The Best Paleo Granola Ever

The Best Paleo Granola Ever
Granola can be healthy. Mostly. The granola I made and am posting about here falls somewhere in between healthy and dessert-like. I wouldn't eat it every day, but in moderation I think it's fine. Or when you're hiking.

This granola came in two parts. The first batch I made according to a wonderful recipe from Nom Nom Paleo, you can find it here. Michelle Tam rocks some seriously good food -- like that Tropical Paleo Granola. It rocks. I didn't have any macadamia nuts and so I ended up using the same volume or so of any mix of what I had on hand: (soaked/dehydrated) almonds, cashews, walnuts, hulled sunflower seeds, and pecans.

Step one is make Nom Nom Paleo's Tropical Paleo Granola. If you want to make it just like I did, make sure you soak/dehydrate your nuts/seeds overnight (7-10 hours) and then dehydrate them for 10-14 hours or so. I could get more advanced but usually don't.

Nuts/seeds ready to soak overnight. I use 1-2 tbsp of sea salt and cover the nuts with filtered water. I usually let them soak overnight and then rinse them well and put them in the dehydrator in the morning. When I come home from my day in the evening I'm always happy to have a warm bowl of nuts/honey before I jar up my nuts and put them in the fridge.

Prepping for Nom Nom Paleo's Tropical Paleo Granola =).

The wet ingredients ready to process. This mix smelled and tasted delicious.

Nice and processed =). Thank you Michelle Tam and Nom Nom Paleo! This stuff rocks...

My dry ingredient mix. A bit different than Michelle's. Also, I unintentionally used a lot of whole nuts in this mix. It ended up working well because I mixed this granola with another batch I made of my own granola; If you are just making Nom Nom Paleo's, I would chop up the nuts a bit more.

Adding the wet mix onto the dry mix. The union of awesomeness!

Baking at 250 degrees F, turning/mixing every 20 minutes for almost 2 hours.

The final product of Nom Nom Paleo's Tropical Granola. I vote yes please =). The unlisted next step is to not eat all of it before you make the next part. This won't be easy.

Now that the first batch is done, get ready for round two. I decided to wing this one with my remaining ingredients and it worked wonderfully. My granola was on the sweeter side and thus complimented Nom Nom Paleo's well.

Ingredients
Note: Some ingredients aren't measured here. Use as much/little as you feel fit for these ingredients.
-Organic Heirloom Pumpkin Seeds
-Organic Raisins
-Soaked/Dehydrated Almonds, Walnuts, Cashews, Pecans, and Hulled Sunflower Seeds
-5 Pitted Medjool Dates, Chopped
-2-3 Tbsp Raw Honey
-1/3 Cup Maple Syrup
-1 Tbsp Orange Juice (as pure as possible)
-Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
-1/2 Cup Coconut Oil
-1 Tsp Cinnamon
-1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
-A Pinch of Salt

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Chop all the nuts/seeds and dates roughly using a food processor. You don't want to totally decimate them, but you don't want them whole either.
3. Pour the (mostly) dry mix into a large bowl.
4. Add everything else. Mix very well. You can use your hands if you feel like getting finger-lickin' tasty fingers ;).
5. On a large baking sheet, lay out some parchment paper and then evenly spread your granola onto the sheet.

My granola before baking.

6. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes turning the granola every twenty minutes. The only important note here is to try not to burn anything. If you think it's burning, it's done; Stop! =).

My granola done. Yum!

7. Mix the final product with Michelle's Tropical Granola from Nom Nom Paleo, let it all cool to room temperature, transfer it into a large glass tupperware container and refrigerate it. If you don't eat it all immediately it will last for a week or two in the fridge.