Granola!

Made a fresh batch of granola yesterday. Granola is my breakfast staple-- I go through periods of enthusiasm for various things, will have an entire month dedicated to toast and jam, or wild rice porridge or cheese grits, but granola (with or without plain yogurt) is what I always come back to. I started making it myself a few years ago, and now I have to cook up a batch every other week or so. If you've never had fresh granola, try it! Store bought granola just isn't the same (although I do like to keep around a bag of the Bear Naked Banana Nut for extra supplies when I've been neglecting my granola-making duties).

I've used a number of recipes over the years, but have finally distilled from the a master granola recipe that I can adapt to use with whatever I have on hand. Here's my generic recipe:

4 cups rolled oats
2 cups nuts/sunflower seeds/coconut/wheatgerm/ground flaxseed/whatever
2 cups dried fruit
1/4-1/2 c. honey, maple syrup, molasses, or whatever
1/4-1/2 c. vegetable oil or melted butter (I like sunflower oil)
1-4 teaspoons spices
1-3 tespoons vanilla extract (or almond or whatever you like)

Preheat your oven to 325. Mix together the dry ingredients in a big bowl; mix together liquid ingredients, microwave for 30 seconds or so and stir; pour the liquid over the dry and stir until the dry is well coated. Put it all on a large baking sheet (greased well, or better yet use a Silpat if you have one) and bake for 15 minutes; stir; bake for 5 minutes, then stir; bake another 5 minutes and stir, and repeat one more time for a total of 30 minutes. Let cool. Eat.

So you can do pecan molasses ginger with dried cherries, or cashews and sunflower seeds with honey, allspice, and cardamom, or sliced almonds with candied orange peel, candied ginger, and ground ginger, or... you get the idea. Oh, or you can leave the fruit out, but stir on a dollop of jam when you eat it. Mmm.

I tried to take a picture, but frankly a macro picture of granola was not as appealing as I thought it would be, so you'll just have to try it and see for yourself.

Now to go have me some breakfast....