Homemade Granola

Homemade granola sounds hard or at least it did to me, until I tried it. I love it, its so easy to make, delicious and healthy. As a bonus this could very easily be made gluten free, if you buy certified gluten free products. My first attempt ended in a slightly burnt granola, but good never the less. Oh and the prunes I put in it where rock hard and had to be picked out. I don't have a fancy pan to make it in, just a plain old cake pan. Here is the original recipe I used http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cherry-almond-and-cinnamon-granola-recipe/index.html I didn't have cherry's, so I used diced prunes, which are awesome. I was worried when buying what I needed that the almonds would be expensive. They are, but if you buy whole almonds and chop them yourself you save a couple of bucks. One bag of whole almonds made two batches of granola for me. I tried chopping them in my food processor and in my coffee grinder like I did the flax seed. Yeah I had huge chunks and almond flour at the same time. So out came the cutting board. I can't seem to not tweak recipes, so here is my version of granola. I hope you have better luck with your first batch than I did.

This is before adding oil and honey.

Flax Seed Granola
4 cups rolled oats
2 cups sweetened coconut flakes
2 cups chopped almonds (cheaper than sliced)
1 cup coarsely ground flax seeds
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup honey
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Preheat oven to 350. Mix the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the oil and honey together and pour on the dry ingredients, mixing well. It takes a fair amount of mixing. Sprinkle cinnamon and yeast on top. Mix well, again this takes a bit of stirring. Bake in cake pan or whatever pan works. When you baking stir it often, like every 5 minutes or so. I flatten it back out when I do so it cooks more evenly. Bake it until it is a nice golden brown. Let it cool stirring occasionally. I stored mine in mason jars and it lasted several weeks. Makes a great bowl of cereal and my boys liked it. Sorry I haven't perfected putting fruit in it yet, but you can always sprinkle it on top. Its also very good in yogurt, come to think of it I need to make more yogurt now that I have made more granola.

Just placed in the oven.

All done, kind of hard to tell the difference in the pictures, but its done I promise.

Gluetn Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

I found the original recipe on the Hip girls guide to homemakings site and of course I can never find the specific flours called for so I changed the recipe. You can find the original http://hipgirlshome.com/blog/2011/12/14/pumpkin-cinnamon-rolls-gluten-free.html and below is my version of it. I find that gluten free doughs are challenging, they are wetter and stickier and never seem to do what I want. It stuck horribly to the wax paper when I tried to roll it, I know better for next time to add more tapioca flour and make it drier. I just pulled these out of the oven and they smell heavenly. Good luck on making these and let me know of any changes you have made.

Gluten free pumpkin cinnamon rolls
1/4 cup of warm water
2 yeast packets
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup sweet white rice flour
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp Tapioca flour/starch
2 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tbsp millet flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
Mix the warm water and yeast in small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl mix all ingredients from brown rice flour through allspice, mix well. In another large bowl mix melted butter, light brown sugar, pumpkin puree, egg and yeast mixture. Slowly add flour mixing well after each addition. If its to wet after all the flour is added, add more tapioca flour to make it more dough like. This is where I went wrong, next time Ill add more in. Place two large sections of parchment or wax paper on table, put dough on this and add more paper on top to cover dough. Roll out until its 1/4 inch thick and rectangle shaped. Remove top layer of paper and spread 4 tbsp of softened butter on dough. In a bowl mix the following ingredients:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Mix well and then sprinkle over butter coated dough covering to the edges. Roll up the dough carefully, I had to scrape mine off the wax paper, but I got it. When its rolled into a log cut it into 1/2 inch pieces and put in a greased pan. Let rise for 1 hour, then preheat oven to 350 and bake for 14 minutes turning the pan around halfway through the time. You can use any icing you want on top, Im going to make mine out of confectioners sugar and water.
Edited to add:
These get easier to make every time I make them, and I finally took a picture of them before I baked.