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Blueberry Banana Granola

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raw vegan gluten free Blueberry Banana Granola served with almond milk~ raw, vegan, gluten-free ~

Homemade granola can be a healthy, comforting, and delicious treat. Keywords “can be”… Most of the store-bought granola is high in refined sugars, contain unhealthy fats, and is packed full of fillers and unnecessary ingredients.

Take control…

Creating your own at home is super easy, quick, and allows you to control the amount of sugar, and quality of ingredients… that plus being able to change things up by adding in the flavors that you love. And let’s not forget… It also makes your house smell amazing – like you’ve been slaving in the kitchen all day.

This granola fills you with a rich, warm comfort-food flavor. But beyond flavor, it feeds your body some pretty good darn nutrients.  Oats have a robust flavor offering many nutritional and health-promoting properties.  They help to lower cholesterol, are an excellent source of phytonutrients, and help to stabilize your blood sugar. There are many more health reasons to add them to your diet, but those are a few to get you started.

I tend to add nuts and seeds to my homemade granola for flavor, texture, extra nutrients, and added healthy protein.  They also offer up fiber, healthy monounsaturated fats, vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants. I used peanut butter in this recipe, feel free to use almond or any other nut butter that fits into your list of “approved foods.”

I did use raw honey which isn’t vegan, so feel free to use any other liquid sweetener that you approve of. Raw honey aids your stomach and digestion,  good for healing ulcers, and has been shown to be anti-fungal, antiviral, and anti-bacterial.  So in just a few short sentences, you can see that this granola is pretty darn good for you! :) I hope you enjoy this recipe.

close up of raw vegan gluten free Blueberry Banana Granola served with almond milkIngredients:

Yields 8 cups granola clusters

Preparation:

  1. After the oats are done soaking, drain, and rinse them under cool water for 2 minutes.
    • Use your fingers to agitate them while rinsing.
    • Hand squeeze the excess water from them and place them in a large bowl.
  2. Drain and rinse the nuts, adding to the bowl with the oats and blueberries.
  3. In the food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, combine bananas, peanut butter, sweetener, chia seeds (along with soak water), and salt. Process until nice and smooth.
    • Taste test and see if it is sweet enough.  It all depends on the sugar level content of your bananas.
    • If you want a sweeter taste just add more sweetener.
    • If you can’t eat peanut butter feel free to use any nut butter.
  4. Pour over the nuts and oats, mixing until well incorporated.
  5. Drop clusters of batter on the non-stick sheets that come with the dehydrator.
    • If you don’t own non-stick sheets, you can parchment paper but not wax paper.  Food tends to stick to wax paper.
  6. Dehydrate at 145 degrees (F) for 1 hour, then reduce to 115 degrees (F)  for 16 hours or until dry.
    • Dry times will vary due to climate, humidity, and how full the machine is.
  7. Store in an airtight glass container.  Place in fridge to extend the shelf life.

The Institute of Culinary Ingredients™

Culinary Explanations:

  • Why do I start the dehydrator at 145 degrees (F)?  Click (here) to learn the reason behind this.
  • When working with fresh ingredients, it is important to taste test as you build a recipe.  Learn why (here).
  • Don’t own a dehydrator? Learn how to use your oven (here). I do however truly believe that it is a worthwhile investment. Click (here) to learn what I use.

 

11 thoughts on “Blueberry Banana Granola

  1. Brad Holmes says:

    Thats alot of heat 145 . Im a mostly fruitarian , so this not raw Im asking .

    • amie-sue says:

      Hi Brad,
      Thanks for bringing up that question. A valid one for sure! In some of my recipes you will notice that I instuct to set a higher temperature of 145 degrees but only for up to 1 hour at the most. I then instruct to reduce the temperature to 105 degrees.
      This is still considered raw, and it does not compromise the nutrients. But I don’t want you to just take my word for it. I found supporting information from the Excalibur web-site to back this up. I am going to cut and paste what their testing have found. I hope this clears up your question.

      Food Temperature vs. Air Temperature

      In understanding the difference between air temp and food temp it is important to know how to read Excalibur’s dial.

      The temperature reading on the dial refers to FOOD temperature.

      In general food temperature is about 20 degrees cooler that air temperature. Therefore if you set your Excalibur at 105ºF you are setting it to hold the food temperature at around 105ºF, the air temperature may get as high as 125ºF depending upon the moisture content of the food. The reason the food temperature is cooler is because of evaporation. As the moisture on the surface of the food evaporates, it cools the food keeping it about 20ºF cooler than the air temperature. We have discovered this through hours of testing by measuring the air temperature and food temperature simultaneously during the dehydration process using a Doric Trendicator with type j thermal couples.

      How Excalibur’s Thermostat Works

      It is also important to know how the thermostat works. We have found through experimentation, that in order to preserve the enzymes, and reduce the risk of mold and bacteria, it is necessary to have a wide fluctuation in temperature. Because enzymes and microorganisms both thrive at the same temperature, we must be able to accomplish two things at once, keep the food temperature low enough not to harm the enzymes, and elevate the air temperature high enough to remove the moisture quickly to stop the growth of mold or bacteria. The wide fluctuation in temperature accomplishes just that.

      As the air temperature rapidly rises to its high point moisture is quickly evaporated off the surface of the food, and as the temperature lowers the dryer surface pulls moisture from the center of the food and becomes saturated again. Because of the continuous up and down fluctuation in air temperature, and constant evaporation the food temperature remains constant at a lower temperature.

