What's Cookin? Handmade Granola

 Truth be told, I am not one to eat breakfast in the mornings. At lunch or even for dinner, count me in, but I just don't have a taste for anything early on. This, of course, is much to the chagrin of my acupuncturist and health coach (both of which I have now, and it's glorious!)

This brings me to granola. Thanks to the Schlabach Amish Bakery Grand-ola I was introduced to just a short while ago, I can say I'm a fan of granola in general. When I ran out of my Grand-ola, and then moved on to finish off the last of some Special K vanilla almond, I thought I'd give making my own Granola a go.

Of course, out of the encouraging pages of my beloved Martha Stewart Body + Soul magazine (aka Whole Living), comes this April 2010 recipe for granola. The best part? I had every, single ingredient!

I made half a batch, since I didn't know if I'd like it or not. My changes are noted:

{click here to be taken to the original recipe}

- 6 cups old-fashioned oats (3 cups)
- 1 1/4 cups nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts, etc) coarsely chopped (2/3 c. peanuts, 2/3 c. almonds)
- 1/4 cup seeds, such as sunflower, pepitas, etc. (1/4 c. flax seed)
- 1/3 cup flaxseed meal, wheat germ, or a mixture of the two (none)
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (1/4 tsp.)
- 3 large egg whites (3 egg whites)
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (1/4 tsp.-ish groud sea salt)
- 3/4 cup sweetener, such as honey, agave syrup, or molasses (about 1/2 c. honey)
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (about 1/4 c. EVOO)
- 1 cup dried fruit (sour cherries, cranberries, raisins, etc) coarsely chopped (about 1c., raisins)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the oats, nuts, seeds, flax and/or wheat germ, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and the salt until frothy. Whisk in the sweetener and the olive oil. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and stir until the oats are evenly coated.
3. Transfer mixture to two rimmed baking sheets and spread flat. (I used one massive sheet and a baking mat. One less dish to clean!)
4. Bake for 20 minutes, then gently flip with a spatula, moving granola from the outer edges to the center of the sheet. Continue to cook until golden, about 10 minutes more. (If the granola starts to brown too much at the edges, gently stir those parts into the middle.) (Way easier said than done, with the moving to the middle. I think 10 more minutes is excessive. 5-6 additional minutes would be better. Next time, I'll do 15 and 5 mins.)
5. Cool completely on pan, then transfer to a bowl and gently stir in the dried fruit. (Don't bake your fruit or it will get hard!) 
6. *I'm storing mine in a large glass mason jar. This half-batch filled about 1.25 jars. I think a full batch would fit several decently-sized jars well for gifts or as a processed cereal alternative to keep on hand!