My brother Jonah makes such delicious, healthy stuff. Back when we used to be neighbors in St George, we traded recipes a lot and had a great time eating over at each other’s houses on Sundays. Now I just get to enjoy his cooking at Bear Lake.

This year, he made some masterful granola at Bear Lake and everyone loved it. It’s by far the best granola I’ve ever had and makes all store-bought granolas seem too oily or too sweet or just plain not that great. Here’s his recipe that I now make every week:

Mix the following together in Kitchen Aid mixer (or can mix by hand in a big bowl)

4 C old fashioned rolled oats (not quick oats – but quick oats will do if that’s all you’ve got)
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
3/4 C chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts if you’re Jonah and live in Hawaii, whatever you’ve got)
1 C wheat germ
3/4 C ground flax seed
2 C flaked dry coconut
1 C honey
1/2 C canola oil (or coconut oil – a little better that way)1/2 cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds (optional)

Then add:
4 MORE cups old fashioned rolled oats (1/2 cup at a time until you can’t fit any more in w/o it flying out of the mixer – I can fit about 3 3/4 cups)

Spread out evenly over two cookie sheets.

Bake at 275 for 30 mins, checking at 20 and 25 minutes to see if it’s getting brown on the edges (every oven is different!). It’s done when everything’s golden and the edges are a bit brown. It’ll be soft when you take it out of the oven but after cooling, it’ll become quite crispy. When it’s totally cooled, you can put it into a container, breaking up the big clumps as you scoop it off the cookie sheets.

Mix in 1-2 cups raisins or craisins after cooking or upon serving if you like. You can add the raisins before cooking but they puff up while cooking and can end up sort of hard in the end so we like to add them after cooking to keep them softer.

Makes the equivalent of two big boxes of store-bought granola.