a quest for tasty granola

i love granola. but only if it's home-made-style granola. i really dislike the taste of the cloying-corn-syrupy boxed granola available in the grocery store cereal aisle. and it all seems so expensive for such an inferior product. so i usually just make my own.

over the past few months or so, i've been perfecting my granola recipe. i used to make a recipe that i stole from the local coffee establishment that employed me during my masters degree studies. it was pretty good recipe. but something about it reminded me too much of early saturday morning shifts at the cafe.

and then i had some incredible granola from another local establishment - the coastal cafe. they serve it with fresh fruit and vanilla yogurt. they call it "the steph" and it is delicious! i've been attempting to replicate it ever since i tasted it last summer. i purchased a bag of it, brought it home to analyze and made a list of what i thought the ingredients might be.

then i also found this granola recipe and enjoyed it too. it seemed to include a lot of the ingredients that i had guessed were in coastal's granola. so, i thought i'd merge them to see what i produced. the result has been tasty!

now i've created my perfect granola recipe. i don't think it replicated the coastal's granola exactly, but i do think it's delicious (and probably a bit healthier than theirs is - less sugar).

 

this granola (baking in the oven, in the picture above) is full of wonderful stuff. nuts, seeds, oats, maple syrup, coconut! of course, you could always change up the main ingredients to suit your tastes. i'm a big fan of this combination of ingredients - but you might not be. make it to suit your tastes and what you've got in your cupboards. here's my recipe:

 ingredients:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp water
1 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground nutmeg
4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup wheat germ
4 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp ground flax seed
1 cup coconut
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup almonds (whole)
1 cup walnuts (chopped)

instructions:
- preheat to 275 degrees F
- grease two cookie cookie sheets with cooking spray or oil and set aside
- bring oil, syrup and water to a simmer in a saucepan over low heat
- mix all other ingredients together in a large bowl
- pour oil/maple syrup mixture over dry mixture and stir to combine
- pour mixture onto two prepared cookie sheets
- squeeze granola in handfuls to form small clumps
- bake for 30 minutes
- stir and continue to bake until golden brown (15 minutes longer)
- let cool, then store in an airtight container
- makes approximately 12 cups

it makes a lot of granola. so there's always some for sharing. although, i must admit - i'll eat this granola for breakfast every day until it's gone.

i also made an attempt at home-made yogurt today. if all goes well i'll blog about it tomorrow over a delicious home-made breakfast of yogurt and granola. yum!