Our (current) Favourite Granola

We are granola lovers around here, and we love it with fruit in place of the oil. The classic, of course, is applesauce, but we've also used pumpkin, and right now we're crazy about bananas. This little creation is like Banana Nut Bread, but in crunchy, wholesome granola form. It's great as a snack, with creamy whole milk, with yogurt, or just snitched right out of the container. It's that good. You can vary the nuts, of course, and use almonds or pecans or a combination of whatever, but, strange as it seems, I wouldn't do it without the sesame seeds. Somehow they just make it perfect; they are the je ne sais quoi of the granola.

Banana Walnut Granola

5 cups rolled oats
3 cups walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup sliced almonds (or more walnuts!)
3/4 cup sesame seeds

2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves


Preheat oven to 300˚F. Combine the oats, nuts, and seeds in a large bowl. In a saucepan, combine bananas, honey, oil, salt, sugar, and spices. Mash together with a fork or whisk, or do like I did, and use a stick blender. I love the vroot-vroot. Cook and stir until it's warm and gooey, then pour over the dry ingredients. Mix well with a large spoon, then spread over 2 baking sheets. Bake in the upper and lower thirds of the oven for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 and rotating pans at the 20 minute mark, until browned and starting to crisp. Let cool completely on pans, then store in an airtight container.