Gingerbread and Raisin Granola

It’s been snowing nearly every weekend this month and it actually feels like we are closer to Christmas than to Spring. I started really craving warm spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon and I learned that certain herbs can make us feel warmer and improve circulation. I began experimenting with a granola that incorporates some of these warming spices and I decided to try a version that resembled the flavors of gingerbread and that includes two "warming spices," ginger and cinnamon. It turned out great and we ate it all week for breakfast with a dollop of vanilla yogurt and frozen blueberries. We hope you enjoy this crunchy and perfectly spiced Gingerbread and Raisin Granola! 

Ingredients

3 cups of oats
1 ½ cups of chopped pecans
¼ cup of pepitas 
1 tsp ground ginger
1 ½  tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ cup of molasses or honey or maple syrup*
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
½ cup of raisins**

Directions 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
2. Combine the oats, pecans, pepitas, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg into a large bowl.
3. In a small saucepan, heat the butter and molasses until the butter melts. 
4. Pour the butter-molasses mixture into the oats mixture and stir to coat. 
5. Transfer to a prepared baking sheet and spread in an even layer. 
6. Bake until golden and fragrant for about 30 minutes, making sure to stir halfway through, or not if you like your granola to be chunky. 
7. Let cool completely on the baking sheet then stir in the raisins.  
8. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. 
9. Enjoy with a drizzle of vanilla yogurt and fresh berries.

Notes -
*Molasses is rather strong but essential for authentic gingerbread flavors.  If you don’t like the flavor, honey or maple syrup are great substitutes. You can also use half molasses and half honey so you still get that gingerbread goodness! 

*Raisins can be baked with the rest of the ingredients, however, we found that they were a bit hard because they lose their moisture upon baking. There are many granola recipes where raisins are baked along with the granola, but we prefer them to have their original texture, so we suggest adding them after the granola is done baking.  ​