Over the past 6-8 months, I have become a granola freak. I've tried everything from commercially boxed to 100% natural. I've had crunchy and sweet to chewy and nutty. As I have eaten through many bags and boxes, I realized I like my granola slightly sweet, really crunchy with nuts and fruits.
I started investigating different recipes and found some with sugar, others with honey, some with maple syrup. After combining a few different recipes, I came up with my first homemade - Maple Honey Granola with Pecans, Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds.
Let's start with some of my usual (or unusual) ingredients...
1. Maple Syrup - I used pure Maple Syrup (straight from Maine). If you use commercially packaged maple syrup, you might want to eliminate the brown sugar.
2. Honey - I used Orange Blossom Honey (straight from Maine...again). I am lucky, we visited Maine last month and I was able to by these products fresh. They definitely have a richer flavor than the store bought versions.
3. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds - You can use raw or salted seeds. Mine were salted so I didn't add any salt to the mixture. If you use raw products, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the recipe.
My granola mixing started last week with a few trials and the results were great. As much as my family walked around saying they weren't hungry enough to try the granola, I found numerous people taste-testing the batch. After delivering a few samples to friends and co-workers, we finished 4+ cups of granola in two days, with the request to make more. Batch # 2 is upon us.
The maple honey granola is crunchy and slightly sweet. It has hints of maple, cinnamon and orange with tanginess from the dried cranberries. The variety of nuts ties the flavor together. We have been eating it as a snack, and sprinkling it on ice cream and hot oatmeal. I haven't add it to milk but I have a bowl set for breakfast tomorrow morning.
If you like granola and want to try homemade, this is a fairly easy recipe to put together. Now that I have started, I don't want to stop. I'm off to mix another batch of granola...maybe it will be with a combination of vanilla, walnuts and apples.
So, what's you favorite granola flavor?
Ingredients:
3 cups of old-fashioned oats (not instant)
2/3 cup of chopped pecans
1/3 cup of salted pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup of salted sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon of wheat germ
1-1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 cup of pure maple syrup
Rind from 1/2 an orange
3/4 cup of dried cranberries
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Line a cookies sheet with aluminum foil.
3. In a large bowl, mix oatmeal, pecans, wheat germ, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds together.
4. In a small bowl, mix cinnamon, oil, brown sugar, maple syrup and orange rind together.
5. Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture, once blended, pour onto cookie sheet. Spread oat mixture across the sheet.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, stir the granola and then bake for another 1o minutes. Once it is slightly golden, shut off the oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Add the dried cranberries and let it sit in the cooling oven for another 10 minutes.
7. Take out of oven, cool and enjoy!