Adventures in granola making, part 1 of many

When it comes to cereal and granola, I'm pretty picky: It needs to hold its crunch and not be too sweet. It can't have raisins or coconut, and it should have pumpkin seeds in it. Unfortunately, the types of cereal I like come almost exclusively in small boxes with high prices. Given my continued desire to eat lots of cereal and not go bankrupt, I decided to take the matter into my own hands.



After some scrounging around on the internet, I found many references to Nigella Lawson's recipe, which I found interesting so I decided to give it a try after making a few adjustments to it.

My first attempt was not the rousing success I had hoped. The nuts to oats ratio was a little too high and the flavor was too sweet and a bit off (I blame the apple sauce). This batch ended up more like snack granola you eat plain out of a box rather than something for breakfast. Next time, I might work off of Mark Bittman's groovy recipe, which would probably yield a less sugary granola with a better nuts/oats ratio. Why I didn't use his recipe in the first place is a mystery to me.



Even though I didn't make the granola of my dreams on my first attempt, I remain optimistic. The basic process is really easy and kind of fun. After the initial investment in maple/brown rice syrup, nuts, and maybe some spices, homemade granola is cheap to make. And being able to adapt it to exactly my liking is frankly priceless.




Homemade granola
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

This is a perfectly fine snack granola. I would omit the apple sauce unless you're a really big fan of the cinnamon apple combination.

5 cups rolled oats
1 cup raw almonds slivers
1 cup raw walnut pieces
1 cup hulled raw pumpkin seeds
¾ cup light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/3 cup grade B maple syrup
¼ cup honey
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 300F. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Spread onto two large rimmed baking sheets and bake until golden brown, about 50 min. Every 10 or 15 min, rotate pans and  give the granola a good stir for even browning. Take pans out and cool for at least 15 min. Store in an airtight container.