Granola!

Hello everyone! I am so sorry it's been a million years since I last graced you with some tasty musings. First, it was end of the semester and I was running around trying to get everything read and written and suchlike. Then Jonathan and I suffered the loss of our 15 year-old cat, Claude. Here he is, nonchalantly lounging on the counter (where he is NOT supposed to be). It was just so funny, I had to take a picture before I shooed him off. Silly boy. We will miss him a lot.

Now for some food!

I have lots and lots of stuff to tell you about, but I'll start out with some GRAAAAAAAANOLAAAAAA!(imagine me shouting this a lot like the guy in the Ricola commercials).

I like to eat granola in the morning with yogurt. Yum yummy. However, buying granola at the store is either a)expensive, b) full of ingredients that I cannot pronounce or c) both. Making your own granola is delicious and easier than falling in love.

An extreme close-up of the crunchy goodness.

This is a fun recipe and you can really tailor it to your own tastes and preferences. You need to get the liquid proportions and sweetener proportions pretty close, but other than that, go nuts.

I like to use rolled oats and quinoa (uncooked) for the base and brown sugar and real maple syrup for the

sweeteners.

You want a relatively low oven temperature for this, so the brown sugar gets a chance to caramelize and make the granola nice and chewy as well as crispy.

I use canola oil in my granola, but you can use any light oil you wish. A light olive oil might be nice as well. (The "canola/granola" rhyme above is not lost on me. It was accidental and therefore more awesome.)

The recipe below is roughly what I use when I make granola. It varies from time to time depending on my mood and what I have on hand. I will put the more open-ended, general amounts in italics.

Granola!

2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats (this is kind of a must. It's a good

base and makes up the "chewiness" of the granola. You can use

3 cups of oats if you don't want to use any quinoa.)

1/2 cup white quinoa, uncooked (if you buy your quinoa at the grocery store, sometimes

it's pre-rinsed. The stuff I buy at Target is pre-rinsed. If you buy your

quinoa in bulk, you'll have to rinse it and spread it out to dry

before adding it. When I buy quinoa at Weavers in bulk, I rinse it

myself. If you don't, it'll taste bitter.)

1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of nuts, seeds, fruit and other sundry items ( the last time

I made this, I used 1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds {divested of their shells}, 1/4 cup

pepitas {which are shelled pumpkin seeds}, 1/4 cup flax seeds,

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut and 1/4 cup chopped pecans. You can

add raisins, dried cranberries, really any dried fruit you like. You

can also add different kinds of nuts and seeds. Sesame seeds

are tasty, I hear, and cashews are AWESOME. You can really

just use your own preferences here as to amounts. If you add more than

about a cup and a half, you might want to add a little more oil or liquid sweetener.)

2 Tablespoons wheat germ (obviously, if you can't have wheat, skip this.

It does add a nice toasty flavor and crunch to the granola, though. Also, more

fiber! Nothing like a shotgun blast of fiber to put a spring in your

step and a song in your heart.)

3 Tablespoons dark brown sugar (I will never make granola without

brown sugar again. It really adds a nice depth to the flavor.)

1/4 -1/3 cup real maple syrup (I only use a quarter cup. If you

want your granola sweeter, then add more. I like to use real maple

syrup since it doesn't scream "MAPLE!!!!" it just give it a nice sweetness.

You can also use honey, or both. If you're using only honey, make sure

to keep an eye on the granola in the oven, since honey browns faster than

the maple syrup. Honey is just a little too sweet for me. )

3 Tablespoons Canola oil (or some other sort of oil. This will help the

granola clump a little bit and make it a little chewy.)

A dash of cinnamon (completely optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla (or other liquid flavoring. Almond extract, or coconut

extract or whatever strikes your fancy. This, too is optional.)

Mix everything together in a bowl, except the maple syrup/honey, oil, and liquid flavoring. Be sure to add the brown sugar at this point, so it has a chance to get all mixed up with the dry ingredients. If you wait and add it with the syrup and oil, the brown sugar will get all clumpy. After everything is nicely mixed, add a little salt, if you want and then add the oil, syrup and or honey, and vanilla (or other liquid flavor). Mix it all together and spread it out on a parchment-lined, rimmed cookie sheet.

I took this picture when I was using the foil and not parchment.

Let's pause a minute and talk about the preparation of the cookie sheet. When I was working out this method, I at first used that non-stick foil on the cookie sheet and then sprayed it with cooking spray. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the non-stick foil. I use it whenever I bake or roast something in the oven, from tater tots to asparagus. It saves a lot of clean-up. However, the foil does not work well for granola. Even when sprayed with cooking spray, the granola (particularly the quinoa) sticks to it. I don't know why, I'm not a physicist. So! Use parchment paper, and no sticking. Just for good measure and to make stirring easier, I add cooking spray to the parchment paper as well.

Once you have everything on the lined cookie sheet (and it has to be a rimmed cookie sheet, or all of your granola will fall off in the oven, and it'll be just an appalling mess.) Put it in a preheated 250-300F degree oven. The low temperature bakes it slowly and helps the flavors meld. I set my timer for 10 minutes, then I stir the granola, set the timer for another 10 minutes, and stir and so on. You might want to set your timer for 5 minutes at first, until you know how your oven will work with this recipe. It usually takes 30 minutes total when I make it in my oven, with 2 stirrings. If you don't stir the granola, the edges will get really done and the middle will remain raw. If you don't keep an eye on it, it will burn and that's no fun for anybody.

Once the granola is browned to your satisfaction, take it out of the oven and let it cool on the pan on a cooling rack. When it's cool, I put mine in a gallon size zip-top bag and store it in the pantry. When I'm making granola for others, I divide it up into two smaller zip-top bags.

If you have any questions/comments, please let me know! I promise it won't be so long until I write again!