A fantastic recipe for homebrewers to use some of their spent grains from brewing beer, this spent grain granola is super crunchy, just sweet enough, and delicious stirred into a bowl of yogurt.
Make this granola vegan by switching out honey for maple syrup or sorghum syrup.
1 ½cupsold fashioned oatsI prefer this texture, but you could also use quick oats
½cupunsweetened flaked coconut
½cuproasted and salted pepitas
½cupcoarsely chopped pecans
⅓cupmalt syrup
⅓cuphoneyor use 2/3 cup of honey in place of malt syrup and honey
⅓cupcoconut sugaror substitute brown sugar
½cupnatural peanut butter
¼cupneutral vegetable oilolive oil, or melted coconut oil
4teaspoonsground cinnamon
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1/2-1teaspoonkosher saltto taste
½cupchopped dried apricotsraisins, cherries, or other dried fruit (optional)
Instructions
Line 2 half sheet pans with Silpat or parchment.
Set your oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven.
Heat your oven to 325F.
Add the dried spent grains, the oats, coconut, pepitas, and pecans to the bowl of your stand mixer. If you don't have a stand mixer, place them in a large bowl.
In a medium bowl, mix together the malt syrup, honey, coconut sugar, peanut butter, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt.
Whisk until smooth.
Pour/scrape the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients.
Mix on low speed until all the dry ingredients are lightly coated with the wet ingredients.
Scrape half of the mixture onto each of the prepared sheet pans.
Spread out in an even layer with a silicone spatula or an offset spatula.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring well and then spreading the mixture back out, every 10 minutes. Rotate the pans from top rack to bottom and from bottom to top each time you stir.
Granola is done when deeply golden brown.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle the apricots evenly over the 2 pans of granola.
Mixture will crisp up as it cools.
Store in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
To Crisp Up If It Gets Soft
Pour all the granola onto a sheet pan and bake at the lowest possible oven temperature for 30-45 minutes. Mixture will crisp up as it cools. Once it has cooled completely, store in an air-tight container.
Variations
Switch up your spent grain granola by varying the spices, the nut butter you use, and mix-ins. A bit of minced crystallized ginger would be a great extra addition, too. Maybe 1/4 cup for the entire batch.