Sunday, April 20, 2008

Breakfast your way: homemade granola

I’m bringing another old favorite up from the archives and updating it with recipe tweaks and new photos. It’s been a little while since I have posted a breakfast recipe, and this is still one of my favorites.

I love making my own granola because I know exactly what goes into it. If you study the ingredient label of your favorite granola, you will likely see loads of oil and some rather unfamiliar preservatives you didn’t think were in there. My granola reduces the amount of oil typically found in commercial varieties. Also, if you are as picky about what’s in your granola as I am, you can adjust this recipe quite easily to suit your taste and your pantry.

We seem to pick up nuts and oatmeal every time we're in the store forgetting how much we already have. Making granola is a great way to clear out those leftover nuts and dried fruits that tend to accumulate over the winter. This recipe calls for one 18 oz container of Quaker old-fashioned rolled oats, which yields approximately 6.5 cups of oats. If you don't have that much or don't want to make as much, use the following approximate ratios (volume) as a guide: 2:1 ratio of oats to nuts (combined, not including coconut and seeds), ~2.5 tbsp liquid per cup of oats (oil and honey).

Homemade granola

6.5 cups old fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)
2.5 cups unsweetened, desiccated coconut
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries (if you don’t like these, leave them out and double the quantity of raisins)
1 1/4-1 1/2 cups sliced almonds (or whole, chopped, slivered or a combination)
1 1/4 cups pecans (whole or chopped to the size you like)
1/2 cup high-quality honey
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well to distribute oil and honey evenly. Spread a thin layer of mixture on two rimmed baking sheets (half sheet pans) lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes stirring mixture and rotating sheets half way through until mixture is an even golden brown. Be careful to watch granola: it will quickly turn from golden to burnt and will continue to cook as it cools when you take it out of the oven. Mixture will moist when it comes out of the oven but will crisp and clump as it cools. Keeps for 1-2 weeks (but I promise, it won’t last that long!).

Variations:

• Substitute any of the nuts for other nuts such as cashews, walnuts or peanuts (it's nice to leave some of the nuts whole as it varies the texture)
• Add additional dried fruit such as apricots or dates
• Add 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• For extra-nutty granola increase proportion of nuts

14 comments:

Melanie said...

You are a mind reader! I want to make some homemade granola for my dad for his birthday this week (he loves it!) and was searching my favorite blogs for a perfect recipe. I'm totally going with this one - I hope I don't screw it up somehow! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cannelle Et Vanille said...

another gorgeous and inspiring post. your photos are just full of light, i can't get enough!

Sabra said...

Thanks aran : )
I'm so glad, melanie. I've done this granola as gifts before in large cellophane bags with a little custom stick-on labels - it makes a very cute gift! Good luck - let me know how it goes. Don't worry, you can't mess it up - just be sure to watch it carefully so it doesn't over-cook.
-S.

Anonymous said...

wow the photography is amazing! I love the first photo very much :D

home-made is always the best, and yours look so yummy-licious!

Anonymous said...

I just can't get past these pictures, they're simply breath-taking. One look could convince just about anyone to stop what they're doing and make granola immediately!

Anonymous said...

Mmmmmm! Your recipe sounds delicious and your photos are really beautiful. Thanks for another great
treat!

Anonymous said...

I love granola... and I love these photos! Just beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Love the photos - particularly the one showing the component parts. Really nice.

Anonymous said...

A wonderful recipe. A real favorite of mine

Special K

Gigi said...

This sounds like a fab. recipe! My Mom loves granola (especially homemade) and I think I'll make her a bag. Thanks for the recipe!

Helene said...

I love the mise en place picture! Homemade granola is a real treat, it looks perfect!

Kajal@aapplemint said...

just 2 days ago i was thinking i need to make some granola , cant bare to buy the readymade stuff, and then i remembered i though i saw some on your flickr stream. So came right over to chk out ur recipe. Its perfect. i'm gonna make some soon. Your pics are as usual gorgeous. just keep getting better n better.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this recipe, It looks delicious.

Pille said...

Sabra, the photos are gorgeous! I'm just about to blog about home-made granola myself (again), but feel now really ashamed about the photo :O

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