Cinnamon Maple Pecan Granola – Made With Properly Prepared Soaked Oats and Nuts

Finally, a real soaked oat and nut breakfast granola that you can confidently feed the whole family!

This cinnamon maple pecan granola is just lightly sweetened with real maple syrup and is carefully prepared to make sure you get the most out of every bite! With just a handful of real food ingredients and a helping of healthy fat this granola is a fine way to start the day. This recipe is also gluten-free!

Be prepared to fully embrace this slow food recipe. The whole process can take up to 24 (mostly unsupervised) hours to complete. But once you make it a time or two it will become second nature.

Try my other nutrient-dense soaked granola recipe, Coconut Macadamia Granola – With Soaked Oats and Chia Seeds.

America’s Obsession With Breakfast Cereal Has Led to Some Pretty Serious Consequences.

We have been told for decades that a low-fat diet filled with whole grains is essential to a healthy fit body. But there are a few major pieces missing from this low-fat high-carb diet plan.

First, a diet low in saturated fats is actually not beneficial to optimal health. Saturated fats don’t actually make you fat, but they do play key roles in the delivery and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals found in other food. You actually need saturated fat to help you get the most out of plant foods! There is a huge list of other health benefits from saturated fats. Luckily my heroine Sally Fallon Morell has written a book about this very subject! Find out more in Nourishing Fats: Why We Need Animal Fats for Health and Happiness.

Second, whole grains are indeed a great source of nutrients if they are prepared correctly. And this is the real crying shame in America’s grain legacy and the other missing puzzle piece. Somewhere along the way America and other industrialized countries forgot about the time-honored techniques for making grains more nutrient-dense and digestible. The same techniques that traditional cultures were practicing for millennia. These specific practices actually help neutralize nutrient-blocking acids found in the outer bran of all seeds. They also activate enzymes that make digesting grains a lot easier for our bodies and help break down proteins like gluten.

So what are these time-honored techniques for improving the nutrient density of grains? Three relatively easy methods: soaking, souring, and sprouting.

What Makes This Cinnamon Maple Pecan Granola Different?

This recipe uses the soaking method for neutralizing nutrient-blocking phytic acid and improving digestibility.

Enjoy this real food and properly prepared granola with a lot of full-fat raw milk for a nourishing morning!

Definitely kid-approved!

Dehydrator or Oven, It’s Your Choice

I really prefer this granola when it’s dried in the dehydrator. It has a lighter more crispy texture and can be done on a lower heat setting which keeps more nutrients intact. I have this model of dehydrator and it has been really helpful for other projects. Following are two of my favorite dehydrator recipes:

Homemade Spicy Herbed Beef Jerky 

and

Yellow Plum Fruit Leather

I use the specific drying mats that come with the Excalibur dehydrator. You can also invest in these nonstick silicone mats that make projects like fruit leather a breeze.

Or if you want to get really fancy, I just found out that Excalibur makes stainless steel replacement trays! The grids are too open for granola but this would be an amazing addition to a dehydrator set up!

If you are planning to use your oven to bake this granola you can use a regular baking sheet. I like the commercial half sheet pan size. But if you are using aluminum please use a silicone mat as well to protect your food from aluminum contamination. For this recipe I use two pans of this size.

This three-piece stainless steel set will also work well for this recipe.