AIP Baked Apple Cinnamon Granola
I have missed being able to eat granola. When I went gluten-free years ago I was still able to eat certain granola’s but they were still chock full of gut-irritating grains and for a person with leaky gut and Hashimotos those only exacerbated my symptoms and further damaged my gut. Actually, a lot of gluten-free food did that since it was usually loaded with starch and sugar. Just because it was gluten-free didn’t mean it was healthy!
When I went grain-free, two years after I went gluten-free, I thought I was able to have grain-free granola that had nuts and seeds in it. Time after time I would try to make it and eat it and every time I would feel awful afterward. The brain fog, fatigue and achiness were no fun at all. Nuts and seeds have similar properties in them as grains and with leaky gut, they can be damaging to the intestines and very hard to digest causing inflammation within the intestines and further hinder gut healing.
For a while, I just went without granola. I really missed the crunch though. The crunch from a carrot or celery is just not the same as the crunch from baked granola or a sweet potato chip. I needed that!
Eventually, I missed crunch enough that I decided to develop my own recipe for a very crunchy and satisfying Baked Apple Cinnamon Granola that is free from grains, nuts and seeds and has no refined sugar, bad fats, dairy or gluten in it. It doesn’t have egg in it either and being free of all those things makes it Autoimmune Friendly!
Making up a batch of this is pretty quick and you can store it in glass ball jars once it is cooled. It is also really delicious served over baked apple crisp or homemade coconut yogurt with some blueberries and strawberries on top. Homemade, dairy-free parfaits are beautiful and nourishing!
Important Ingredient Tips and Kitchen Tool Suggestions for Making Your Granola
Ingredients
- For the Apple Chips, I like Bare the best. Be sure to buy Organic! Apples are on the dirty dozen list!
- For Banana Chips, I find mine at Trader Joe’s. They are not fried in trans-fatty oil and have no refined sugar. If I can’t find them there, I buy them at Natural Grocer. They are not sweetened at all from Natural Grocer.
- I purchase Organic Coconut Chips and Organic Coconut Oil at Tropical Traditions. The chips are unsweetened and sustainably grown and harvested AND both are tested to be glyphosate free.
- Organic Raisins I buy at Costco. They have a box that has two big bags for a reasonable price. Be sure to buy organic raisins as grapes are on the dirty dozen list!
- Coconut Secret Coconut Nectar. This bottle lasts me a very long time. It makes the price worth it!
- Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil in this recipe. As always we use our favorite essential oils that are safe for internal use.
- Vanilla Bean Powder is a great option to use in recipes if you need to get away from the ones that use alcohol as a base. I love this vanilla powder. I use it in baking, to flavor plain yogurt, in coffee, in herbal coffee, in pancakes and french toast and more! It’s a really fun ingredient.
Kitchen Tools
- Sil Pats I have all sizes of these and use them all the time to line my baking sheets.
- Sheet Pan I use these all the time too for baking and roasting veggies.
- Cuisinart Food Processor. This was such a blessing to my kitchen. It makes prepping SO much quicker and easier for so many different dishes like this granola, stir-fry, cauli rice, certain cookies, granola and more!
AIP Baked Apple Cinnamon Granola Recipe
- 2 C. Organic Dried Banana Chips
- 1.5 C. Organic, Unsweetened Coconut Chips. *You can use Organic, unsweetened shredded coconut if you don't have the chips on hand.
- 1.5 C. Organic Fuji Apple Chips, crunched with your hands into small bite size pieces
- ½ C. Organic Raisins or Currants
- 2 Tlbs. Organic Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil, melted
- 2 Tlbs. Raw Local Honey
- 2 Tlbs. Coconut Secret Coconut Nectar
- 1 Tlbs. Coconut Sugar
- ¼ tsp. Vanilla Powder or Alcohol Free Vanilla Extract
- 3 tsp. Ground Cinnamon or 2 drops doTERRA Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large glass, stainless or ceramic bowl place crushed apple chips.
- In a large food processor place banana chips and pulse until the chips become small bite size pieces. About 20-30 times. Be sure there aren't any full chips hiding in there. Break them up if there are and be sure you are not getting too many crumbs either.
- Add banana chips, coconut, and raisins to the bowl with the apples.
- Mix until all is incorporated.
- In a small bowl melt your coconut oil.
- Add coconut nectar, raw local honey, coconut sugar, vanilla and cinnamon or doTERRA Cinnamon Bark essential oil, and salt. Stir with a spoon to combine. It will be very thick and some oil will be on top. That's ok!
- Pour liquid mixture over dry mixture and stir all contents around so that every piece of fruit is coated with liquid mixture.
- Spread granola mixture evenly on a sil pat (or parchment paper) lined large sheet pan.
- Cook in oven for 15 minutes.
- At 15 minutes stir granola to be sure all is getting browned.
- You want color but not burnt!
- After you stir, cook granola for 5-10 minutes more being sure to check often that it is not burning.
- When granola is done it needs to cool for about a half hour. That's where the crunch comes in!
This granola looks amazing! I love all the dried fruit in it! I think I would like this betters than regular granola!
Hi Bethany! Thank you for the kinds words. I hope you enjoy this granola!