Homemade Granola

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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Foodies,

Way back on the Cereal thread, I posted a recipe for homemade granola but neglected to include any granola porn. Consider the error rectified here with this repost of the recipe with one very important modification I will explain below:

HOMEMADE GRANOLA

  • 3 cups rolled oats (do not use steel cut oats; they must be rolled)
  • 1 cup FLAKED (not shredded) unsweetened coconut
  • 1 cup chopped cashews, almonds, pecans, or macadamias (nut of your choice)
  • 1 cup shelled pumpkin or sunflower seeds (edible seeds of your choice; I like using half pumpkin half sunflower)
  • 1/4 cup melted butter, margarine or oil of your choice
  • 1/2 cup dark sweetener i.e. brown sugar, maple syrup, stevia syrup, or dark corn syrup (do not use white sugar); [for a real treat up this board’s alley, use Sauternes wine instead]
  • 1 cup dried fruit – raisins, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, cranberries, mango, pears, apple slices, pineapple [make sure to dice large pieces like mango]


    Combine the melted butter/margarine/oil with the 1/2 cup of sweetener of your choice. You may want to microwave for 10 seconds or so to make it easier to mix. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts and seeds. Pour the butter/sweetener mixture over it and mix thoroughly with a spatula.

Pour the mixture out over two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 250 for 1 hour, making sure to pull out occasionally and stir the mixture while baking so it browns evenly. If you don’t, the edges will burn while the middle remains unbrowned.

Let the mixture cool out of the oven once finished baking. When cool, combine with the dried fruit. Pour into an airtight container and store. Keeps pretty much indefinitely.

Now a couple of important notes here since I lasted posted about this in the Cereal thread:

  • I stopped using shredded coconut and now used flaked coconut as I was finding that shredded coconut was so fine that it was actually sinking to the bottom of the bowl when I ate the granola every morning as opposed to combining with the other ingredients. My last spoonful was always milk and toasted coconut. With the large flaked coconut, I am finding the ingredients combine together much better.

  • Do not add in the dried fruit with the other ingredients while baking. I guarantee that they will burn before the other ingredients are done due to their high sugar content.

I promise for very little work and an hour’s worth of your time baking, you will have made yourself the greatest granola cereal you have ever had in your life and will never go back to either a boxed version or a bulk food store version.
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Resurrecting this. I started making granola at home. I don’t like fruit in my granola, so I typically use oats, nuts, and seeds. I’m still fine-tuning my recipe. I use the same measurements for the oats, nuts and seeds. I whisk 1/2 cup melted coconut oil, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup coconut sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt, 3 egg whites. Combine the solids and bake at 300 using 20 minute intervals, turning the pans and swapping racks. About 45-50 minutes total. I like a semi-sweet with some crunch. Still tweaking the sweetness. May lower the temp to 275.

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Funny enough, I just made yesterday (Sunday 3/17/24) over 3 L of fresh granola by quadrupling the recipe and baking it on 4 parchment paper lined cookie sheets. I go through so much of the stuff for breakfast that I always wind up doubling the batch and this time I just quadrupled it. Enjoy and let me know how the it turned out.

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Best I’ve ever had is this one from Eleven Madison Park:

Eleven Madison Park Granola
Recipe from NY Times Cooking

2 3/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup shelled pistachios
1 cup unsweetened coconut chips
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup dried sour cherries

Preheat oven to 300. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, pistachios, pumpkin seeds and salt. Keep the coconut chips aside. You will add them during the last 10 minutes of baking.

In a small saucepan set over low heat, warm the sugar, syrup and olive oil until the sugar has just dissolved, then remove from heat. Fold liquids into the mixture of oats, making sure to coat the dry ingredients well.

Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, and spread granola over it. Bake until dry and lightly golden, 35 to 40 minutes, stirring granola a few times along the way. Approximately ten minutes before the baking is complete, toss the coconut chips into the granola. Stir to combine. Cook for approximately 10 minutes more. Watch the coconut so it doesn’t get too dark. The coconut is done when it is just starting to brown lightly. Don’t let the granola get too dark, or it will taste burned.

Remove granola from oven, and mix into it the dried sour cherries. Allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to a storage container.

Yield: ~6 cups

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