Buckwheat Millet Granola

Continuing on with my treasure box of endless gluten-free goodies from Bob's Red Mill, I decided to make a giant batch of granola for the week.  Week....or few days, rather.  This is an amazing recipe--it tastes like a cobbler and its sweet, filling and nutritious.

You can even omit the coconut palm sugar or reduce it; it didn't need to be that sweet and is almost desserty but oh-so-amazing.  The best part?  I soaked rather than sprouted my grains so it's a relatively quick granola, easy to digest and not too crunchy but without the annoyance of planning a day or two ahead.

I soaked my grains and seeds for just 2 hours, and even one would probably do--my husband and I went to meet friends for dinner at Tin Leaf in Carlsbad, and when I came back I whipped out the processor, mixed the ingredients, and spread it on baking sheets, got ready for bed, turned the oven off and left them in the oven (mostly because I didn't want our biggest doodle Zeke, whose nose is counter-height, to help himself).  In the morning I sampled a tiny bite, then in a daze served my self a bowl and began snapping photos, pausing between each bite to congratulate myself on the tastiness of my concoction.  Loosely based on a compilation of several different sprouted granolas online, I am quite pleased with my soaked grain granola recipe.

Buckwheat Millet Granola

Ingredients:

1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked 1-2 hours
1 cup millet, soaked 1-2 hours
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 1-2 hours
1/4 cup sesame seeds, soaked 1-2 hours
3 tablespoons chia seeds
1 cup gluten-free oats
1/2 cup medjool dates, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons raw local honey
1/4 to 1/3 cup coconut palm sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, pour water over buckwheat and millet, cover and set aside for at least an hour.
2. Using a fine strainer (or a large mesh flour sifter, which is all I had to work with) drain the bowls.
3. Place oats, dates, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and chia seeds in the processor, pulsing several times.  Add in buckwheat and millet, then honey, cinnamon, palm sugar, vanilla and melted coconut oil while mixing.
4. Without over chopping (don't make cookie dough!) spread the mixture on to un-greased cookie sheets, and bake for 25-35 minutes, stirring every so often.  Turn off oven and leave in oven or if at the perfect baked texture, remove from oven to let cool.
5. Store in an airtight container, makes 8 cups or so and will keep for up to 2 weeks.*

*(I think.  May not last that long).  I'm sending out one shipment to my deployed twin sister in Bahrain Navy pilot, yea girl!), so we'll see how well it fares for two-three weeks in a sealed container).