Thursday, January 24, 2008

Yum!

As requested, here is my granola recipe. By the way, there are tons of granola recipes in blogdom... feel free to do a search. Apparently January is granola making season. This is my mom's recipe, but I'm not so much for measuring and I thought I might like more than the recipe actually makes, so I made lots of changes on the fly. Mostly I added a bit more of everything and it turned out fine.


Preheat oven to 325. Heat the following in a sauce pan or in the microwave:



3/4 c canola oil

1/2 c honey

1/4 c light brown sugar

1/4 c maple syrup (use 1/2 c brown sugar if you don't have syrup) Why would you not have syrup?

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

1 t vanilla



Mom says to combine the following in a large bowl, then pour it all into two 9x13 pans. I combined it all in my big non-stick roasting pan and put that straight in the oven. Anyway, use whatever large containers you have.



1 box old fashioned oats (about 4 1/2 cups) Not the quick cooking kind.

1 1/2 c coconut I used the whole bag.

1/2 c sesame seeds I had a hard time finding these, but I tracked down a huge bag in the Indian food aisle.



Pour the sticky heated mix over the oats, coconut and sesame seeds. Mix mix mix. Bake for 15 minutes taking it out once to mix it all up again.



Mix in 1 1/2 c sliced almonds (or slivered, or chopped, or even whole!) and 1 c pecans. I used way more pecans. I love pecans. Bake another 5 minutes.



Mix in 1 c raisins, 1 c dried cranberries and any other fruit or goodies you desire. Bake 5 more minutes.



After baking, let cool, stirring every few minutes to break up the sticky nuggets. Or maybe you want nuggets. Whatever. After it's totally cool transfer to zip loc bags or jars or -- again, whatever you have. It freezes well and tastes divine over yogurt. And it's filling -- after all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

At $3.99 for a bag that only makes two meals, I REALLY appreciate this. Sounds great and I will be mixing some up in the next week. I got hooked on a bowl of granola (or muslix) topped with organic, fat free plain or vanilla yogurt and fresh fruit while at AQT. Since I don't know when I will be able to afford to go again (I almost passed out when I figured out my total cost to go there, including having to ship my supplies) I have to settle for my granola without the view....

Hugs,

teri

Melody Johnson said...

It is SO IMPORTANT to let the granola cool completely before storing it away. Mine got soggy from being a bit steamy in my gladware container. Of course we ate it all anyway, but the next batch is gonna be CRISPY.
Also I kept my raisins out of the oven, as they were a little dried out to start with and I like a plump soft raisin, not a hard mean rock.