I know, I know, this Crunchy Banana Bread Granola is my 3rd granola recipe on Valerie’s Keepers! Why so many granola recipes? Because I just love granolas, that’s why! I have it every morning so obviously I have a few favorite recipes.
I’ve told you before that once you start making your own granola, you can never go back. It’s so easy and it tastes a lot better than any store-bought version. I also like the fact that you can control the amount of sugar, salt and fat and use better quality ingredients…no high fructose syrup or palm oil here!
This recipe calls for overripe mashed bananas. Believe me, and I realize it sounds weird, but old bananas are a great binder and also a great natural sweetener (which is welcome these days with everything we are learning about sugar). They give this crunchy granola recipe a heavenly flavor, like a sweet banana bread, or banana granola bars. This is a delicious way to use up overripe bananas!
Don’t have the patience to watch your bananas overripe? According to Epicurious, the fastest way to ripen bananas is to throw them in the oven, 250°F for 15 to 20 minutes, it will turn them sweet and almost pudding-like, perfect for this recipe. By the way, they also say that the opposite temperature extreme works well for flash-ripening, too, if you put them in the freezer. They will turn black and fully ripe in a few hours.
This Crunchy Banana Bread Granola is definetly a keeper. What a nice, healthy way to start the day!
- 3 cups large-flake rolled oats
- 1½ cups puffed rice cereal
- ¼ cup slivered almonds
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 overripe bananas, mashed
- INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
- In a large bowl, combine oats, puffed rice cereal and slivered almonds.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook maple syrup, coconut oil, cinnamon and salt until coconut oil is melted, about 3 minutes.
- Add mashed bananas in the maple syrup mixture. Mix well.
- Pour banana mixture over oat mixture and mix well.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and divide mixture between the two.
- Bake in top and bottom thirds of oven, switching and rotating baking sheets halfway through and stirring twice, until crisp and golden, 30 to 35 minutes (watch closely after 25 minutes).
- Let cool and break up in large chumps.
If you love granola, also try these recipes:
CHERRY GRANOLA. For me, there is no better way to kick start your day than a big bowl of fruit, yogurt and this Homemade Granola.
HOMEMADE PUMPKIN PIE GRANOLA. The spiciness of cinnamon, ground ginger and cloves really bring warmth to this delicious granola.
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