Pumpkin Granola

Today is the beginning of December. A month that lot of people look forward to mainly because of holidays.  The best thing I like about December is the chance to bake a lot of things to give as gifts. And today marks the beginning of Bake-A-Thon 2012. I am sure some of you might not agree with the name since I am not posting everyday, but still I want to call it by the same name. Some of my blogger friends wanted to join me in this venture. I am happy that I have company because with the busy office work, it is easy to stop blogging unless you have some motivation. So, thanks go to Preethi, Veena, Priya, Srivalli and  Sumana.

One Year Back - Cranberry Corn Muffins
Two Years Back - Holiday Gift Ideas
Three Years Back - Cake Decorating Basics - II

Ingredients: 
Rolled Oats - 5 cups
Brown Sugar - 1 cup packed
Canola Oil - 1/4 cup
Pumpkin Puree - 3/4 cup (I used homemade)
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tsp
Cloves - 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
All Spice - 1/4 tsp
Dried sweetened Cranberries - 1 - 1 1/2 cups (Or your favorite dried fruits like raisins or chopped dates)
Walnuts - 1 cup chopped (Pecans make another delicious addition/variation)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325 F.  Line two large baking sheets with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. In a bowl, take rolled oats and chopped walnuts. Toss gently. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, canola oil, pumpkin puree, salt and other spices. Heat stirring occasionally till brown sugar melts a bit and combines with the rest of the ingredients in the pan. It doesn't have to boil. Pour this on to the granola and walnut mixture and stir to combine. There will be lot of lumps, leave them as is or break them into smaller lumps. Spread on the two baking sheets and bake for 50 minutes to an hour stirring once midway and rotating the baking sheets. If you have spread it thin enough, it should be ready in 50 minutes. If you have too many big lumps, it will take up to an hour. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly. I would suggest you to break the lumps into smaller ones since it will add texture uniformly through out the cereal. Add sweetened dried cranberries and mix. Once cooled completely, store in an air tight container. This should be good for two weeks if not eaten by then. I prefer to eat this with warm milk instead of cold milk.

Notes:
You could reduce the spices if you don't like the spices or omit them altogether. In that case, add about 2 tsp of vanilla to pumpkin mixture.

Enjoy.

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Granola Formula

I have been making granola for almost 6 years now. When I made granola for the first time, I used a recipe from some web site. Then I started altering the ingredients to suit my taste. Every time I made it, the taste was different yet very nice if I may say so. Reason being, you cannot really go wrong with granola. It is oats, dried fruits, nuts, sweetener and oil and optional flavorings. Mix and spread on a cookie sheet and bake for an hour or so at low temperature. It is so easy to make it at home that I wonder why it costs so much when bought from a store.

When I started posting the recipes of 'baking mix', there was a request for a granola recipe that can be tailored to suit different taste buds. Here it is.
As I said earlier, it has the following components -

Oats - I prefer old fashioned rolled oats, but quick cooking oats work too.
Nuts and seeds - cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, Shredded coconut etc.
Dried fruits - Chopped dates, chopped apricots, raisins, dried cranberries, dried figs, etc.
Oil - Prefer canola oil.
Sweetener - Honey, Maple Syrup, Agave nectar, Corn syrup (Has to be liquid See Notes)
Flavorings - cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla or any spice of your choice

Formula for Granola - 
Oats - 4 cups
Nuts - 3 cups (If using seeds, include that in this)
Sweetener - 2/3 cups
Oil - 1/3 cups
Dried Fruits - 1  - 1 1/2 cups
Flavorings - 1 - 2 tsp (optional)


Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a large baking sheet with rim with aluminum foil. Mix oats, nuts in a bowl. Mix the sweetener of your choice with oil and flavorings in another and stir them together. Spread on the baking sheet so that it lays in one layer. Couple of small clusters are fine. Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. When completely done and is at room temperature, add the dried fruits and mix well. When completely cool, store in an air tight container for a week or two.

