Granola

I finally found a granola recipe I really like. It's more a ratio than a recipe, really. Beyond the oats, you can use any liquid sweetener you want and any nuts and fruits you want. I got the recipe from Moosewood Restaurants: New Classics, which has a maple-nut granola recipe in it. Maple syrup is pretty expensive. I used it the first time but found that it wasn't really mapley, so I substituted honey, which is cheaper, for the second batch. I didn't regret it at all. I wanted this batch to feature almonds, and since apricots are related, I thought it would be nice to throw some chopped dried apricots in too. Dried cherries and pumpkin seeds went in because I wanted a little more variety. This is delicious with homemade yogurt in the morning. I will definitely be keeping this in stock. It makes a pretty big batch, so I won't have to be making it constantly, and it keeps indefinitely, as far as I can tell. Plus, there are tons of flavor combinations I want to try. The one warning I have about the recipe is that you can't put it in jars to store until it's completely cooled, and it takes a long time to cool (like over an hour). So if you start it at 10 pm, you might end up staying up later than you intended.

Granola (adapted from Moosewood Restaurants: New Classics):
4 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (quick-cooking or instant can be substituted but aren't quite as good)
1/4 cup oat bran (optional-gives a fiber boost)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey (or agave nectar or corn syrup, I'd imagine)
2 tbsp molasses (not blackstrap)
2 generous cups nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, chopped to whatever size you want it in granola (dried fruit should be kept separate until after cooking)
1-2 tsp spices, if desired (I like it without, but there is cinnamon in the original recipe, and I'm sure nutmeg or cardamom would suit some people)

Combine oats, oat bran, spices, and nuts in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine oil, honey or syrup, and molasses and stir vigorously to try to get it rather uniform. Pour liquid into the oat mixture and stir to coat. Pour oats into a large greased baking pan (I use a 9x13 Pyrex) and bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes, stirring every five minutes. When it is golden brown, remove from oven and add the dried fruit. Let it cool completely before storing it in airtight containers in the refrigerator. Stirring periodically will help the heat dissipate and keep the granola from sticking to the pan.

My homemade breakfast

I had an excellent breakfast today, and it was almost all homemade:

1 slice of homemade yogurt bread with (not homemade) butter
Fresh homemade yogurt with homemade granola and (not homemade) dried raspberries

Homemade fruit smoothie: banana, orange juice, carrot, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries, and frozen pineapple.

In case you're wondering, yogurt is easy to make. Heat 1 quart of milk on high heat, stirring constantly, until it gets really steamy and foamy. When it comes down to about 110 F, add it to a bowl with a couple spoonfuls (spoonsful?) of yogurt with live cultures (Dannon has worked best for me) and keep in a warm place 8 hours or so. I kept mine in the oven with the oven light on, and by the morning, the temp in there was 116 F, which is a temperature that makes the little lactobacilli very happy. Homemade yogurt is super-delicious just after you make it, before refrigeration, so it was a real treat to have some of that this morning.

My granola contains: oats, dried cranberries, dried cherries, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, and honey. I'm not going to put up the recipe because, although it's pretty tasty, I am still trying to figure out an ideal cooking time/temperature. My oats didn't get very cooked when I made it, so it's somewhere in between granola and muesli.