      After all the moisture is evaporated out of the food, the food temperature will rise and then equalize somewhere in the middle of the air temperature fluctuation. Once the food temperature rises one might get worried and think that the enzymes are dead if he or she does not understand the third critical aspect. Which is, that enzymes are only susceptible to damage by high heat when they are in the wet state, therefore once the food is dehydrated the enzymes have become dormant, and can withstand much higher temperatures.

      According to our discussions with Viktoras Kulvinskas on this matter he said that we were right, and that, “dry enzymes can survive well up to 150ºF.” He has tested food he has prepared in his Excalibur dehydrators with an experiment he created, and found it to be high in enzymatic activity. We have also done some experiments by soaking various seeds, dehydrating them at different temperatures, and soaking them again afterwards to see if they will sprout, and they did, which proves that the enzymes are alive.

      Enzyme Destruction Temperatures

      Something that has caused us a lot of concern, is the fact that we have heard so many conflicting opinions as to the temperature at which enzymes are destroyed. Twenty years ago Ann Wigmore spoke to our Founder Roger Orton personally and said that the food temperature had to go above 120ºF for a period of time before the enzymes were destroyed. Again in our discussions with Viktoras he said the same thing.

      Ann tested different dehydrators, and found that Excalibur was the best for living foods. She found the best technique for saving enzymes was to set Excalibur on a higher food temperature setting in the beginning and then turn it down after a few hours. However because most people may not know when to turn it down, and by leaving it on the higher setting may kill the enzymes she said to set your Excalibur on 105ºF setting throughout the entire cycle. That way the food temp will never go above 120ºF even after it is dry.

      We believe this is why many have come to believe that 105ºF air temperature is the temperature at which the enzymes are destroyed, which is entirely inaccurate. We have also heard many people quote Dr. Edward Howell in his book Enzyme Nutrition that prolonged temperatures over 118ºF will destroy enzymes. We also read in his book where he says that the enzyme amylase can still convert starch to sugar at air temperatures up to 160ºF but will wear out after a half an hour. We have also read where he says that the optimum temperatures for enzymes are 45ºF to 140ºF.

      Just recently we spoke with Dr. John Whitaker who is a world renowned enzymologist, and former dean of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at U.C. Davis. He said that every enzyme is different and some are more stable at higher temperatures than others but that most enzymes will not become completely inactive until food temperatures exceed 140ºF to 158ºF in a wet state.

      We appreciate you taking the time to read this information, and urge you to help us in spreading it though out the raw food community. Please contact us if you have any questions, or you know of any further information you can share with us. We want to meet the needs of the raw food community, and are still doing research in order to make any necessary changes, but from what we have been told the present Excalibur is perfect. We hope that it has helped in answering your questions regarding your Excalibur Dehydrator. Please share this with any of your friends in your community.

      Sincerely,

      Your Friends at Excalibur

  2. Victoria says:

    I saw your recipe on Pinterest and it looked really good. When I saw the list of ingredients, my mouth was watering. Unfortunately, I found out that I need a dehydrator? Is there a non-dehydrator way to make this?
    Thanks!

    • amie-sue says:

      Hello Victoria ~ you can dry it in the oven but most likely it won’t be “raw” afterwards. To do this, set your oven on the lowest temp, keep the door ajar and bake. I am not sure for how long. I haven’t tried it. But I would check on it every 10 minutes and stir it around on the pan till dry. I hope this helps! amie sue

      • Victoria says:

        I am not so concerned about it being raw, so that’s fine. Do I still soak everything? Or should I not soak? Also, hate to be a pest, but do you have an educated wild guess how long in the oven? My guess would just be wild with no education! Just looking for a ball park figure if you have one! LOL!

        • amie-sue says:

          Hi Victoria… the soaking process is important for removing the phytic acid which will make it easier on your digestion. My ball park figure?…. 20 minutes? But check ever 5-10 minutes. Once you make it, you will have a better idea for future times. :)

  3. Pinkpixikiss says:

    Hiiiii! I am always a little confused by the directions when they say “DRY ingredients– (example) almonds soaked.” Does this mean the almonds are presoaked and then dehydrated to be dry, or does this mean that the dried almonds are soaked? Lol!

    Your recipes look so amazing and I am stoked to try them!

    Biggest blessings!
    -Jennifer

    • amie-sue says:

      Sorry for making that confusing. I adjusted it so it reads better. :) I can’t wait to hear what you think of the recipe. Have a blessed afternoon. amie sue

      • Pinkpixikiss says:

        Aw, thank you so much for your fast response! So, a lot of your recipes read like this..I would like to make one of your bread recipes which is written out in a similar way. My understanding is–If it says “dry ingredients soaked” it means that the dry ingredients are soaked before making, not dehydrated first correct? :) so with the bread recipe I am making looks like the oats, sunflower seeds, pecans will be soaked and therefor wet while mixed in with dry flax seeds, raisens, chia seeds, psyllium husks. Then also mixed with more wet ingredients–maple syrup, stevia, and water.

        Is this correct?

        Thank you so so much for your help!

        • amie-sue says:

          Good day Pink. It is best to follow the description of the ingredients and the preparation. If the ingredients read, “almonds, soaked” then use soaked almonds. If it reads, “almonds, soaked and dehydrated”… the use those. I sometimes create the wet and dry lists because the recipe is broken into two parts in how I mix them. I am sorry if it seems confusing to you. If you question a particular recipe, let me know and I can make adjustments so it reads better for you. Blessings, amie sue :)

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