Getting Granola

I confess, one of my favorite breakfasts is homemade granola with just enough plain yogurt to make it wet. This is a great light breakfast in summer. In winter granola can be sprinkled over apples and baked for a hot breakfasts. Just thinking about it I feel like taking a break for some homemade granola.

To really enjoy that wonderful gut scrubbing, wholesome feeling of eating granola, one must actually make one's own. (It takes much less time than one would think.) Perhaps "must" is a strong word, but real granola purists will tell you that homemade is truly the most satisfying nutritionally and spiritually.

Don't roll your eyes at me being philosophical over the merits of fresh-from-the-oven granola over store bought. The other nice thing about making one's own granola is that one can pick one's own ratio of nuts, oats, fruit, and other ingredients, so that it suits one's own tastes. Since I've been making granola recently, I'm giving you my recipe, but you should know I don't like mine very sweet, while grocery store brands are very sugary in my opinion. In order to help you make adjustments, I've included notes at the bottom about how one might adjust the recipe for preferences.  

Enjoy.

Farm Diva Granola

1 1/2 Cups Rolled Oats

1/3 Cup Nuts (Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts, Etc.)

½ Cup Sunflower Seeds

1/2 Cups Pepitas

1 Tablespoon Flax Seed

1 Teaspoon Light Brown Sugar

1 Teaspon Cinnamon

1Teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Chia Seeds

1/2 Cup Agave or Honey

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

1 Cup Dried Cherries

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine dry ingredients, except dried cherries. Add Olive oil. Stir to coat. Add honey or agave, stir to coat. Spread out in a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake 40-45 minutes (or longer) stirring every ten minutes until browned.

Remove from oven. Add cherries.

Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Some Notes on the Ingredients

• Oats: I used gluten-free rolled oats.  Oats do not contain gluten, but they are often processed in facilities that handle other ingredients containing gluten.
• Pepitas and Sunflower Seeds: I often add extra pepitas and sunflower seeds, because I love these.

• Brown Sugar: After years of trying different techniques for storing brown sugar, I’ve finally found a solution to keeping it soft. I store it in the vegetable drawer of my refrigerator that has a humidity control, and keep the humidity high. I live in an arid climate, so you may need to adjust your settings for your climate.
• Salt and Chia Seeds: I recommend adding the salt and chia seeds to the liquid ingredients and stiring well before putting them in. Adding it dry can result in a collection of these smaller granules at the bottom of your storage container.
• Agave/Honey: The amount of sugars that you add will not only effect how sweet the granola is, but it will also effect the size of the clusters. These carmelize in the oven to create a sugar coating that binds the granola together. For larger, crunchier clusters add more agave or honey and cook the granola longer to dry it out.
  
  
• Olive Oil: Play with increasing the amount of olive oil if you don’t like clusters.  
• Dried Cherries: You can use any kind of dried fruit or none. I often skip it altogether, but I’m not fond of sweets.

After Toasting