Granola: A breakfast treat
This is a great recipe for granola. Some might find it a tad too sweet. Feel free to play around with it - I often add more nuts and trim the sugar. It's supposed to be sweet and salty, but I have cut the amount of salt by quite a bit from the original recipe, which I found in the New York Times Magazine a couple of years ago.
I consider this a treat for breakfast - or any time of day. Perhaps not as healthy as a bowl of oatmeal, but just fine from time to time. And don't forget to add fresh berries.
Adapted from original recipe found here.
Servings: about 6 1/2 cups
Ingredients
- 3 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup nuts - any combination of pistachios, almonds, walnuts - roughly chopped
- 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (or a bit less)
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 3/4 cup dried sour cherries or other dried fruit
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300°F.
- In a large bowl, mix together the oats, nuts, seeds, coconut and salt.
- In a small saucepan set over low heat, warm the sugar, olive oil and maple syrup until the sugar has just dissolved, then remove from heat.
- Drizzle this liquid slowly into the dry mixture, stirring to make sure the dry ingredients are coated well.
- Spread mixture thinly on a large rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake until crisp and lightly golden, and a deliciously sweet aroma is wafting throughout your kitchen, about 35 to 40 minutes, stirring granola a few times along the way.
- Remove granola from oven. Allow to cool to room temperature before mixing in dried fruit and transferring to an airtight container for storage.
The shameful secret of this granola maker: I can never wait for that. It tastes great warm, mixed with plain yogurt. The granola can be stored up to 3 weeks without refrigeration, but trust me, it won't last that long.
Nutrition information (per serving)
1/24th of recipe; approx 1/4 cup:
- Calories: 190
- Total fat: 12 g
- Saturated fat: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
- Sodium: 100 mg
- Total carbohydrate: 19 g
- Dietary fiber: 2 g
- Sugars: 9 g
- Protein: 4 g