Homemade Granola

I love granola, but haven't been happy with the recipe I've used in the past, so I went on a recipe hunt. I found this one to use as a base recipe, this one I found on AllRecipes.com, as it came with very high ratings on the site:

Megan's Granola

Ingredients

8 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups wheat germ
1 1/2 cups oat bran
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup honey
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups raisins or sweetened dried cranberries

Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment or aluminum foil.

2.Combine the oats, wheat germ, oat bran, sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, and walnuts in a large bowl. Stir together the salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, and vanilla in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then pour over the dry ingredients, and stir to coat. Spread the mixture out evenly on the baking sheets.

3.Bake in the preheated oven until crispy and toasted, about 20 minutes. Stir once halfway through. Cool, then stir in the raisins or cranberries before storing in an airtight container.

I modified it, of course! I'm not a huge fan of nuts in my granola, so I didn't add any (though I might chop up some peanuts and use a few sunflower seeds next time). I added 3/4 flaxseed meal and substituted molasses for the maple syrup and brown sugar. I also threw in 3/4 cup of peanut butter... mmmm.... (melted together with the honey, oil, etc).

Here's how it worked. First I gathered my ingredients:



Then I put everything I needed to warm/melt into a bowl and put in the microwave (because I didn't want to tend a saucepan and it just needed to get warm).



And put the dry ingredients in a HUGE bowl (8 cups of oatmeal is a LOT):



After I stirred the dry ingredients, I added the melted stuff (Note: I didn't think about peanut butter until AFTER I'd done this, so you won't see it in the bowl...I threw it in the empty bowl, melted and added it next):



Stirred it thoroughly in order to coat all of the oats and then spread it onto two jelly roll pans (lots of folks call this a cookie sheet - but officially, a cookie sheet doesn't have raised edges, and you want edges for this job!) and also used two pie tins (there is a LOT of the mixture):



Cooked at 300 (instead of the 350 the recipe calls for) for 20 mins, stirred and decided it needed a bit more time, so put it back in for another 15 mins. Pulled it out and let it cool (it "crisps" as it cools, so give it time to do this before eating or putting it into a container):



NOTE: After it's cooked, feel free to add raisins, craisins, or other dried fruit -- it's yummy, and would make a great trail mix. Just don't COOK the fruit with the granola, or it will get dry and hard.

DD and I ate this for breakfast yesterday ... and she had it for a snack later. It was a big hit and was the best recipe I've used! However... I had an ulterior motive for making it -- I wanted granola bars.

So... stay tuned. Provided it doesn't get eaten up today, I have plans for granola bars in the works...

Homemade Bran Flakes (Cold Cereal)

I've been making homemade granola, but am getting a little tired of the same old stuff. Plus, DD really enjoys various "flake" cereals, so I thought I'd see what I could come up with.

I found a recipe for bran flakes at Mr. Breakfast. Here it is:

Nutty Bran Flakes

1/2 cup bran
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup walnuts or pecans - finely ground
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add milk and water and mix well.

Cut parchement paper into two 12 x 16 pieces.

Lay one piece of parchement on a flat surface and scoop half of the dough onto the center. Flatten dough by hand and cover entire parchement with clear plactic wrap. Roll out the dough over the plastic wrap.

The goal is to make the dough extremely thin with areas of near transparency. You may notice that you are in effect making one huge bran flake at this point.

Remove the plastic wrap and place the dough (on the parchement) onto a 14 x 16 flat sheet pan. Cook for 10 minutes checking often after 5 minutes. A dough this thin will burn easily if left in too long.

The resulting product after cooking will be a leathery thin cracker (crunchy at the edges). Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Repeat the rolling and cooking process with the other half of your dough.

Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees.

After both huge bran flakes have completely cooled... rip and crack them into the sized flakes you are most familiar with (about 3/4 of an inch).

Place all flakes on a large cookie sheet and cook at the reduced temperature for 20 minutes... stirring the and flipping the flakes every five minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and allow flakes to cool completely. Serve with milk and fresh fruit. Stores well in a sealed container for up to two weeks.

And now, my experience.

First off, I could tell this just wouldn't be enough to justify the work I had to do, so I doubled the recipe. I also opted to substitute honey for the sugar (it's healthier) and omitted the nuts because I don't like nuts in my cereal.

I mixed together the bran, flour



and other dry ingredients





Then I added the wet ingredients:





and had DD stir:



Then we poured it onto the parchment paper and spread it out:





And popped it into the oven for it's first round of baking. The timer went off... but it was still gooey. Set it for 5 more mins, but it was STILL gooey. UH OH. I don't think I spread it thin enough, but we were already committed, so we cooked it for about three times as long as the recipe called for and then pulled it out. It was still soft, but no longer gooey.



We let it cool completely, and then tore it into smaller pieces and returned it to the oven for its second round of baking:



We stirred it every two minutes or so, and then took it out when a few of the pieces started looking too dark. We tasted them and... YUM. They tasted exactly right! DD and I did a little happy dance around the kitchen and then poured our flakes into a dish. Guess what we'll be having for breakfast tomorrow?



In closing, I'll say this: It's a lot of cooking time for very few flakes, even with the recipe doubled. The next time, I'll probably quadruple the recipe, make sure I spread it thinly and then just pop the parchment paper onto cooling racks and replace with another batch (I only have one pan with edges) until they're all done. Then we'll break it into smaller flakes and cook in as large of batches as possible.

But, all-in-all, I really liked the recipe and I'd definitely make it again.