Granola

[ksmith]

Made my first batch ever yesterday.

My go-to breakfast most mornings is cold cereal with fruit. I stick to as many “natural” cereals as possible. Organic brands. Low end of the sugar spectrum. The stuff can disappoint flavor-wise, and it’s not cheap. The granolas especially can turn out to be pretty pale and floury, and reliant mostly on sugar for taste.

A few mornings ago, as I emptied out a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Extra Thick Oats–five minutes in the microwave/good stuff–I stopped to read the thing and found a recipe for granola. Many were the ingredients, including ones that struck me as odd. Non-fat dry milk. Poppy and sunflower seeds. But I was planning to visit the BIG grocery store with the huge BRM selection, and decided to hunt down as many ingredients as possible and give homemade a try.

I left out sunflower seeds because not a fan. Added 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, 2 tsps cinnamon, and 1 tsp ground ginger. Dissolved 1 tsp kosher salt in the liquids before heating because baked things that don’t mention salt usually need at least some.

I used my biggest mixing bowl, the 4-quart yellow one from my ancient Pyrex 4-color collection. This recipe filled it almost to the top, and I had to take care while mixing so that stuff didn’t spill over the rim. I spread it out on one large cookie sheet, but after a half-hour realized that the layer was just too thick and shoveled some off on a smaller sheet. Baking time? About an hour, hour fifteen minutes. I overbrown everything because that’s how I like it, and I came pretty darn close to burning the stuff in the small sheet. But everything proved salvageable. I let it cool for a half-hour or so, then shoveled it into storage containers.

Verdict? I like it, but it’s an acquired taste. The browning helped. It’s not sweet–with only 1/2 cup honey, I should have realized it wouldn’t be. I could have doubled the cinnamon and ginger. Next time, I may try more additions–maple syrup, a little brown sugar. A tad more salt. Boiled cider. Vanilla. Right now, the overall flavor is grainy/toasty/nutty, like a bread or roll. I’d like to add a little dried fruitiness and yes, a touch more sweet. But it’s good as is, and I know what’s in it which is even better.

Serving size is about 1/3 cup, which seemed ridiculous until I remembered that I had munched on a scant handful over the course of baking and had to delay dinner because I felt too full to eat. So yes, 1/3 cup with a banana, milk or yogurt, and a few raisins thrown in make for a decent breakfast.

It’s a cloudy, cold Christmas Eve’s Eve here. Thursday’s storm gave us over an inch of rain but only a dusting of snow–the sump pump continues to pump on a regular basis, and the backyard is like a skating rink in spots. Dried lawn is coated with a layer of ice that crunches when I step on it.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

I make a cold cereal mix of roughly equal amounts of four commercial cereals: the local chain's house brand for three of them and occasionally four. Nationally, it's raisin bran, rolled oats, Cheerios, and Wheat Chex. These aren't particularly expensive, especially when I can find all four as "house brand" in stock. To that I sometimes add (depends on our mood)raw sunflower seeds, raw pumpkin seeds, and chopped walnuts or pecans. I mix them in my largest stock pot (20 quart) and store in 4 gallon glass jars.

This isn't granola, of course. There's no liquid, no added sweetener, no baking, so no toasted flavor. Simple to mix up, keeps well (I make it about once a month) leaves no sticky residue on the jars it's in. We also sometimes add another fruit (banana slices, say) in the mornings, but usually it's this mix and milk.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I will likely keep buying raisin brans and such, for the sake of variety. But I'm glad to find a substitute for the store-bought granola because it's the usually the most expensive and doesn't often go on sale. I think I wound up with 3-4 boxes worth, which will cover me for a month, month and a half at least.