Granola is a breakfast staple in our household. We make it by the bucket load and eat it almost every morning on yogurt. With the kids going back to school tomorrow morning I figured I'd better get a new batch made up pronto. It seems fitting that my next post after yogurt making should be about granola doesn't it? This is not a recipe since every batch of granola I make is different but here's my method and what I put in this particular batch.
I started with a lot of large flake oats. My receipt from the Bulk Barn says I used 4 kilos. I dumped them all into a huge pot that I reserve for this type of thing. It's aluminum so I don't like to cook in it but it's great for mixing and stirring really large batches of things.
This is where it starts to get fun and the kids love to jump in and help. I basically put the packages of seeds, nuts and extras on the counter and they get to open and dump as much in as they want. In this batch of granola we added 1/2 kilo of sunflower seeds, 1/4 kilo of ground flax seeds, 1/3 kilo of pumpkin seeds (hulled), a scoop full of psyllium husk, 1/2 kilo of cashew pieces, and 1/2 kilo of almonds. I got whole almonds and chopped them coarsely with my Pampered Chef food chopper. I also had some coconut in the pantry that I added at the last minute.
Now the kids all roll up their sleeves and start mixing. I's like one of those big rice tables they have at some preschools except with all kinds of fun surprises in there. A tactile field day! While the kids are rooting, stirring, and occasionally sampling I'm working at the stove. In a large pot I combined 3 cups of water, 2 cups of canola oil (I plan to use coconut oil next time), about 2 cups of honey, a cup of black strap molasses, a cup of maple syrup and a few tablespoons of vanilla and brought it all up to a boil. I think heating it up like this is more important if you're using brown or cane sugars that need to be dissolved but I find the flavours get combined better and it mixes into the oats better when it's warm. The kids have to back off now while I combine the hot sugars with the oats and nuts. I like to get in up to my elbows with this too.
I baked the granola on cookie sheets at 350*F for 15 minutes. If you have a baking stone keep it on the lower rack of your oven to help even out the temperature. I find that if my stone is in there I don't have to stir the granola at all during cooking time. If you don't have a stone make sure to stir at least once during baking so that you don't end up with scorched edges. You want to bake it until it's no longer wet but it can still be a little bit moist from steam. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.
My oldest son asked me why we don't add the dried fruit to the mix before baking it all. I used to bake the fruit in with the granola but I had too many instances of the raisins getting scorched before the rest of the mixture was ready because the fruit sugars caramelized too quickly so now I add the dried fruit after it's all cooked and cooled down again. This batch has golden raisins, dates and dried cranberries. I'm also going to let the kids add a kilo of yogurt chips for fun. Mix it all together and there you have it, enough granola to last us until Halloween.
