Adventures in homemade granola

[sarahmichigan]

granola3, a photo by sarahmichigan on Flickr.

I recently read this article about "Five packaged foods you never need to buy again," which advocates making your own soup, bread and granola, among other things, and then I ran across a recipe for granola while browsing an old, hippy vegetarian cookbook, Wings of Life, by Julie Jordan. So, it seemed like something was telling me it was time to try making my own granola.

I know the woman who wrote the article was advocating that making these things at home was healthier, not necessarily faster or easier or cheaper, and that's certainly my experience. I gradually bought a few packages here and there of things I thought would be good in the granola, and the dried fruit is definitely the most expensive of all the ingredients. The nut-chopping was pretty tedious, so if I want to do this again, I need a nut chopper type kitchen tool like my mom had. Also, the baking, stirring, baking some more took some time, and you have to check every 15 minutes, so its good to have other projects around the kitchen you can do while you're stuck in the kitchen for a couple hours.

It turned out well, if just a *tad* overbaked in a few places. I like Julie's attitude that you should feel free to mix-and-match ingredients and not be held back by the exact recipe - mainly, you need to get the ratio of wet ingredients to dry ingredients right, and stir frequently so it doesn't burn - those seem to be the main two considerations for having it turn out well. However, I thought the recipe was too complicated overall and made way too much granola. I halved it and tweaked it, but in the future, I'll probably riff off another recipe, like the Mark Bittman or the Alton Brown versions that were suggested to me by friends.

A few things I really liked about my version that I will be repeating:
a) dried apricots in place of raisins! I don't hate raisins in granola, but the ratio is always off for me in commercially-bought granola, so I only put in a handful of raisins and bulked it up with chopped dried mango and apricots. Delicious!
b) I also liked the idea of using sesame oil/tahini in this. I used about half sesame oil and half canola, because I thought using all sesame might be a little overpowering. I think I'd stick to that ratio, since it had a nice nuttiness from the sesame but wasn't too overpowering.
c) Lots more nuts that I find in most granola, and exactly the kinds that I like (walnuts, pecans & almonds).
d) This version of granola is less sweet than other recipes I've seen, and it lets the fruit do the heavy lifting in terms of adding sweetness. I used honey but am curious about using maple syrup, as I've seen in a couple recipes.

My verdict: It's worth making your own granola at least once as an experiment, and as a way to get the ingredients and ratios JUST the way you like it. But pick a weekend day with not much planned, because this will take some time.

Comments

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

It must have been you who mentioned tahini granola a few weeks ago. I tried it myself, mixing and matching recipes (Alton Brown's basic procedure), and it turned out pretty well.

Here was mine:
3/8 cup tahini
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (2 capfulls)
1 tsp salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup crushed, toasted almonds
1 cup toasted coconut
1/4 cup flax seeds
Bake on a sheet pan, 250 for 75 minutes
Mix in 1 1/4 cup dried cranberries

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Yum! I did consider crasins but am happy with the fruit combo I came up with. I may consider craberries for a future batch, though!

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I love using maple syrup in granola. However, if you're trying to keep it cost effective, real maple syrup won't help.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

No doubt. I did consider maple syrup, but honey was cheaper. I may use at least a couple tablespoons of real maple syrup in the future, though.

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

I just discovered last night that the little Polish grocery at the end of my street has all sorts of non-clover honey, so I'm going to be less shy about using up the last of my orange blossom honey, now. I'll probably try that on the next batch.

[effy.livejournal.com]

Love me some granola!

[losgunna.livejournal.com]

I've been using Mark Bittman's recipe as a starting point for some really great granola. Not super sweet, and his uses no oil, although I add 2-3tbsp. For the best priced nuts around, hit Trader Joes. I've been getting all of my nuts and dried fruits there, and have been very happy with the prices and freshness. Homemade granola has become a staple in my house :)