in the era of Go-Go Boots, jeans jackets, and perms….Yikes! Let’s stick with recipe photos, and none of us “back then”!
Laurie, coming from what I dub myself… a true “granola girl”…. I NEVER would have thought to add balsamic to it. This is crazy! In the best way! I can only imagine how amazing all of the flavors taste. Oh my goodness!
I’m a granola girl too! Love it!
I can’t even think about eating yogurt without granola. This looks great, I look forward to trying it.
The printable doesn’t say at what temperature to bake it. I guessed, and burned the granola! I’ll have to try again another day.
OH NO! It’s 350 degrees! I’m so sorry that happened to you… making the change now! 🙂