Claire's Granola
Claire and I have been trying to get together to make granola since I can remember. I finally made it to her house on Sunday. Claire has been making this recipe for a long time and I have been determined to learn how she does it. She changes up the ingredients - easy to do. She was making her own batch on Sunday with walnuts. I made her standard with the ingredients below, and it is scrumptious.
Disclaimer: I stopped by Whole Foods and the scale was broken so I didn't get the right amount of oats. (I don't do well guestimating). So what you see in pictures (a little more than a cookie sheet) is half the recipe below.
Disclaimer: I stopped by Whole Foods and the scale was broken so I didn't get the right amount of oats. (I don't do well guestimating). So what you see in pictures (a little more than a cookie sheet) is half the recipe below.
When you make this your house will smell AMAZING...AMAZING!
Ingredients:
2 lbs rolled oats (4ish cups)
Sunflower seeds
Slivered almonds
Shredded coconut (unsweet)
1/4 c. water
3/4 c. oil
1 1/2 c. honey (I like mine sweet)
Parchment paper (optional but it saves your cookie sheet and the time spent scrubbing off baked honey)
Place a stock pan on the stove and turn the temperature to medium heat.
Measure out 1/4 cup of water and pour into the pan. Then measure/pour 3/4 cup canola oil.
*Claire taught me a trick. If you follow this order, the next step (honey) pours MUCH easier due to the oil coating the measuring cup. Brilliant.
Add 1 1/2 cup of honey. You can do less. I like mine sweet.
This is what it will look like. I apologize...these photos leave much to be desired!
Cook on medium heat for just a minute or two and it turns into liquid. This is what you want.
Then be prepared to stir in oats and nuts/seeds/coconut.
Stir, stir, stir. It is important everything is coated with the liquid mixture so it doesn't burn in the oven. You will stir until it feels like your arm might fall off.
Lay down a piece of parchment paper. (This is optional. Claire never used it before we tried it Sunday. It definitely saves cleanup!)
Pour granola mix onto the cookie sheet (I used non-insulated to be sure it became crispy). Spread the mixture into a big rectangle. You don't want any pieces off to the side or they will burn quickly. That was another trick Claire shared with me.
We baked the shown cookie sheet on 325 degrees for 15 minutes, flipped with a spatula, and then baked 20 minutes on the other side. (Update: My electric stove takes a little longer. More like 20+ minutes and another 20.)
This was the end result. I'm eating it with milk in the mornings and sometimes for snack with yogurt. We will see if I can do this again without Claire! The rate I am eating this, it won't last long! Thanks, Claire!
mmm, one question: Did you cook it on wax paper? Looks like it in the picture...
ReplyDeleteGOOD question, Angie. I will add that in the directions. Claire hadn't used parchment paper before but said the cookie sheet was a beast to clean. We brought out the parchment paper as a possible solution and it worked fabulous. Throw away the paper and you are done cleaning (and your cookie sheet is good as new)! That being said, you certainly don't have to use it. She never had!
DeleteAngie, I've used tin foil in the past to help with clean up, but the more honey you use (for sweeter granola) the more difficult it is to turn because it sticks to the foil. Parchment paper came with its own set of difficulties (it slides around very easily), but the granola didn't stick to it. I think I prefer just using the plain ol' cookie sheet. I just make sure to get hot water and soap on it immediately after I remove the granola.
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