Devon Granola, or, Cookiewad Reconstructed

For a while, my friend Devon had a specialty sweet she always made, a sort of coconut-oatmeal macaroon.  But one day she decided she was never going to make them again, and slowly she's been giving the ingredients to me.  Newly-laden with brown rice syrup, as well as more coconut and cocoa than I already had, and devoid of granola, this seemed like the obvious thing to do.  This recipe is an adaptation of my last granola recipe.  I added coconut and cocoa, and I used brown rice syrup instead of sugar or apple juice.  Due to the added bulk of the coconut, I needed to increase the water, and because brown rice syrup isn't incredibly sweet, I increased that as well.  It's still not too sweet, so you might want to consider using more, or adding some additional brown sugar.

It's pretty good.  Future incarnations will experiment with more sweetener, more coconut, and less cocoa.   Also, you have to be careful not to burn it, because you can't see when it's getting browned.

Chocolate Coconut Granola

Ingredients

4 c rolled oats

1/4 cup flax seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1/2 c unsweetened coconut

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/8 c brown rice syrup

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325*.
2. In a large bowl, stir together dry. In a separate bowl, mix together wet. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir until evenly coated. Spread in a thin layer on a large baking sheet.
3. Bake for up to 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Stir every 30 minutes, until lightly toasted and fragrant. Granola will crisp up more when cooled.