Granola!

[fidgiegirl]

On the health support thread granola was suggested as an alternative to wheat based breakfast cereals. I've made it before, but thought maybe people would enjoy sharing their fave granola recipes.

I found one recently, but haven't tried it. This girl used to be on SLN but haven't seen her around in a while. I follow her blog. (http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/2011/08/you-had-me-at-peanut-chocolate-granola.html)

1. Preheat oven to 300*

2. Combine in a large bowl:

10 cups combined rolled oats, barley, and triticale.

1 cup sunflower seeds

2 cups roasted peanuts

3. Stir together in a sauce pan on med/low :

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup honey

1 cup vegetable oil

2 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

2 Tbs Chocolate Extract

1 1/2 tea salt

4. Mix into the dry mixture until completely saturated.

5. Spread into two baking pans (I used 9X13 Pyrex) and Bake at 300* for 40 minutes... stirring frequently (set a timer for every 7 minutes or so).

6. As soon as it starts to look dry and brown, take out of the oven, stir thoroughly, and allow to cool.

7. When it’s cool, add in: 1 1/2 cups of dark chocolate chips. I added mine in before it was completely cool and the chocolate chips melted a little bit, making these super yummy clusters of chocolate covered with oats. YUM!

[Stella]

Yum! I had to look up triticale, but I see from her comments you can substitute more oats.

We are big granola lovers here. I have tried a bunch of recipes and have begun to fall back on the TWG recipe most of the time.

I'm doing this from memory, but I am almost certain this is correct.

5 c rolled oats
1/2 c dried milk
1/2 c brown sugar
1/3 c oil
1/3 c honey
1/2 c raisins (really, you can add anything you want)

Mix the oats and dried milk in a cake pan. Boil the brown sugar, pil and honey together until the sugar is dissolved. Pour into oat mixture and mix well. Bake for 10 minutes at 375. Cool and add raisins.

[Gina]

I used to make granola bars. Almost any ingredients (oats, wheat germ, chopped nuts, seeds, coconut, fruits), but much less sugar and oil. I used sticky fruits (like blended reconstituted dry apricots or raisins or craisins) and some honey and molasses and a bit of water to hold it all together when hard-rolling onto a parchment covered cookie sheet, then baked long, low and slow, slightly cooled and cut. They were hard not chewy. Yummy things. They were great as an on-the-go snack.

[frugal-one]

Gina... could you please give a recipe or cookbook to refer to for proper amounts ... for this newbie. I am trying to use less sugar in everything. Thanks!!!!

[treehugger]

I make a peanut butter granola quite frequently (in fact, I'm out and need to make some this weekend). Can't rememeber the exact recipe (which I beleive I got from Southern Living Magazine), but it's peanut butter, oats, peanuts, sesame seeds, brown sugar, coconut (which I usually leave out) and oil. Less oil and sugar than other recipes because of the peanut butter. I'm working my way through some rather old assorted nuts in the freezer, and this is a great way to use them.

I love it for breakfast or snack with plain yogurt and fruit.

Kara

[Stella]

I may try a batch of peanut butter granola with chocolate chips. That sounds like it would make a yummy dessert.

[Rosemary]

Granola is definitely an alternative, and always cheaper (homemade, that is) than boxed cereals, but for it to be a healthy alternative, you often need to modify the recipe.

Here's how I make it:
8 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1 T cinnamon
- mix together dry ingredients -
1/4 c honey
1/4 c canola oil
- mix together wet ingredients, then stir into dry until everything is coated.
Bake 40 minutes at 300, stirring lightly after 20 minutes.
This makes a flaky granola, not a clumpy one.

OR - free of refined ingredients:
8 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1 T cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 c applesauce
Prep and bake in the same way.
This is somewhat clumpier than the above. Add more applesauce for more clumps. May require more baking time.

I always make the granola plain, then add dried fruit, nuts, coconut as desired when we eat it. It's also good mixed into trail mixes.

[herbgeek]

My granola is: 5 cups of old fashioned oats, 1/2 cup maple syrup and 1/3 cup vegetable oil baked for 30-40 minutes @300 F, stirring every 10 minutes or so. Its also a flaky granola, not a clumpy one. After its done, I add nuts and dried fruit.

[fidgiegirl]

Thanks, all! This will get me started. I need to plan out some foods for work for this week - mornings are getting earlier!! :)

[Gina]

Gina... could you please give a recipe or cookbook to refer to for proper amounts ... for this newbie. I am trying to use less sugar in everything. Thanks!!!!
It is a recipe I came up with myself. I haven't made any for awhile, so will have to try to find my notes - I was always changing it.

[Rosemary]

For those aiming to reduce added sugars, a quick way to start with granola is to eliminate all sugar in the recipe. Leave the honey or maple syrup or reduce by half (and half again, and half again) until you find the amount that's right for you. It takes a very tiny amount of sweetener to make oats taste sweet. The liquid sweeteners will coat the oats and make them clumpy, but all the sugar does is make it sweeter and add more calories.

[loosechickens]

That's a really good point, Rosemary......when I make granola these days, it's with maybe 1/4 cup of honey for 8-10 cups of rolled oats, and that's plenty sweet enough, and the granola is great (also, of course, a small amount of olive oil and nuts, etc.). Once you begin to train your tastebuds to less sugar, your palate becomes much more sensitive to the sweet taste, and it takes little sweetener to be satisfying. I'm always amazed at the sheer amount of sugar and/or honey most granola recipes contain, and in most recipes, you can eliminate sugar directly, and reduce the honey by half or more from the beginning and still have a good product.

[Gina]

For those aiming to reduce added sugars, a quick way to start with granola is to eliminate all sugar in the recipe. Leave the honey or maple syrup or reduce by half (and half again, and half again) until you find the amount that's right for you. It takes a very tiny amount of sweetener to make oats taste sweet. The liquid sweeteners will coat the oats and make them clumpy, but all the sugar does is make it sweeter and add more calories. Yep. I so prefer the granola bars I make since they are so much less sweet - yet sweet enough for my tastes. When I taste a commericial one these days, all I taste is 'sweet'. If you want the taste of brown sugar, eliminate the sugar and just add a bit of molasses into the 'wet' ingredients.

I also don't much notice drastically reducing the oil either. For flavor I will often melt a couple tablespoons of butter and add that instead.