Glorious Granola

I had a little debate with myself about whether or not to include this recipe here. Don’t get me wrong, I love granola – and I love making granola – but the recipe calls for a number of items that are outside of my Kitchen Essentials, so on the surface it doesn’t seem like the best Midnight Baking recipe. But the thing about granola is that it’s nothing if not versatile, quite literally a sweet little snack made up of whatever you feel like throwing into it. And really what’s more Midnight Baking than that?

The recipe here comes from La Boulangerie in San Francisco. What I have listed is one of my favorite combinations of ingredients, but there’s absolutely no reason to feel restricted by this list. All that you really need is 3 cups of oats and 1 cup of what I like to call ‘granola fixings’ (i.e. nuts, seeds, coconut, etc.). This will serve as your base for the flour, oil and syrup. Little snack-sized bags of mixed nuts or trail mix can be a good (and cheap) source for these ‘granola fixings’ – look out for them at the drugstore or in the checkout aisle.

Note: Dried fruit and chocolate pieces can be a fun addition to granola, but you’ll need to toss them in after baking (baking will melt the chocolate, and turn the dried fruit into charcoal).

Ingredients:

  • 3c oats (whole rolled are best)
  • ½ c chopped walnuts
  • 1/3 c almonds
  • ¼ c sunflower seeds (shelled)
  • ¼ c flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ c canola oil
  • ½ c maple syrup

Process:

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF, lightly grease a large baking tray
  2. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl
  3. Add oil and syrup, stir until evenly coated
  4. Spread mixture on the prepared tray
  5. Bake for 30-35 mins, stirring lightly halfway through

 

MMB-3

Photos by Sarah Matista | www.sarahmatista.com | Copyright 2016