Saturday, April 18, 2009

nutty (and fruity) granola

Who knew granola was so easy to make? I came across Ellie Krieger's "Nutty Granola" in "The Food You Crave" and decided to ad-lib a bit. 

 I had some dried fruit that I wanted to use so here is what I did: 

3/4 cups oats 
1/2 tablespoon ground flax seed 
2 handfuls of shelled sunflower seeds 
1 handful of pecans, chopped 
1 handful of almonds, chopped 
5 apricots, chopped 
2 dried figs, chopped 
1 handful of goji berries 
1 handful of 60% chocolate chips 
1 pinch of salt 
20 grinds of fresh cinnamon 
2 Tablespoons of maple syrup 

Mix everything and add syrup. 
Mix until it is well coated with the syrup. 
Spread out onto baking parchment and bake in a 300F (150C) oven for 30 minutes stirring occasionally. 
Put parchment onto a wire rack and let cool. 
Store in an air tight container. 

NOTES: Ellie's recipe calls for rolled oats, but I am not certain about the oats that I found here. 

I am thinking they are more quick cooking rather than rolled. 

Putting the chocolate chips were good but got messy when I tried to stir the granola while baking. 

Next time I will skip putting in the salt (I found a clump of salt when I tasted the granola...blah!).

This is definitely worth making again. 

It wasn't overly sweet.

I added some to my morning banana and yogurt and it was delicious.

I think this will make good gifts too.

7 comments:

Deb in Hawaii said...

Homemade granola is so good. A little nut butter and brown rice syrup and you can make bars out of it too.

K and S said...

ooh nut butter and brown rice syrup for bars, I'll have to remember that. Thanks Deb :)

Take care.
Kat

Anonymous said...

homemade granola is such a great idea, because you get to pick and choose all the ingredients you want, and what's more, it's TONS cheaper!

KirkK said...

Hi Kat - Looks great, I've got to try to make this myself.

K and S said...

TONS cheaper is so true Burpandslurp! :)

I hope you like this Kirkk :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Rowena said...

I remember going wild over granola when I saw a recipe on one of Ina Garten's cookbooks. It is so easy and cheap to make, and at one point I even dried my fruit in a dehydrator to make it totally organic. You been eating good!

K and S said...

I think that is so neat how you dried your own fruit for the granola Rowena :) I've already made another batch, this time switching the chocolate chips for nibs :9

Take care.
Kat