Fruit & Nut Granola

Last Christmas, I packaged up some cookies, caramel corn, and homemade fruit and nut granola to send to family. I loved how easy it was to pull together this delicious granola. I've made it several times since then, and always tweak the add-ins. The original recipe came from Allrecipes.com: Megan's Granola
While the recipe on allrecipes.com contained slightly different add-ins, I used the same general base of and only omitted the sunflower seeds and maple syrup.
The granola in the picture above contained dried cherries & cranberries, pecans and almonds. A more recent batch had cornflakes added to it! The great thing about granola is you can change it up however you want. The key is to go low and slow in the oven when toasting! And, it'll clump as it cools. So don't worry if it's not clumping while it's in the oven.

Here's my recipe, adapted from Megan's Granola
Ingredients:

• 8 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups wheat germ
• 1 1/2 cups oat bran
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups dried cherries and sweetened dried cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.
2. Combine the oats, wheat germ, oat bran, almonds, pecans in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 20-30 minutes. Stir once halfway through. Cool, then stir in the raisins or cranberries before storing in an airtight container.