As we all know, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Some will disagree, but I won’t. No breakfast, no fun, not nice.
I’ve been craving more “summery” kinds of food for mornings, and fruit with granola, or yogurt-fruit-granola are some of the best. Light, but sustaining, and not a lot of work, either. So, yesterday, after having it on the back of my mind for the past week, I finally rummaged through the pantry to see what I had. I had oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, golden and black raisins, dried montmorency cherries, walnuts. I eyed the candied ginger and dried white peaches and hazelnuts, and decided that those should be saved for other things and times. I also looked at the spices, and decided on mace. I like its difference. Here is the recipe. Amounts can vary as desired. If you do a bigger recipe, increase cooking time.
Granola Girl Granola
Preheat oven to 400 F, and then drop to 300 when you bake it.
In large dutch oven, melt together 1/2 stick butter (about 4T), some maple syrup (real stuff, please), and a couple T of lightweight oil. Stir it up a bit to blend. Then add:
5 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. pinhead oats or ground flaxseed
1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans
handful pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and raisins and cherries, as desired
ground mace – or other spices if you want (I like cinnamon, nutmeg, and Chinese 5-spice)
Coat all ingredients with oil-syrup-butter mixture. Then put into oven, dropping temperature to 300 F. Set timer for 15 minutes, and then stir thoroughly. Repeat 2 more times, for a total of 45 minutes or so. As it cools, it becomes crispier. Store in plastic container.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 