Granola: a Multipurpose Whole Grain

I like to serve granola with yogurt and a variety of sliced fruits for a light dinner or with milk for breakfast. I used to buy it boxed, but all the brands I looked into were high in fat and refined sugars. I haven't tried the Kashi granolas yet, but even brands that advertise being healthy often contain things that I don't want to intake into my body or feed to my family. So I make my own most Saturday mornings. It technically keeps all week, but I find myself making more because it's a popular meal or snack in my house. For my recipe, I include the sorts of nuts, fruits, and spices that my family likes, but you can change it up as much as you like.



Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

On a greased cookie sheet with raised edges, toast 4 cups of rolled oats in the oven. They don't change color much, but they get fragrant and turn a little tan. When they are fragrant, add a 1/2 cup sliced almonds and 1/2 cup chopped cashews. Continue toasting for about five minutes. Add a 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom and a nice grating of nutmeg to the oat/nut mixture. Stir it in well before adding 1/2 a cup of brown rice syrup (or honey). Mix the syrup in until all the oats are slightly sticky and the sweetener is evenly distributed. Cook for ten minutes. Stir the oats and cook for ten more minutes. The granola will not feel granola like when you remove it from the oven. The oats will be more crunchy than if they hadn't been cooked, but the rice syrup will harden as it cools. It's important for in to cool on the pan in order to get nice clusters. When you remove it from the oven, you may wish to stir in 1 cup chopped dried fruit (I like pears, apricots, and cranberries). Do this before the granola hardens or just stir it into the clusters later.When removing the granola from the pan if you've got a "fish scrapper" (the sort that's no good for fish, but wonderful for everything else) this worked wonders getting the granola off in clusters. otherwise a spatula or even a metal spoon works ok.