Granola

Granola. The ultimate hippie food. Now I don't eat a straight up bowl of granola, I'm not at that point yet (once I eat through my stockpile of breakfast cereal I probably will get to that point, or even more hippie than granola-muesli. But that's a post for another day.). I find granola to be the perfect addition to yogurt. Specifically, my crockpot homemade yogurt (instructions, here). Homemade yogurt, homemade granola, oh so good. The last time my mom came to visit, she brought me this giant container of homemade granola. Giant. I ate my way through that container in a little over a month. Time to make more!

This used to hold 2+ lbs of nuts. It now holds my delicious granola.

Granola in general is pretty adaptable. Basically, it's grains, fat, flavor, and mix-ins: grains-oats, fat-neutral oil, flavor-cinnamon, etc., mix-ins-fruit and nuts. Easy. I went with this basic recipe but mix it up to suit your tastes. To be honest, I put a bunch of hippie, health stuff in there because that's what I wanted. My mix is full of seeds, nuts, and fruit: so-called "superfood". It's a mix and match recipe, just make sure there's grain, fat, flavor and mix-ins (this is a good place to start). While I enjoy granola with clusters, I haven't yet mastered this technique. Since I'm just mixing it into yogurt, this isn't a huge deal to me. But I hear if you use a smidgen of water and clump that junk with your hands before you bake it, you should get clusters.




Granola

3 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup wheat germ
3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (I used apple pie spice, it's mostly cinnamon and usually don't use it that often)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups mixed dried fruit (I used golden raisins, cranberries, cherries and blueberries)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients (except dried fruit). Mix well.

2. In a bowl or measuring cup, combine liquid ingredients and add to dry ingredients. Stir well to combine. Spread mixture onto pan. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring every 10 minutes.

3. Let granola cool in pan. Once cool, stir in dried fruit.

Notes:
1. I reduced the amount of brown sugar (the original recipe called for 1/4 cup). I haven't decided yet if I want to up this amount. I probably won't, but will add more maple syrup next time. Things seemed a little dry. It was probably because I added that 1/2 cup of wheat germ and didn't compensate by adding a bit more liquid.

2. Up the nuts. The batch my mom made was full of nuts which I like. And it had more sesame which gave it a nice nutty flavor. Next batch I'll increase both of these.