better than from a bakery granola

I love granola for breakfast. Not only do I make it quite frequently, but I do often order it when going out for breakfast. I'm a bit of a granola snob and I definitely know what I like. This granola found in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking cookbook is great. Like really, really great.

Look at it, this granola has clusters! Every granola I have made, while delicious & wholesome, doesn't have the goodness that makes them clump up like the granola found at a great bakery. Look no further. This granola clumps, it's crunchy and it's easy to make. Sure, there's a bit more sugar than I'm used to putting in my granola, but it's worth the extra calories. Do it for the clumps!

Want to make your friends, co-workers and family really happy this holiday? Just bake up a batch, throw it in a large glass jar, top it with a bow, and call it a homemade gift made with love. Better yet, bake up a double batch (I've done it and it works beautifully) so you have some for yourself and a friend. Guaranteed happiness.

better than from a bakery granola
(adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking)
2 c organic large-flake rolled oats
1 t cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 t salt
3 T plus 1 t canola oil
1/4 c honey
1/4 c firmly packed light brown sugar
1 t pure vanilla extract
2/3 c whole almonds
2/3 c raisins

Preheat oven to 325 F. In a large bowl, toss oats with cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, honey, brown sugar and vanilla until blended. Pour the wet mixture in with the dry and use your hands to combine the two until everything is well coated and your hands are gooey. Lick them if you must, but wash your hands right after.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour the mixture over top. Spread it out evenly, but also keep in mind clumping is a good, good thing. Bake for 10 minutes and then use a spatula to gently flip the granola over. Sprinkle with almonds and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Add raisins and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely in the pan. Use your hands to break up the granola...but again, don't go overboard (remember the clumps!). Place in a tightly lidded container.

low fat granola with millet

Didn't I mention something about cake? Cookies? Something toothsome, gooey and sweet? I swear this isn't turning into a breakfast/vegan blog (not that there's anything wrong with that), but this is how I've been eating lately. It's spring outside...or at least it's trying to be and I think it's time for a dietary shake up for a bit. The cake and cookie recipes will come, I promise! Last week I picked up Mark Bittman's hefty cookbook, How to Cook Everythingand found myself at his granola recipe. It intrigued me since it required no oil and there was a suggestion to throw quinoa or millet into the mix. It got me thinking, and just a few minutes later I found myself heading to the cupboard making up a low fat granola recipe.

Now, I'm no slouch when it comes to making granola. My recipe archives contain recipes for peanut butter granola, cocoa-coconut granola, vanilla almond granola, and my no-fail granola. But despite my granola cred, I've never added millet. And dear readers, millet is a granola god-send! It adds such a snap, crackle, pop for the perfect bite of crunch. As for the no-oil, I couldn't detect much difference between this one and my normal granola, so why not choose the low fat version instead? It's delicious, filling and healthy breakfast and if you prepare a batch every Sunday evening then you have something to look forward to all week long.

low fat granola with millet
(Inspired by Mark Bittman)
6 c organic oats (not quick)
1/2 c millet (regular, uncooked millet)
1 c dessicated coconut
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c flax seeds or ground flax
1/2 c wheat germ
1 c pecans
1 generous T cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground cardamom
dash of salt
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c raisins
1/2 - 1 c maple syrup
orange juice

Heat oven to 300F. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients from the oats down to the salt. Drizzle in the maple syrup and stir well with a wooden spoon to get everything coated. Needs more liquids? Add in some more maple syrup or a bit of orange juice.

Spread the mix out into a large baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, checking and stirring occasionally so that nothing burns. Add in the raisins and cranberries and bake until the granola turns golden and crisp, again making sure things don't get too "golden". Remove from oven and cool. Store in a sealed container. Serve with fresh fruit and yogurt.

oat couture: peanut butter granola

Not one to brag, but for the past week, everything that has come out of my kitchen has been amazing. I've been cooking for every single meal and trying new things like making jam and thin crust pizza–and everything has turned out great. It's a good feeling. And it all started with this granola recipe.

