Homemade Granola

It’s Saturday morning and I love to pour myself a cup of coffee and browse through my cookbooks and magazines for a new recipe.

I’d seen a recipe in one of my Bon Appétit magazines for granola by Molly Wizenburg. Molly writes for the magazine, and also has a blog called Orangette.  She always has earthy, wonderful recipes that I love, so after scanning the ingredient list, I realized I had everything I needed in my pantry, and set about making this granola.

I started out by roughly chopping up some walnuts.  Molly’s recipe calls for pecans, but I’m partial to walnuts and this is the beauty of granola.  You can switch it up and play around for a recipe that’s perfect for your taste.  Swap out the honey for some maple syrup for a new flavor.  Add whatever makes you smile.

Measure three cups of oats into a large mixing bowl.  I used quick cooking oats, as I didn’t have any old fashioned in the house, which worked just fine, but next time, I’ll use the whole  oats.  I think steel-cut would be amazing as well.  Add in three tablespoons of brown sugar.  Also add in one teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger and a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Stir this all up with a large spoon, taking care to get the spices mixed all into the oats and nuts.

In a small saucepan, add in two tablespoons of canola oil and 1/3 cup of honey.  Warm this over low heat on the stove until it’s nice and thin and the honey has melted a bit.  Whisk it together.

When the honey mixture is nice and warm and thin, drizzle it right over your oat mixture and then taking your spoon, mix it all up again.  Your oats will get moist and darken a bit from the honey.

Spread this onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat mat.

Take your large spoon and really spread it into an even layer.

Pop this into a 300º oven for 40 minutes.  Set a time for 10 minutes.  Take your pan out and give it a stir.

Continue to do this two more times.  Each time your oat mixture will be a little toastier looking.  That’s where the flavor lies my friends.

Just before the last 10 minute bake, Stir in one cup of your dried fruit of choice.  I used cranberries.  I love their tartness.

Stir everything up one last time and bake for the last 10 minutes.

You’re supposed to let this cool before you eat it, but I love it warm.

I like it with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on top.  You could also make it without the dried fruit and serve it with vanilla yogurt and berries.  Yum!

Kayla and her roommate Brettley  are coming home tomorrow from India.  Brettley’s parents are driving here from Iowa and then staying over Sunday night, and I thought this would be a nice healthy breakfast treat to have Monday morning.

I hope there’s some left by then.

Katie’s Printable Recipe – Homemade Granola