pappy's Granola

I must admit I've been working on this Granola recipe for years, more years than I care to divulge and I still vary from time to time, ok, every time. Depends on what I have in the pantry. Try to make it close to the recipe the first time then experiment and make it your own. This is good stuff, my children and now grand kids (and everyone who taste it) absolutely love this granola concoction..
  O K, I did it again, changed the basic recipe, a little but the below recipe is the basic and the pictures show added frosting. I dropped the brown sugar and added a lime frosting. It's fantastic, I think reducing the brown sugar in half would be better if you like a little more sweet. I would suggest making the basic first. Frosting recipe is included if you want granola as pictured.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Pappy's Granola

INGREDIENTS

5 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds (lightly toasted)
1/2 cup flax
2 cups nuts (your choice, can add more)
2 tsp cardamon (divided)
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg (optional)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange extract (optional)
1 cup honey, 2 cups if you don't use maple syrup
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup vegetable oil or 1/4 cup orange juice
2 cups dried fruit
NOTE; If nuts are already roasted, do not roast again. In this batch, the sunflower seeds were unsalted and roasted, I added to the fruit, see pictures.

DIRECTIONS 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, combine first 5 ingredients on cookie sheet and sprinkle 1 tsp of the cardamon (reserve the rest for the syrup) over top, roast for approximately ten-15 minutes or golden. Put in large bowl with dried fruit and mix well. Do not turn oven off!

In saucepan combine the rest of the ingredients, mix well and bring to light bubbles, stay with mixture, mixing continuously, the longer you cook the harder the granola will be, use the water test to determine hardness. I like my granola chewy, I cook until a soft ball when dripped in water. If you want hard crunchy cook until hard ball. Pour over oat, nut, fruit mixture and combine well. Make sure it is well absorbed. Divide into two well greased 9x11 pans (I use baking spray), press down with wax paper. Cook for 10 to 30 minutes or edges turn a little brown. All this depends on oven, convection and how hard you like your granola. The longer you cook the harder the granola. Cool, cut, enjoy. 

LIME FROSTING

I try to buy Persian or Mexican limes, unfortunately, Peruvian limes are not available. These limes are smaller than regular limes and more round. Each lime produces about one tablespoon of juice, I make one batch (one lime and powdered sugar to consistency) for each pan, then cut and drip another batch for the cut pieces. Three batches, three limes. The granola will not be to sweet and provide a little citrus kick.