I've been wanting to make a peanut butter granola for a while now and I'm glad I finally gave it a try. It was so successful that I've made it twice in a row...even converting a friend who says that she hates granola! It's that good. In my first batch I decided to throw in a bit of chocolate after becoming inspired by Molly's recipe, but when I made it again without the chocolate, the granola didn't miss a thing. Chocolate or not, it's your call.

Another tip...when I first made this, the peanut butter jar was new, so the peanut butter near the top (despite all my stirrings) was definitely of the oilier variety and got more liquidy when heated. When I made it again, the peanut butter jar was close to empty, so even melting it was a bit difficult. I could have added more oil to compensate, but I decided to just use a little bit of elbow grease instead and used my hands to break-up and distribute all of that peanut buttery goodness all over those oats. It was a good move. This granola has a nice peanut butter flavour and is just a bit sweet. It's perfect over plain yogurt topped with berries or with a dollop of homemade jam.

This morning another of my posts went up on the Food Network Canada blog. This one is my interview with celebrity chef, Anna Olson. She was amazingly personable, friendly and nice. A dream interview subject, for reals. Take a peek!

More granola recipes from my archives:
Cocoa-coconut granola
No-fail granola
Vanilla-almond granola

peanut butter granola
2 1/2 c oats
1/2 c wheat germ
1 t vanilla extract
2 T canola oil
3 T natural peanut butter
2 T brown sugar
3 T chopped chocolate (optional)

In a large bowl, mix oats and wheat germ together. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat up oil, peanut butter, vanilla and brown sugar over medium high heat and let it all get melty together. Pour hot mixture over oats and stir well, so that everything is covered. You may have to use your hands if your peanut butter mixture is extra stiff. Add chocolate, if using, and mix well. Spread mixture on a baking sheet or large glass baking pan and toast in a 325 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, checking on it and stirring it occasionally until mixture is dry. When cool, store in a tightly lidded container.

chocolate for breakfast: cocoa-coconut granola

Well, we made it back from our 10 days on the road no worse for wear. Our trip was amazing and I still have a ton more photos to upload onto Flickr. The painted hills in Oregon were beautiful, we had a great warm night of camping in the Washington Okanogan, we drank delicious beer at the Silver Moon Brewery in Bend (and also had some really good Hawaiian beer & my birthday dinner at the Kona Mix Plate)...and then there was Portland! Oh boy, do I love that city. We ate at Pine State Biscuits twice for breakfast, thought we might win at trivia at the Basement Pub (we didn't), played many games of darts at various locales, and drank my favorite beer at Amensia Brewing (their Copacetic IPA, if you must know).

But now I'm back home, the weather in Vancouver is not only sunny but HOT. Hooray! I made this granola a few weeks ago, but like all granola, once it's tightly put away in a cupboard it can last ages. And oh boy, it was the perfect breakfast treat to make a Vancouver homecoming breakfast truly worthwhile. I took Nigella's recipe for cocoa granola and omitted the peanuts (but golly, that sounds good too!) and added coconut and almonds instead. So far I've eaten it with strawberries while the husband enjoyed his with bananas...but the best was scooping up the deliciousness with Granny Smith apple slices. No spoon required! It also helped that I was eating my granola with my favorite store-bought yogurt, Liberté's coconut yogurt. It seriously made the chocolate and coconut in the granola just a bit more special.

While you might think this is a decadent breakfast (and it is), it's also low fat. There's applesauce instead of a lot of oil and if you don't have applesauce on hand, it's really easy to whip some up. This granola was crunchy, sweet (but not tooth-achingly so) and if you wanted to make this all vegan, just sub in some more agave or brown rice syrup to replace the honey. I'll definitely be making this again.

And if you want a bit more reading, why not check out my latest post over at the Food Network Canada blog, Bazaar. It's a post about my favorite Vietnamese sandwich which is found in Vancouver's Chinatown for a mere $3.15. And you can find out just how mis-named this blog really is...do I really like sandwiches? Find out now!

cocoa-coconut granola
1/4 c cocoa
4 1/2 c rolled oats
1 c shredded coconut
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1 c roughly chopped almonds
1 t kosher salt
2 t ground cinnamon
large pinch each nutmeg & cardamom
3/4 c brown sugar
1/3 c agave nectar
1/4 c honey
3/4 c applesauce
2 T olive oil

