The Goods Are Odd

Making my own granola feels like I’ve really stepped into serious hippie stereotype. But we have to have something to eat our delicious raw milk with, and after buying it there isn’t much left for expensive packaged cereal. Even bulk granola is for the hippie elite, and too much sugar for us.

So I went for other more affordable parts of the bulk section putting together dream cereal.

I used this recipe as a guide, but my ingredients are different, as it should be. I thought it might turn out too sticky or oily or clumpy- but it was just right- one more thing I normally buy packaged that I will now make myself.

First mixed the grains, nuts, seeds only:

This includes 3c oats, chopped almonds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds. These are mixed with 1/4 c of canola oil and a 1/2 c of honey. (The tip is to do the oil first, sloshing it around in the cup, coating the sides, before pouring into the mixture- then measure out the honey in the same cup and it all slides out easily, no sticking at all- genius.)

Then toasted brown and very fragrant (too fragrant to resist!)

this one shows the toasty-ness better:

Then mix in the fruit. This is a good process- some recipes cook the fruit, but it’s already dried and additional heat just makes it tougher, so I hear. I used raisins (cheap) and dried apples (a homemade gift- thanks Martha and David!)

Continue to mix gently as it cools so it doesn’t clump.

Enjoyed with some raw milk and fine reading material!

Mark Bittman with the NYT minimalist blog, which I do love, has a cute granola video- with a similar hippie identity dilemma- check it out, but note, he doesn’t use the genius oil then honey trick!