Granola

I think Saturday mornings were made for baking. Seriously. I love baking on Saturday mornings. And I like the fact that I actually have time for it this weekend. To think last week at this time, I was just getting out of my GRE. Thank goodness I'm not doing that this weekend!

So, I was inspired to make granola this week. I LOVE my mom's granola that she makes at Christmastime. The recipe I have here isn't as sweet and wonderful, but it's still yummy. I actually got it at a "granola making" event on campus. Random, I know. But it was fun.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups whole oats

1 cup wheat germ (or flour)

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup juice (I used apple)

1/4 cup oil

choose: nutmeg

cinnamon

flax seed

coconut

raisins

dried cranberries

almonds

pumpkin seeds

sunflower sees

chopped dried fruit

Mix dry ingredients together.

Mix in wet ingredients and seeds or nuts.

Pour onto a baking sheet lined with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Add dried fruit after baking.

Cool and seal in an airtight container.

This makes quite a bit. The real recipe calls for 3 times this many ingredients. This is about the right amount for a baking sheet, and it makes plenty. I can't imagine how much the full recipe would make! Today I made it with blueberry flavored cranberries and pumpkin seeds. I've done flaxseeds, raisins, cranberries and almonds before too.

Please remember to put foil on the baking sheet. It makes for easy cleanup and the granola is pretty sticky. Oh, and it doubles as a handy funnel for transferring it into a container.

It seems odd using juice in granola, but it makes it sweeter and there's less fat than with all oil.

Oh! I also discovered that my stapler is magnetic! Isn't that exciting?

Yum!!!

Stay tuned: there are two sugar pumpkins sitting in my room just waiting for next week!