Preheat oven to 300. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together. In a small saucepan, heat up agave nectar, honey, apple sauce and olive oil just until extra runny and then pour over dry ingredients. Mix until everything has been coated with the wet sticky stuff. Pour into a large glass baking dish or several walled cookie sheets and place in the oven, turning over occasionally so that everything dries out evenly. After 40 minutes to an hour, remove from oven and cool on counter. Store in a tight lidded container.

pantry raid

I'm definitely in holiday mode, not cooking mode. Truth be told, there's not a lot of baking or cooking going on when there's itineraries to think about, travel forums to peruse, and how to pack 35 days of clothing & toiletries into one small and light carry-on pack. We were lucky to find a super cheap flight to Frankfurt, so unfortunately we won't be flying or heading into London or the UK at all. But there's lots of other great countries to explore. Our super flexible and very rough journey will take us to: Frankfurt > Koblenz > Cologne > Luxembourg > Ghent > Bruges > Brussels > Antwerp > Amsterdam > cycling around Holland > Berlin > Vilnius > Kaunas before we fly back into Frankfurt and back home to Vancouver. Any more tips and suggestions about what to see/do/eat while in Europe are more than welcome!

We leave for Frankfurt on Sunday and I'm trying to only buy groceries one day at a time so that nothing goes to waste while we're on holiday. It's a sad day when my fridge holds only yogurt, coffee cream, beer, mustard, pickles, almond butter, maple syrup and miso paste. So when I wanted to make something for breakfast, I had to raid the cupboard for inspiration. I've made granola many times before using variations on the same recipe, but I decided to forgo the healthy-ish granola of my past and try for something a bit more treat-like this time around. While the results were sweeter than my regular granola, I'm sure this is still much better than the store-bought granolas found on the shelves of your local supermarket. It not only makes a good breakfast tossed with some yogurt and fresh fruit or turned into cereal in a bowl of skim milk, but it tastes good just eating it out of hand as a mid-afternoon snack. I think the next time I make this, I'll sub in just regular ol' peanut butter for the almond butter since peanut butter makes more of a flavour impact. Regardless of changes, this recipe is a keeper and a great start to a busy day.

vanilla almond granola
4 c old-fashioned oats
1 c sliced almonds
2 T flax seed
3 T brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1/8 t cinnamon
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/4 c honey
1 T almond butter
1 packet of vanilla sugar (or just 2 T of white sugar)
4 t vanilla extract

1. Preheat to 300°F. Mix the first 6 ingredients in large bowl. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine oil, honey, and sugar. Stir honey mixture until it just begins to bubble. Remove from heat and stir in the almond butter and vanilla. Once the almond butter melts, pour the hot liquid over the oats and stir well until throughly mixed.

2. Spread granola on a large rectangular baking sheet or pan. Bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Break apart and store in an airtight container.

suggestive breakfast

Granola is my go-to breakfast. It's simple and unassuming yet it lends itself to numerous variations. Making it from scratch is always preferable over the store bought kind, which is usually expensive and full of sugar and other bad things. The only real trial in making it is remembering that making granola requires some foresight because the most disheartening morning can become even more bleak when you find the granola container empty. Make your mornings brighter by planning ahead.

As long as you keep the dry ingredients in synch with the wet ingredients, you can't mess this breakfast up. I usually drown my granola in skim milk but it's also delicious with yogurt and fruit.

no fail granola
4 c rolled oats
3/4 c wheat germ
1/4 c flax seeds

Plus 3 cups of any of the following suited to your tastes:
Walnuts
Almonds
Sunflower Seeds
Hazelnuts
Sesame Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Grated Coconut
Raisins
Dried Cranberries
Dried Cherries
Dried Apricots
Dried Apples

Mix all of your grains and nuts together and add some spice:
1 T cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground ginger
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t ground cardamom

In a large measuring cup, mix together the following:
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/3 c sweetener (honey, brown sugar, molasses, or maple syrup)
2 T water or orange juice

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix well with a wooden spoon until everything is well coated.

Pour onto a cookie sheet or large rectangular pan and bake in a 300 degree oven. Stirring every 20 minutes or so for about 45 minutes until mostly dry. Remove and cool. Store in a tight lidded container.