.. title: Granola
.. slug: granola
.. date: 2007-08-30 20:47:04
.. tags: content, food
My mother made great granola growing up. I think she got the recipe
from her mother. I know my sister makes it, too--it's good stuff.
I keep losing the recipe, though, so I figured I'd post it in my blog.
I'm not an aspiring chef, this isn't my hobby, and I don't watch the
Food Channel. So... this is probably a once-only recipe blogging
experience.
- 4 cups - rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups - shredded unsweetened coconut 1
- 1 cup - wheat germ
- 1 cup - chopped nuts 2
- 1 cup - unsalted hulled sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup - sesame seeds
- 1 cup - honey
- 1 cup - oil 3
- 1 teaspoon - vanilla extract
[1] - I find it difficult to find shredded unsweetened coconut
in the grocery store, but I can usually find it at a gormet, organic,
or health food store pretty easily. On the flip side, I don't get
around to frequenting those kinds of stores often, so I just go with
the shredded sweetened coconut. YMMV.
[2] - Walnuts, pecans, and almonds are fine. I haven't tried other
kinds of nuts, but I think most nuts will do.
[3] - Vegetable oil is good. I think it'd probably be fine with
sesame seed oil and some of the other oils. Olive oil is probably
a bad choice since it's got a pretty distinct non-granola flavour.
- Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. I don't follow this step... I heat
the oven to 300 degrees. However, when I moved in my oven had no
markings on the dial so I wrote them in with a Sharpie and it's not
clear to me that my markings match up with reality. YMMV, but the
key is not to burn your granola.
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Sometimes I throw other
stuff in, too--whatever I have lying around: flax seeds, wire-cut
oats, extra sesame seeds, ...
- Heat the honey in a small pot and mix in the oil and the vanilla.
You just have to heat it enough such that the honey and oil mix.
- Mix it all in the big bowl.
- Spoon the granola onto a couple of baking pans that are 1 inch deep and
like 9x13. If they're cookie sheets you're going to have a hell of a
time stirring the granola--it'll get everywhere.
- Spread the granola out so that it's not too thick anywhere.
- Put the pans in the oven.
- Every 5 to 10 minutes, take the pans out of the oven, stir the
granola around and then put them back in. I swap which pan is on
top and which is on bottom because my oven is hotten on the bottom
than the top. Bake for no more than 30 minutes total.
- Your granola is done when it's toasty brown. Your granola is overdone
if it's dark brown and/or black.
- I take it out, leave the pans on the stove to cool, and do some other
stuff for 45 minutes. Then I take a spatula, break up the granola,
and in the messiest possible way pour it into large yogurt
containers.
Sometimes I throw in dried fruit like raisens in.
That's it!