Granola

Hello!

This is my contribution to the blog. It isn't much, but it puts me at 1 post, which is the 2nd highest.

רוני לא שומעים אותך!!!

Anyway, it's a recipe for granola, and i think it's quite tasty, usually.
The recipe was adapted from Ottolenghi's, which i can't find online.

Hardware:

   Oven at 140 Celsius

   Oven tray with baking sheet

   Large mixing bowl

   Small pot

   Spatula, Wooden spoon

   Cutting board + large knife

   Table spoon, measuring cups, scale

   

Main Ingredients:

   Thick oats (400-500 g)

   Buckwheat groats (200 g)

Sauce:

   Oil (3-6 Tablespoons)

   Maple Syrup, Honey (240 Milliliters combined, or less)

   2 tablespoon water

   pinch of salt

   

Nutty bits:

   Almonds (1/3 cup)

   Pecans  (1/3 cup)

   

Optional Post-Bake fruity-bits:

   Raisins

   Cocoa nibs

Preparation:  

Mixing:

1. Set the oven at 140 Celsius
2. Combine the oats and the groats in a large mixing bowl.
3. Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small pot, over low-medium heat. stir until the sauce gets mildly warm, remove from heat.
4. Pour the sauce over the oats-groats combination, stir\mix well so that the sauce gets everywhere
5. Cut the nuts to bite sized nutty bits, add to the bowl and mix.
6. Spread the mixture on the baking sheet (over the oven tray), place in the middle of the oven.

Baking:

1. Bake for 20 minutes
2. Mix
3. Bake for 17 minutes
4. If the Granola is not sufficiently dark yet, bake for 3-7 more minutes on low broil, until it browns to your liking.  

Final steps:

1. Add post-bake fruity bits
2. Allow granola to cool, and store in an air-tight container.

Fiasco Factor - 61

Side notes:

Oil.

Why? Oil makes the granola crunchy.3 spoons of oil instead of 6 will result in a decrease in crunchiness.

I usually use mostly olive oil\grapeseed oil, and a bit of some nut oil (Hazlenut\Walnut). Too much nut oil dominates the falvor.

You could use butter, but that would be silly.

Ready?

It is important to remember that the granola becomes crunchy only once it cools down. So crunchiness is not a good sign of readiness. Color, however, is. Bake the granola until it reaches the color of your pleasing.

It is a tragic thing to go through the entire process, only to burn the granola, but this is a pretty easy thing to do - make sure you watch the oven towards the end.

Why add the fruity bits after baking?

Because otherwise, once they cool down, you will be left with shrunken tough bits of raisin shaped stones.

Misc

Peanuts will dominate the flavor, which is OK if you love peanuts, but in my mind is undesirable for breakfast.

Shaved Coconut can burn easily, and it will dry and lose its crunchiness before the rest of the granola, so you’re better off toasting a bit right before eating, and adding them straight to your bowl.

Toasted sesame will result in a Tahini taste.

Salted nuts are never a good thing.

Maybe thin oats?

Quick oats are great cluster material. if you want those, substitute some of the thick oats for thin ones, and let the granola be in the oven without mixing too much. I prefer "old fashioned" thick oats.

Maple-Honey

I usually use a 50-50 mix of maple syrup and honey. If maple is hard to get, or especially expensive, 100% Honey is fine too. Silan is OK if you like the date flavor, but make sure it's proper silan and not a silan-sugar mixture, like most of them are.

Cinnamon \ Cocoa

No problem adding spices. But, do you really want to have cinnamon flavored granola every day? Instead, leave the granola spice free (or add just a hint), and add all you want, to your bowl, at breakfast time.

Why add nuts after the sauce

Nuts don’t need the sauce - they will come out crunchy and flavorful without the added oil\sugar. Better use the sauce to enhance the oats. If you can wait a few minutes before adding the nuts, even better - let the oats soak first.

Buckwheat

Granola is, basically -  oats. It’s cheap, nutritious, and doesn’t go bad quickly.

But it’s oats. oats oats oats. How many oats can you eat before you get tired of it?

Commercial breakfast cereal companies have the same issue - they are basically selling repackaged and processed corn\oats\wheat. To get you to eat this corn, it’s mixed with sugar, put in a colorful box with some story about passion for whole grains and helping underprivileged puffins get empowerment through yoga training, and then some more sugar is added.

Instead, you can simply add buckwheat. it’s cheap, nutritious, and it changes the texture enough to not seem like it’s only oats.

You can also add Pecans and almonds and cocoa nibs, but they’re so expensive, it kind of misses the point.

Finally, you could simply eat chocolate for breakfast, but, er. yes, you could simply eat chocolate for breakfast.