Granola Ideas

There are five basic components for making granola and granola bars. You can mix and match all sorts of different ingredients in these categories to come up with new flavor combinations. The main difference between granola and the bars, as far as I can tell, is that to make the bars you press them into a pan to bake. Regular granola is baked on a cookie sheet and turned every so often to assure even browning.

Here are some general guidelines for making Granola:

• Grains (3 cups, or more) - oats, rye flakes, barley flakes, wheat germ, cereals, etc. - choose old fashioned oats for a crispy texture. Quick oats create a less-tasty, powdery bite. Toast in oven before mixing with syrup mixture if you prefer a crispier texture.
• Nuts/seeds (1 cup, or more) - almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seed, etc.
• Dried fruit (1 cup, or more) - raisins, apricots, dates, figs, prunes, cranberries, pineapple, blueberries, bananas, etc. Sprinkle over the top of the granola when it comes out of the oven and mix in.
• A sticky sweetener - honey, agave nectar, molasses, maple syrup, brown sugar, etc.
• A fat for browning and toasting - butter, oil, egg whites (can use egg whites instead of oil or butter to get the crunch without the fat)
• A binder (optional) - pureed dried fruit such as dates, apple butter, peanut butter, almond butter, unsweetened applesauce, egg whites, etc.
• Flavorings (optional) - vanilla, almond extract, maple flavored extract, cinnamon, ginger, candied ginger, etc.

To bring the grains, nuts, seeds and dried fruits together, here are some syrup mixtures ideas for granola and granola bars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flavor combinations to try:

• blueberries and cream (try adding some dried milk powder for the milk flavor, or use sweetened condensed milk - see a bar recipe that uses sweetened condensed milk (do not use additonal sweentener with this). For a recipe using milk powder, see see Oat and Nut Granola with Sunflower Seeds. Yogurt is another option to consider). Use white sugar instead of brown, or use honey.
• strawberries and cream. See ideas for blueberries and cream above
• cherry and hazelnut, or cherry and almond.
• French vanilla w/ almonds - a "vanilla scented granola" recipe at Epicurious called for 4 tsp. vanilla for 4 cups of oats and 1 cup of almonds - dried pears, peaches or cherries would work well here if you wanted to add a fruit
• oatmeal raisin - use some brown sugar, raisins, walnuts
• pecan coconut - w/ brown sugar
• peanut butter and banana - see Emeril's Peanut Butter Granola Bars, use banana chips for fruit instead of raisins, or use both
• dried banana chips with mini dark chocolate chips (add the chocolate chips once cool to avoid melting them, or, if making bars, press them into the top), can add mashed bananas to the liquid ingredients, bananas help to hold the ingredients together and form clusters
• fall flavors of apples, cinnamon and walnuts - try using apple sauce or apple butter along with dried apples to accentuate the apple flavor
• fall flavors of dried cranberries, pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg and/or cardamon
• tropical fruit - coconut, macadamia nuts, dried pineapple and banana
• Pina Colada - dried pineapple, coconut, pecans - use coconut oil instead of oil or butter

Fruit and nut combinations:

Apples - walnuts, pecans
Apricot - almonds, pecans, hazelnuts
Bananas - peanuts. walnuts, chocolate
Blueberries - maybe with lemon or orange zest
Cherries - almonds, hazelnuts, chocolate, pistachios
Cranberry - pecan, walnuts
Dates - pecans
Mangoes - macadamia nut, coconut
Papaya - macadamia nut, coconut
Peaches - hazelnut, almond, pecans
Pears - walnuts, pecans
Pineapple - macadamia nuts
Strawberries - pistachios