Granola
My wife and I have been hitting the local Farmer’s Market each Saturday, and on one visit we stopped by a little cafe to get some breakfast before battling the hoards of people and baby carriages. Now I am not much of a granola guy. Most store bought and restaurant versions are too processed and way to sweet. Probably because I was heading to the Farmer’s Market, I made a very unlikely decision to eat healthy and ordered their granola. I was in heaven. Nutty but not overly sweet. After our shopping, I started scouring for granola recipes on the internet. This is adapted from Nigela Lawson’s recipe, which has many web interpretations. My first batch got consumed regularly. It makes about 20 1/2 cup servings. That means with 2 of us eating it, it lasts 10 days.
Dry ingredients:
- 5 cups rolled oats
- 2 to 3 cups raw slivered almonds
- 1 cup hulled raw sunflower seeds
- ¾ cup sesame seeds
- ¾ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp salt
Wet ingredients:
- ¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/3 cup real maple, grade B syrup
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 Tbl vegetable oil, such as canola or safflower
Procedure:
Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well. In a small bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients. Stir to mix well. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones, and stir well.
Spread the mixture evenly on two rimmed baking sheets (I have 1/2 sheet pans that are 13×18). Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until evenly golden brown. Set a timer to go off every ten minutes while the granola bakes, so you can rotate the pans and give the granola a good stir; this helps it to cook evenly. When it’s ready, remove the pans from the oven, stir well – this will keep it from cooling into a hard, solid sheet – and set aside to cool. The finished granola may still feel slightly soft when it comes out of the oven, but it will crisp as it cools. Stir in your raisins or any other dried fruit that you prefer.
Scoop cooled granola into to a large zipper-lock plastic bag or other airtight container. Store in the refrigerator indefinitely. I divide it in half and store half in the refrigerator and the other half in the panty for quick access. Serve with fruit and milk or yogurt and enjoy.
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