Solar granola

We've been making a steady supply of granola in the wonderful Sun Oven.This stems from a compound realization:  1. We both like granola.  A lot.  We eat it very often.  In spite of the risk of being called granolas.  2. It's bloody expensive!  Analyzing monthly expenditures turned up an alarming number on bulk granola.  Oh, but it's so good!  Can't stop! (see #1).   3.  Rolled oats- not so much.  Very cheap, or relatively so for these days. Really, it beggars belief how much the price for an oat can inflate if you drip some sugar on it and toast it.We can make it ourselves!So we've been mixing up big batches of granola and toasting by the panful on sunny days, which have arrived in abundance in April.Our granola kicks a** on the granola we used to buy, and HW even muses that what makes it really special is he can "taste the sun in it".  We won't be going back.  Making enough to last through the winter might be a challenge...hmmm.

Our recipe:

(we usu do twice this much at a time, and amounts are approximate, but this is the basic)

• 3 cups oats
• Cinnamon, and often the usual pumpkin pie culprits- nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.
• Dash of salt
• Optional 1/2 cup of some deluxe optional additions, like sliced almonds, pecan pieces, hazelnuts, flax seeds or pumpkin seeds; finely chopped dried pineapple, or candied ginger, or dried strawberries.  This is what adds the wow!

These are the dry ingredients.  Stir 'em up.

• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• Splash of maple syrup
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsps brown sugar
• 1 Tsp vanilla

These are the liquids.  Heat them, together, and drizzle them over the dry while rapidly tumbling the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon.Bake.  Normally this might say 15 min at 350F? or some such.  It's about twenty minutes in the sun oven, and then stir it up and leave it another 10-15.  Watch the oven!  If it gets to dark brown, it could be just fine with milk, but there might be too much sun in it.