Granola Goodness

I am not a huge fan of granolas.  I find them, in general, dry and horrible, too sweet and tooth-achingly tough to chew.  I use granola sparingly atop greek yogurt, and I don't eat it, ever, as a cereal.

In fact, I loathe cereal for breakfast.  If you're going to do breakfast, it should be hot, in my opinion.  None of this cheerio-flake-fiberous-twigs for me.  A cold breakfast of pseudograins just makes me want to crawl into bed and stay there, until someone makes toast, like a sensible, rational human being.

But, I do like granola on my yogurt, from time to time.  I can either buy it at the local co-op, which gets a little spendy and they still seem overly sweet to me, or I can make a batch of my own.  I found myself with a surplus of oats this past weekend, so I made up a batch of delicious maple-vanilla granola.  It keeps for a couple weeks in an airtight container in the cupboard, or (if, like me, you only eat small bits at a time) you can pop it into pint sized mason jars and store it in the freezer, taking out a smaller jar as you need one.

Maple-Vanilla Granola

You'll need: five cups or so of rolled oats; 1/2 cup chopped pecans; 1/2 cup sliced almonds; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/4 cup maple syrup; 1/4 cup brown sugar; 1/2 cup oil of your choice; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts and salt.  In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, brown sugar, oil, vanilla and cinnamon.  Whisk to combine, then pour over the oat mixture and stir well to coat.

Turn out granola mixture onto foil-covered baking sheets (I use two, and spread half the mix on each--it makes it easier to stir.)  Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes, then stir well and return to oven to bake about ten minutes more until crisp and browned.  Cool completely, then break up any clumps and store in a tight lidded jar (or pint jars for freezing).  Granola should last a couple of weeks if stored in an airtight container in your pantry cupboard.