The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126177   Message #2818366
Posted By: AllisonA(Animaterra)
22-Jan-10 - 07:36 AM
Thread Name: BS: 2010-Jan De-clutter & accountability ^^^
Subject: Granola recipe!
Yes, LTS, REST, or Nurse Ratched will jump threads! No de-cluttering for you today!

Hmm, granola recipe. I've done it out of my head for so long, I'll have to try to set it down here. OK:

Preheat the oven to 365 F (dunno what that is in UK-ish)
I use a very large cast-iron dutch oven, which means I can do the first part on low heat on the stove, thus making the honey-oil mixing quick and easy. You could use a large baking pan (lasagne size).

In the pan, mix 1/2 cup vegetable oil, and up to 1 cup (or no less than 1/2 cup) total of honey AND/OR maple syrup, enhancing with a bit of molasses (but don't use only molasses, because the result will be too sticky). This time I had very little honey so tried about 1/4 cup agave in the mix and found it very good.
Add 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (very important!!).

When the liquids are all mixed together, start adding solids. I start with nuts: sunflower, peanuts, cashews, almonds (sliced or whole). About 1/2 to 1 cup EACH of whatever I have in the larder, up to 2 1/2 cups in all.
Also very good: up to 1 cup UNSWEETENED coconut, wheat germ, oat bran- but only one of those, not all of them or the mix will be too... powdery, I guess is the word.
Then I start in with the oats. I buy thick-cut rolled oats in bulk, and can get up to 12 cups of oats into the dutch oven I have. You don't have to use so much, which will result in a sweeter granola (but no fewer than 8 cups). I just have a bunch of tall glass jars and am lazy, so I like to make a large amount all at once!

By now the oven should have heated up. Place the dutch oven /pan UNCOVERED into the oven, set the timer for 10 minutes, and don't get absorbed in some activity that can't be regularly interrupted (this is a good time to catch up on Mudcat, or knit, for instance, but not do taxes!).
After 10 minutes, stir the goodies very well, then return to the oven and re-set the timer for another 10 minutes. Repeat stirring mixture and returning to oven, until the mix is a lovely golden brown and looks like the way you like granola to look (takes up to an hour in all).
You may have to adjust your oven settings; my brand-new Kenmore oven wants me to start the granola at 370 F for the first 20 minutes or so, then reduce the heat to 365 F for another 20-30 minutes.

Now, you're not done yet. Allow the pan to cool for at least an hour- I often bake the granola at night and finish the job in the morning before breakfast. Now you want to "dress it up" by adding the rest of the goodies:
Raisins, golden raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, dried cherries, dates, you name it!. Sometimes I find a hidden bag of trail mix in the back of the cupboard and throw that in, too. The fruitier the better, is my motto! Stir it all up and enjoy!

We sprinkle it on our morning bowl of steel-cut oats, on our ice cream, on a mid-morning snack of yoghurt, we scoop it up and eat it out of our hands, - you probably could live on the stuff if you had a little greenery every other day or so! Yum!