Now, there could be people who want to eat granola but are allergic to nuts. Then all you have to do is increase the oats and omit nuts. Do not do that for dried fruits. You can omit it, but don't try to increase the oats. Basically, whatever you are mixing and baking should have the ratio of 7 parts dry ingredients to 1 part liquid (oil + sweetener). If you are working on low sugar formula, by all means use only 1/4 cup sweetener, but add enough fruit juice or apple sauce to get one cup including oil so that you can mix the ingredients properly and bake. Remember that when you use fruit juice or applesauce, granola will be chewy rather than crunchy.

Notes:
The reason you cannot use sugar or brown sugar is because of not being able to mix and coat the dry ingredients with sugar. You can always make a syrup from the sugar and use it. I have not tried it so cannot say how it will work. I however, have tried mixing part liquid sweetener with part brown sugar and that method works too. If you are using the dry sweetener as part of the recipe, warm up the oil, liquid sweetener and sugar or brown sugar together to dissolve all the sugar and then mix with the dry ingredients.

Enjoy.

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15 Minute Skillet Granola

I have two granola posts on this blog. One using honey and the other with maple syrup with some minor differences.

Why did I need to post another one on granola? Good question.
Answer is, I didn't turn the oven on to make it.

This granola recipe is for those who do not have an oven - like my sister who lives in India.
This granola recipe is for those who don't want to turn the oven on for various reasons - like me right now because of the heat.

However, this granola is not for those who want to make a mass production of granola. This is not for those who like clusters of oats in granola. Since this is stirred so often, there won't be any chunks or clusters left in the cereal.

Which group do you belong to? One who will try this or the one who will never try this?

One Year back -  Ricotta Pound Cake
Adapted from - Maple Granola
Ingredients:
Rolled Oats - 3 cups
Flax seeds - 1/2 cup (I used roasted - optional)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Maple Syrup - 1/3 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup or 4 TBSP
Raisins - 1 cup (Or any other dry fruit or a combination of fruit and nut)

Method:
In a large skillet preferably non stick, take the rolled oats. Place it on very low heat and toast it stirring frequently. About 8 - 9 minutes. After about 5 minutes, add the flax seeds. If you are using nuts, you might want to add them along with the rolled oats so that they all get toasted at the same time. In a measuring cup, measure oil, maple syrup. Add salt and cinnamon to it and whisk to combine. When the oats have lost their raw smell, add the liquid all at once and keep stirring. You cannot leave this for more than 1 minute without stirring. Or it will burn. When the whole mixture has become dry and smell wonderful, add the raisins. Stir once or twice and turn off the heat. You will still have to stir it once in a while till the skillet cools down a bit. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

For those who want to bake it, refer to Maple Granola post.

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Cardamom Granola

I love Granola. Did I ever tell you that? Yes I do. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
But, I am not very fond of store bought granola. They are too sweet plus they are way too expensive.
I like to make them myself. That way, I can put whatever are my favorites and make it.
But I didn't make this granola for myself. I made it for my little one.
Yes, she is 3 1/2 and loves granola and her favorite nuts are cashews, almonds and golden raisins. I put these together and made a batch of granola for myself and my little one.

Ingredients:
Rolled Oats - 4 cups
Cashews - 1 cup
Sliced almonds - 1 cup
Golden Raisins - 1 cup
Toasted Golden Flax seeds - 1/2 cup (optional)
Sweetened Shredded Coconut - 1 cup (You could use unsweetened)
Brown Sugar - Packed 1/4 cup
Honey - 1/2 cup
Vegetable Oil - 1/4 cup
Cardamom Powder - 3/4 tsp (Or crush 5- 6 pods)
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 250 F. In a bowl, mix rolled oats, cashews, sliced almonds, shredded coconut, brown sugar, flax seeds, salt and cardamom powder. In a measuring cup, measure 1/4 cup of oil. Add enough honey to make it 3/4 cup. Whisk together and pour onto the dry ingredients. Stir with a spoon. Line two large baking sheets (I used 10 X 15 jelly roll pans) with parchment paper. You could prefer not to line them but in that case, spray the sheets with vegetable oil spray. Divide the mixture between the two baking sheets. Place in the oven and bake for an hour. Stir every 15 - 20 minutes and rotate the pan half way.

