Granola
Granola is a breakfast food and snack food, popular in North America, consisting of rolled oats, nuts, honey, and sometimes rice, that is usually baked until crisp. During the baking process the mixture is stirred to maintain a loose, breakfast cereal-type consistency. Dried fruits, such as raisins and dates, are sometimes added.
Besides serving as food for breakfast and/or snacks, granola is also often eaten by those who are hiking, camping, or backpacking because it is lightweight, high in calories, and easy to store; these properties make it similar to trail mix and muesli. It is often combined into a bar form.
Granola is often eaten in combination with yogurt, honey, strawberries, bananas, milk, and/or other forms of cereal, even oatmeal. It can also serve as a topping for various types of pastries and/or desserts. Granola, particularly recipes that include flax seeds, is often used to improve digestion. Flax seed is also a great source of omega-3s.
Tips:
- Choose old fashioned oats for a crispy texture. Quick oats create a less-tasty, powdery bite.
- Use dried fruits (apricots, raisins, figs, cranberries) for sweetness and texture, nuts and seeds for crunch, and vanilla extract or apple cider to up the flavor.
- Add the nuts to the granola before it bakes so that they toast up nicely
- Add dried fruits after baking so they do not burn
- If you like clumpier granola, make sure to squeeze the cereal (or other ingredients) into small clusters before baking. A touch of water, fruit juice or cider, or a mashed ripe banana can help keep the pieces together. Also see How to make Granola with Clusters
- Bake at a low temperature for a crispy, brown finish; go too high and you might burn it.
Clumpy Granola Method:
- Add wheat flour and banana: See the recipe below from Bon Appétit. I found adding whole wheat flour and banana made nice clumps. Also flip granola as it bakes instead of stirring.
- Add Egg White: According to Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, “Nothing glues like protein.” The egg white is whisked until frothy (20 to 30 seconds will do it), then stirred into the oat mixture. The idea is that the egg’s protein will help the oats bind to each other and create delicate clusters. Tester's Results: Not only does the egg white work as a glue to hold the oats together, but it also gives the granola an incredibly crispy bite. This method produced mostly small, delicate clumps (and a fair amount of granola “crumbs”), which easily break apart.
- Add Bran Flakes + Wheat Germ + Egg White: Tester's Results: Thanks to the cereal flakes (and binders), there were craggy, bite-size clumps before the baking sheet even went into the oven. The cereal flakes encourage cluster creation and their delicate crispiness adds another layer of texture to the granola, which is really amazing. If you like a granola with small clumps and don’t mind loose granola “crumbs,” this method is worth trying.
- Bake at Low Temperature and Don’t Stir: Tester rates this technique as 10/10. This straightforward methodS relies on a very low oven temperature (275°F, which is lower than most granola recipes) and an hour-long bake time, with absolutely no stirring. While many granola recipes rely on stirring the oat mixture to ensure even cooking, it’s also what breaks up the clumps — that’s presumably why this recipe and many of the others I tested do not include stirring. The tester says, "If you want a super-straightforward method and prefer bite-size granola clumps over massive shards, you really can’t beat this method."
- Spread and Press: The idea behind this method calls for spreading the mixture to the edges of the rimmed baking sheet, then pressing down to compact the mixture. The granola is baked in a moderate oven (325° F) without stirring, then is left to cool completely on the baking sheet. Tester's Results: The thing that stood out to me most about this approach is how sturdy the granola clusters were, without being hard or tough. Once the granola cooled it was really easy to break the sheet into whatever size clumps I wanted. And there were very minimal granola “crumbs.” The clumps of granola have a crispy, crunchy texture, and were easy to eat. This was my personal favorite method and the one I can’t wait to make again.
Granola
From Uncle John's Original Bread Book
Mix and match different cereals, nuts and dried fruit to create different flavor combinations.
FMM: The flavor of this recipe is really good, but I don't like how it tends to fall apart so there are no clumps of granola. The recipe could be modified using one of the techniques in How to make Granola with Clusters, or see the recipe to the right which uses whole wheat flour and water to create clumps, one of the techniques in the linked page above.
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups rolled wheat
2 cups coconut
2/3 cup roasted peanuts
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
2/3 cup cashews
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oil [cut back to 1/4 cup]
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
raisins or dried cranberries [or other dried fruit]
Mix the grains and nuts in a flat baking pan. Heat the oil, honey, and vanilla. Mix into the grain mixture. Bake at 350 degrees, turning often. Sprinkle with raisins.
Note: for larger clusters of granola, stir carefully while baking so you don't break them up. Try flipping the granola with a spatula.
Oat and Nut Granola with Sunflower Seeds
Bon Appétit | November 2000, The Lodge at Red River Ranch, Bicknell, UT
This recipe has no fruit in it, although you could add whatever dried fruit you after baking, but while the granola is still warm.
FMM: I made 1/2 recipe to use as a topping for yogurt and added 1 mashed banana to the mix before baking. After it came out of the oven, I sprinkled coconut flakes and dried cherries on top while still warm. We had run out of vegetable oil and used coconut oil instead and it worked fine. I just melted it quick in the microwave. The granola stayed in clumps, thanks to the whole wheat flour, water and banana that was added, and I just flipped the granola while baking rather than stirring it. The whole wheat flour helps bind the ingredients together, so when it bakes, you end up with chunks of granola. It had very good flavor and would make granola this way again for topping yogurt. I added blueberries to the yogurt (plain) and the sweetness in the granola was enough so I didn't have to add sugar to the berries and yogurt.
Amounts in ( ) = 1/2 recipe w/ modifications
3 cups old-fashioned oats (1 1/2 c)
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (1/2 c - or use oat flour, NOT white flour)
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar (1/4 c)
1/2 cup sliced almonds [I like more] (1/2 c)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (1/4 c)
1/2 cup dry nonfat milk powder (1/4 c)
1/4 cup shelled unsalted sunflower seeds (1/3 c)
1/2 teaspoon salt (1/2 tsp)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (1/4 c) [or coconut oil]
1/2 cup water (1/4 c)
1/4 cup honey (1/8 c)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (3/8 tsp)
3/4 teaspoon maple extract (3/8 tsp) (or almond extract)
1 - 2 mashed bananas (optional, not in original recipe)
Once done, sprinkle with (optional, not in original recipe):
dried fruit (dried cherries are good especially w/ almond extract)
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Combine old-fashioned oats, flour, golden brown sugar, almonds, walnuts, milk powder, sunflower seeds, coconut if using, and salt in 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan. [I do this in a bowl]
Whisk vegetable oil, 1/2 cup water, honey, vanilla extract and maple extract in medium bowl to blend. Add to dry ingredients in pan and stir to coat well. (Add the mashed banana, if using.)
Bake until granola is golden and crunchy, stirring frequently [no stirring or flipping the granola], about 45 minutes. [Sprinkle dried fruit on top, if using, near the end of baking and mix in.] Cool completely.
(Granola can be prepared up to 2 weeks ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)
Note: for larger clusters of granola, stir carefully while baking so you don't break them up. [If you feel you need to stir the granola because it is getting too brown in some areas, flip, don't stir as stirring breaks up the granola.]
