Grammy's Granola

  It's a long and winding road to homemade granola. My granola making destiny began with the crummy veins in my legs...actually my "insufficient" veins...stay with me here...my venous insufficiency causes me to have recurrent infections, the infections require incredibly strong antibiotics, and the incredibly strong antibiotics wreck havoc on my body's "delicate balance of healthy bacteria". In an effort to invite those healthy bacteria to take up residence in a body intent on destroying it, I've started eating yogurt. I don't like yogurt. I thought perhaps if I invested way too much money on a yogurt maker and made my own yogurt I would somehow miraculously begin to enjoy the taste of sour milk yogurt. Oddly though, boiling milk and mixing a starter yogurt into it and then setting it in a warm yogurt incubator, then leaving it out on the counter for multiple hours provides a semi-solid milk product which looks and tastes way too much like milk left out on the counter for too long.
  Enter the granola. I've seen people eat yogurt and granola mixtures and I thought I might possibly be able to mask the taste of the yogurt by adding some sugar substitute and a healthy dose of granola. This brought me to a desire to make my own granola. I searched the internet and found a recipe that looked good to me. The Food Network's Alton Brown has a 5-star-rated recipe for granola with most of the ingredients I like in it. I changed his recipe up a bit, but I used it as a great starting point. Let me show you how I did it.

 The first time I made the granola I purchased regular size packages of the ingredients. After the first batch GoodMan and I decided to buy the ingredients in bulk from Sam's Club. We knew we'd go through a lot of it! I bought quick oats, dark brown sugar, sliced almonds, pecans, cashews, canola oil, real maple syrup, raisins, and craisins. I also bought shredded sweetened coconut although it didn't make it into this picture. I sometimes buy dried blueberries if I can find them at Sam's.

 I started by measuring the oats and sliced almonds and put them in a large bowl.

 I gave the pecans a rough chop. I don't like to use the food processor for this because it chops some pieces to dust before it chops the remainder to the size I want.

 I did the same thing with the cashews, then I added both the pecans and the cashews to the bowl with the oats and almonds.

 I added the coconut and the dark brown sugar.

 Then I used my hands to mix everything together. Hands are best because you want to feel for any lumps of brown sugar before you put in the wet ingredients.

Next I added the canola oil, salt, and the maple syrup. This I stirred with a big spoon, not my hands!

I spread this out on two baking sheets and then put it in a preheated 250 degree oven. I set my timer for 15 minutes and then took it out and gave it a good stir. Then I put it back in the oven and reset the timer for 15 minutes...I did this for an hour and 15 minutes.

When the mixture was baked and crunchy I poured it into a large bowl and added the raisins and craisins. I gave it a good stir and then put it in an airtight container. I weighed this batch. It made 3 pounds of granola. I haven't done the figuring...I know store-bought granola is expensive and comes in ridiculously small packages, but I can't honestly say I think I saved any money. All of the ingredients in my granola (except perhaps for the oats) are expensive. But even knowing I didn't save any money, I like this granola so much better than anything I've ever bought in the store it is well worth it to me!

This is the recipe for Grammy's Granola 
(liberally adapted from Alton Brown's recipe)

3 cups quick oats
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped cashews
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup canola oil
1  teaspoon sea salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup craisins
1 cup dried blueberries

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, almonds, pecans, cashews, coconut, and brown sugar.
Add syrup, oil, and salt. Stir to combine.
Spread mixture out on two baking sheets.
Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes stirring every 15 minutes.
Add dried fruit and stir to combine.
Store in an airtight container.

What was the taste tester's bottom line?
The granola was a huge hit! GoodMan adds it to his favorite cereal mixture. My grandson, Kyle, asked me to make a batch just for him. My 3 year-old granddaughter, Ava, asked for yogurt and 'nola for breakfast and bedtime snack every morning and evening when we watched her on a recent weekend. 

I made a batch of 'Nola for Ava, and some Grammy's Granola for Kyle. I'll be seeing them in the next few days...it makes me happy to bring a little piece of me into their everyday lives.


The bottom line: Granola makes eating yogurt a possibility for me. Eating yogurt helps my "delicate balance of good bacteria". Having my good bacteria in balance helps me be able to take the powerful antibiotics necessary to fight recurrent infections, and fighting the recurrent infections lessens the effect of the insufficiency of my veins...its a long road to granola, but it's worth the trip.