Homemade Granola

OMNONOMNOM. First of all, I love granola. It’s probably a top 10 of all time sweet snack for me (not stuff I make, just quick snacks. I have MANY lists). Others on the list include:

1. Mini Cadbury Eggs (NOT the big ones)

2. Robins Eggs

3. Samoas

4. Oatmeal Cream Pies

5. Ice Cream Sandwiches

6. Granola

7. Deep fried Oreos (first one I ever had was some skeezy casino in the old part of downtown Vegas. Two showgirls in full peacock regalia stopped smiling and pageant waving to remark ‘oooohhhh. those look good’. Only in Vegas)

8. Deep fried Twinkie

9. Deep fried Snickers (with vanilla ice cream and raspberry coulis omnomnomnomnom)

10.  Krispy Kreme Original Hot nows

Anyways, I love granola. What I hate is crumbly granola otherwise known as lightly sweetened oats. I like big chunky granola, something I can pop, not have to eat with a spoon over yogurt, which I do love too.

Despite my love of granola I have yet to make any. I have looked at a bunch of recipes but they all seemed to sugary or too hippie or too something. When I got the Baked: New frontiers in Baking Cookbook I immediately spotted a recipe for granola that looked like the perfect thing for me. So I made it tonight – super easy, I tweaked it a bit. That’s the great thing about granola – you can add or subtract to your preference at will. Want chocolate? Throw it in. Want Dried prunes (why?) – throw them in. It’s at your leisure.

Homemade Granola

Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Ingredients:

2 Cups Oats (I used regular, not quick cook)

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Salt

1/4 Cup Honey

1/4 Cup firmly packed brown Sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp plus 1 tsp Oil (Called for Veg., I used Canola)

1/3 Golden Raisins (I used regular since that’s what I had on hand. And I didn’t have enough so I supplemented with dried cranberries)

1/3 Cup Dried Cherries (I don’t think I care for these. Time will tell)

1/3 Cup Almonds

1/3 Cup Hazelnuts (I didn’t have any and couldn’t find them tonight so just used more almonds)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325. Line a baking pan or sheet with parchment Paper.

Toss oats, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl

In a medium bowl, whisk honey, brown sugar, vanilla and oil until combine. Really get in there to combine that oil. (Here’s a tip for measuring Honey – spray your measuring cup first with a bit of non stick spray – will release the honey easier.)

Pour the honey mixture over the oats and combine with your hands. I recommend one hand at first because I always end up with monster oat hand or monster whatever I’m mixing. You need a good hand to slough off the ingredients off the other.I also added about a 1/3 cup of flax seeds to the mixture at this point. Do it if you want, you can’t really taste them anyway.

Once combined, spread on parchment paper. You can spread it out well if you don’t like big chunks or leave it chunky. I chose chunky.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and flip granola with a metal spatula. Sprinkle almonds ontop and return to oven.

Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, flip with a metal spatula and sprinkle with hazelnuts.

Bake for 10 more minutes. The recipe said remove from oven and sprinkle with dried fruit. I didn’t see what it would hurt (and it didn’t) to sprinkle before this last 5 minutes in the oven. So I did.

I slid the parchment paper with granola onto a cooling rack to cool faster. It is still a bit pliable out of the oven but hardens when it cools. Once cooled, store in airtight container for 4 days.

Oats, Cinnamon and Salt

Get on in there and mix it

First round in the oven

With almonds...

beautiful

OMNOMNOMNOMNOM

Score: 5 Noms out of 5