GINGERBREAD COOKIE GRANOLA

If you want all the flavors of Christmas to fill your entire house, just get a batch of this gingerbread cookie granola in the oven! I’m telling you what, the aroma of molasses and ginger when this is baking will most certainly put you in the holiday spirit! And the flavor filled my house for hours, making everything seem magical and Christmas-y. The aroma even outdid one of my favorite candles!

But you can’t have the oven on 24/7 🙂 and if you want that gingerbread smell when you’re not baking granola, you may want to grab THIS CANDLE from Bath and Body Works. We love it! Abby, one of the six sisters 🙂 posted this last week, FREE Printable Christmas Gift Tags for Candles. It’s perfect for adding a personal touch to a Christmas candle!

Now, let’s get to this amazing GINGERBREAD COOKIE GRANOLA!!

Combine all the flavors of molasses, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cloves and you’ve got that AMAZING gingerbread flavor! I was thinking, how can I get this Christmas-y, marvelous flavor in a granola form? And after some experimenting, I’ve got a recipe you’re going to want to try.

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If you know us sisters, you know we love OUR HOMEMADE GRANOLA, and store bought just has NEVER even compared to homemade in our family!

And making granola is so much simpler than you might first think!

You literally mix up a few ingredients and get it in the oven, and then leave it almost untouched for the next couple of hours! It’s so simple, and after you’ve had homemade, you’ll never want to go back to store bought, packaged granola again.

This gingerbread cookie granola is easy to mix up. Just combine the dry spices and add to the wet ingredients. Whisk until completely combined, pour over the oats and stir until combined. Dump it onto 2 baking sheets and put it in the oven for 2 1/2-3 hours.

The frosting is completely optional. It certainly adds that “cookie” part though! Royal icing is pretty simple to make. Start off with some meringue powder, powdered sugar and water and let your stand mixer do the rest. But you can cheat and buy ready to use royal icing, too!

After you have your royal icing ready, place it in a ziplock baggie and snip off a teeny-tiny bit of one corner. A frosting bag works, too! I just took a quart size bag, filled it with the royal icing and cut off a little bit of one corner and it worked great. Drizzle the frosting all over the cooled granola (that’s still spread out on your baking sheets) and allow the royal icing to dry completely.

Be sure to store your granola in an airtight container.

It’s yummy in a bowl with milk, sprinkled over yogurt or as an ice cream topping!

Gingerbread Cookie Granola with Free Printable Gift Tags

All the warm flavors of a gingerbread cookie in granola form!

Ingredients

1 1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup very hot water
1/3 cup molasses
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
3 cups old-fashioned oats
3 cups quick oats

Instructions

Combine the ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and salt in a small bowl. In a mixing bowl, whisk the hot water, molasses, brown sugar, and oil until smooth. Add the dry spices. Whisk until completely combined. In another bowl, measure out your oats. Pour the wet ingredients over the oats and stir until combined.

Divide into 2 large baking sheets. Bake at 220 degrees for 2 1/2-3 hours. Stir only if you need to to keep it from burning, but the less you have to stir it, the better and chunkier it will be!

After removing pans from the oven, allow the granola to cool completely before drizzling the royal icing over.

FOR THE ROYAL ICING-- (if not using the premade royal icing)

In mixing bowl, combine 1 Tbsp. meringue powder, 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar, and 2 Tbsp. water. Beat on medium speed of stand mixer until icing forms peaks and loses its sheen, 7-10 minutes. If you're using a hand mixer, beat at high speed for 10-12 minutes. Add 2 1/2 tsp. more of water when you're ready to use the frosting.

If not using it right away, cover the bowl with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out. Put the frosting in a quart-size bag, cut off a tiny bit of one corner of the bag and drizzle over the granola. Allow the frosting to harden completely.

Store the granola in an air tight container.

Notes

*TIP* For chunky granola, pat the granola down into the pan, no pan showing through. When it's done you just move it around with the spatula and there are great clusters!