Best Ever Granola
I stopped making granola because I pretty much fuck it up all the time. I know, it’s the easiest thing to make– stir together ingredients and bake—but I almost always manage to burn it or undercook it or forget to add some critical ingredient like a sweetener.
So I wrote off granola for a long time because I just kept wasting not-so-cheap ingredients like nuts and dried fruit on a really terrible outcome.
But then this weekend I was looking through all the delicious recipes in the In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite cookbook and I saw the recipe for granola that someone (I think Sarah) said was phenomenal so I thought, what the hell? and decided to give it a go.
I made half the batch because I was afraid that my track record of bad granola would continue. That wasn’t the case.
HO-LY SMOKES it’s good. I managed to not burn it by keeping a careful eye on it and taking it out of the oven as soon as it turned a dark golden colour (in about half the time the recipe recommends). It came out crisp with a slight chewiness and a really great sweet/salty/rich flavour.
I could hardly stop eating it. This must be what it feels like to be addicted to crack—minus, ya know, all those terrible, self-destructive things that come with crack addiction.
I’m pretty sure I think I just made the best granola ever.
Pistachio and Olive Oil Granola
from The New York Times and In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite
makes 4 cups
1.5 c rolled oats
3/4 c shelled raw pistachios
1/2 c shelled sunflower seeds
1/2 c unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 c honey
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 c chopped dried apricots
1/3 c raisins
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Combine all ingredients except the apricots and raisins in a bowl. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil in an even layer.
Bake for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until golden brown and well toasted. (The original recipe stated to bake for 45 minutes but mine was done in less than half the time even though my oven was set at 290F. You might want to keep an eye on it.)
Remove from the oven and add the apricots and raisins. Allow to cool and harden before serving.
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- Samantha Menzies is an opinionated young firecracker who just happens to enjoy distracting web surfers with chronicles of her mildly entertaining daily pursuits.
Ha. I was thinking about making granola this week. I like to think the recipe I use is the best (from New American Table), but I have to admit this look pretty good.
Is that the Marcus Samuelsson book? I’ll have to check if the recipe is online. Now I want to make granola all the time! Although I almost pounded through 5 cups of granola in 4 days so maybe I should hold off.
Every time I make (a succesful batch of) granola, I always thinks it’s the best granola ever hehe. But this does sound phenomenal! I love that it uses olive oil.
I bet that is completely true, but since I’ve only made one successful batch. . .
I love pistachios. And believe me, you are not the only person who has burned her batch of granola. Argh!
I love the idea of granola made with extra virgin olive oil – I don’t see that very often and it’s my preferred oil. I wish I had this recipe a few months ago when I was trying to figure out what to do with a giant bad of dried apricots on the verge of expiring. I like the fact that these are all ingredients I typically have in the pantry too!