Isn’t that one of the first phrases that comes to mind when you see someone eating or talking excitedly about granola? Followed shortly by hippie?
Well I can now join the ranks of the granola heads! The other night Mei, Patella and I spent the entire night making granola of various mixes after a conversation with Mei’s youngest uncle. It’s getting into the time of year where we all start to shop frantically for gifts or become quickly swallowed in a large ball of yarn or stacks of quilt blocks or other crafty materials so we started the giving season with some maple syrup, honey, dried fruits, nuts, vanilla and loads and loads of rolled oats!
Mei’s uncle mentioned that he had recently enjoyed a vanilla cherry granola lately and I decided that I would make my own version that would be a bit healthier or at the very least have an increased protein content which would be better for his active lifestyle – after all a high school student &athlete needs lots of energy to get through their days!
Mei sat in the shopping cart, excitedly kicking her legs and holding onto the pushbar with both hands and whipping her head from side to side, watching all the people move around her, talking, scanning things, and watching shiny packages zip past as we moved down the aisles grabbing any bag of dried fruit or nuts that struck us. I didn’t really have a plan for flavor combinations at the time, but I knew we were going to make them all as healthy as possible and then mix and match fruits, nuts and sweets – making some more geared for working out and other geared for indulging. So almond M&Ms, peanut butter M&Ms, Heath bars, and dark chocolate went into the cart also, along with some other goodies. Kinda like trail mix but with wheat germ, flax-seed and oats! Healthy!
Once we got home, we started looking at all sorts of sources for granola recipes, and it basically came down to a ratio of oats to filling and the liquid sweetener so once we decided on a couple to try, we also wrote down a couple of versions to make granola bars instead of just lose granola and headed into the kitchen to get started.
In each recipe, the first thing to do was to make the liquid sweetener and then mix all the ingredients except the fruits and chocolate-type fillers, in a bowl then it all gets mixed together, spread out on a cookie sheet and baked into “granola”. Eventually you add the fillers, stir the granola up a bit and then cool it down and package it or put it in some kind of storage container – whatever your little heart desires.
This making granola road is not one without bumps. Rather like the movie Clueless. There are defiantly “cliques” in the land of granola, some ingredients don’t mix with others and some granola bar recipes work while others make you curse under your breath. It was a long and difficult road, this granola-making road, but Clueless is a classic teen movie! I love it and will always love it, as watching it marks a special “rite of passage” in my life… that I won’t divulge to my readers, but it has a special place in my heart and so appropriate to watch while making granola or talking about granola.
Hello? Like, California?
*head nod*
Needless to say, our granola bars didn’t quite turn out to be … bars.
They held together pretty good while being pulled out of the pan, but when it came to cutting them, they began to crumble at the edges – especially while cutting through the dried mango bits and halved macadamia nuts I put into the bars.
Yeah, I chose to do a “tropical” themed one, and how appropriate are macadamia nuts and mango? I would have put in pineapple too but my receivers of the granola once I’m done with all the batches I have set out to make, are not too interested in raisins or pineapple. *shrug* Oh well, there are so many other options out there! So many possibilities! Either which way the granola bars left something to be desired and require a little more experimentation before we can get them perfect, but they are nice and chewy, not hardly “dry” – so if that is what you would like in a granola bar and you’re not worried about it being thinner and drier, then these are for you!
The loose granola turned out fabulous! I made a batch with maple syrup as the sweetener and one with honey as the main sweetener and they both aren’t overly sweet, allowing the granola to bunch up and bake in clumps while coating the small, independent oats in the sweetener. Once the fruits and nuts were mixed in, each handful was the perfect balance of sweetness, tart and nutty. The best part of making your own granola is being able to mix in whatever fillers you want.
One of the batches we made was cran-apple, which was pretty tasty, then the tropical granola bars with mango and macadamia nuts and then the vanilla cherry – which turned out to be my favorite of them all. In fact, I’m going to make a few more batches of the vanilla cherry with extra cherries! Sunkist has a line of dried sour cherries and they were the best! I almost ate one full bag while making the granola- but its a good thing I only ate a handful over the course of the granola making and then put the bag out of reach, or we would never have had enough to put in the actual granola!
Once I decide on some fruit combinations for the different M&M’s and other little fillers we bought, I am going to have a silly amount of granola to pack up and mail to friends. Won’t Mei’s uncle be tickled when he opens a box full of homemade granola? It is just the perfect gift for your favorite teenager, athlete or friends & family who want to satisfy their sweet tooth, but have some added protein and something healthier to snack on throughout their day. I have some grand plans to make a few jar fulls to send with my husband for work, along with plans to make some seasonal varieties for throughout the year. It makes a wonderful breakfast or snack and as advertised by Quaker Oats (whose oats we are using), one serving of oats a day keeps heart disease away or at the very least helps to lower your cholesterol! Who can be bugged by that?
I have found some great dried fruits to put in the granola, and each new batch yields a new and interesting bowl of cereal for breakfast. Why not taste test the wonderful creations? Since the Quaker Oats are on sale for $1 this month, I have plans to make a whole lot of granola. It keeps in the freezer for a long time, or in the fridge if you would like to extend its life but eat it on a daily basis. But if you are like me, you wont be able to stay away once you taste the sour cherries!
Ingredients for (Tropical) Granola Bars:
- 2-1/3 C traditional rolled oats
- 1/2 C wheat germ
- 1/2-3/4 C granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2-3 C dried fruits (1 C chopped macadamia nuts, 2 C chopped dried mango)
- 1/3 C peanut butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 TBS melted butter
- 1/4 C honey, maple or corn syrup
- 1 TBS water
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Line 8 X 8 X 2 inch pan with parchment paper so that it overhangs on two sides, lightly grease the pan and the parchment paper.
Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts in a large bowl.
In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk the vanilla, melted butter, liquid sweeteners and water. Toss the wet and dry ingredients and peanut butter together until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Spread the mixture out in a prepared pan, pressing them firmly to ensure they are molded to the pan.
Bake the bars for 30-40 minutes, until they ‘re browned around the edges. They will seem soft & underbaked when pressed on the centers but harden and hold their shape as they cool.
Cool them on a cooling rack for 30 minutes, once they are cool, cut them into bars with a serrated knife. If they seems crumbly, put them in the fridge for a bit then pull them out and continue to cut them into bars.
Ingredients for Basic Granola:
- 4 C traditional rolled oats
- 1/2 C wheat germ
- 1 C chopped nuts
- 2-3 TBS flax seeds (optional)
- 3 TBS brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 C honey
- 1/3 C vegetable, olive oil or grape seed oil
- 2 C dried fruit
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Pre-heat the oven to 350F/ 180C, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, nuts, flax, wheat germ, sugar, cinnamon, nuts, spices & salt. Whisk the oil, honey and other sweeteners and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all the oats and nuts are coated. Spread onto a large sheet pan.
Bake, stirring once or twice throughout the baking time, until the mixtures turns a nice, golden brown about 30-40 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool completely then add the fruit and store in an airtight container for up to six months, or store in the freezer to extend its life.
Another Granola Bar recipe:
- 3 C homemade granola
- 1/2 C honey
- 1/3 C peanut butter
- 1/4 C neutral oil (olive, vegetable, corn, or grape seed)
Put all the ingredients except for the granola in a saucepan, bringing the mixture to a boil and stirring until the mixture becomes smooth. Put the granola in a large bowl, pour the sugar over the top while mixing, stir until the granola is well-coated.
Press the granola into an 8 X 8 X 2 inch square pan, baking for 30-40 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. Cool completely before cutting into bars with a serrated knife.