Depending on how big baking sheets you have used, it might take 10 - 15 more minutes longer for the entire mixture to get crunchy. When done, take out and mix in the raisins. Let it cool and transfer to an air tight container. This should stay fresh for 2 weeks. This granola is very crunchy and dry. If you like your granola not so dry, bake for about 45 minutes and test the texture and bake more if needed.

This can be eaten as snack or with milk as breakfast. Here is another version of granola.

Notes:
Use maple syrup in the place of honey to make it vegan cereal.

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Maple Granola

Do you think there is a support group for 'bakoholics'? If yes, maybe I should join that group. I have had many fancies in my life, all of which lasted couple of months at the most. At one point, I was into sewing. All I would imagine is sewing different things. I am not complaining, I still sew and that knowledge comes in handy. Then it was singing. I had to learn every (not literally) song that Latha Mangeshkar has sung. This moved towards classical music soon making me learn numerous Carnatic classicals from M.S to T.N.S to Sudha Raghunathan etc. I am just giving an example. Even though I do not lose touch with any of the things I have learnt, the fancy does fade away. But 'baking?', nope. It was there 10 years back and it is there now. I think it has increased over the years since I get more guinea pigs now. If you know me in person, I apologize for calling you that, but aren't you happy you know me in person? My experiments rarely go bad.

When Madhuram sent me the 'King Arthur Whole Grain Baking' book, I was thinking that I might try one or two recipes from that book and that's it. Do you want to know how many I have tried and blogged about in less than 4 months? Check it out yourself.

Molasses Rye Ragi Snaps
Cranberry Pull Apart Buns
Cranberry Orange Rice Muffins
Rieska

And there are some that I did not blog about. And now, this 'Maple Granola' cereal. I have cut down the original recipe in half and used the grains, nuts and dry fruits that I had on hand. To tell you the truth, this is not the first time I am making granola at home. I just didn't follow a recipe from a book. You can change the nuts, dry fruits. Use honey instead of maple syrup. Use some other spice instead of cinnamon. Use your imagination.

Ingredients:

• Old fashioned rolled oats - 3 1/2 cups
• Wheat germ - 1 cup (I used this instead of the other nuts. Don't want too much of nuts in my cereal)
• Walnuts - 1 cup chopped
• Toasted Flax seeds - 1/2 cup (This was not there in the original recipe. I added to make it healthier)
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Powdered cinnamon - 1 tsp
• Maple syrup - 1/2 cup
• Vegetable Oil - 6 TBSP
• Vanilla - 2 tsp
• Dried Cranberries - 1 1/2 cups

Method:
Preheat the oven to 300 F. (Book says to do at 250 for 2 hours) That is too much so I baked at 300 F for one hour. But check at 45 minutes. Some of my cranberries had become hard. Line a large baking sheet with rim with aluminum foil. Spray vegetable oil spray. Keep aside. Take a large bowl and spray that and a spatula with vegetable oil spray. Place all the dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix well. In another bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, vanilla. Pour on to the bowl with dry ingredients and stir to combine. Dump all of the mixture on to the baking sheet and spread thinly. Place in the oven and after 30 minutes, stir once and rotate the pan. Check at 45 minutes and if it is golden and toasted well, remove from the oven. Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack till completely cool. Transfer to an air tight container. This not only tastes better than store bought granola, but also low in sugar and fat compared to the store bought. Enjoy as dry snack or morning cereal with milk.

This is my entry to 'Baking from a book - Breakfast' hosted by me here.

Happy Baking!! Pin It