California Granola

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 11

Bake of the Day: Breakfast Bakes -- California Granola

We are starting the 3rd week of this month's mega baking marathon. After all the breads and baked with yeast and sourdough, this week will be all about baked goodies served for breakfast.
First off, I have a crunchy granola recipe that I personally loved munching on. Store bought granola is such a rip off, they are way too expensive and are loaded with sugar and other unnecessary ingredients. It is very easy to make at home and the quantity of sugar and oil can be adjusted as per taste.

This recipe is from Bobby Flay's 'Brunch with Bobby' cooking show. I love watching that show because he makes brunch recipes from all over the world and it is exciting to see the number of variations in pancakes, crepes, omelettes he comes up with on the show. This granola recipe is from his California brunch episode. It is quite simple to make with most of the ingredients from the pantry.
Initially I was skeptical if the granola was going to be too sweet with the addition of 3 different sweeteners -- but it ended up being just right. It stays fresh for about 1~2 weeks in an airtight container. But I think mine got all done in about 4~5 days because it is just perfect to snack on any time of the day :-)

Granola -- Before Baking

Granola -- After Baking

Recipe from Bobby Flay:

Ingredients: 

Old fashioned Rolled Oats - 3cups
Raw Almonds - 1cup, coarsely chopped
Raw Walnuts - 1cup, coarsely chopped
Honey - ¼cup 

Light brown Sugar - ¼cup
Pure Maple Syrup - 3tbsp
Canola Oil - ¼cup
Olive Oil - ¼cup
Pure Vanilla Extract - ½tsp
Ground Cinnamon - ¼tsp
Fine Sea Salt - ¼tsp
Dried Apricots - ¼cup
Raisins or Dried Cherries - ¼cup

Method:

• Preheat oven to 300°F. Lightly spray a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray or brush with canola oil.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, almonds and walnuts. 
• In another medium mixing bowl, combine honey, sugar, maple syrup, olive oil, canola oil, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt. Whisk well to combine. If you see that the honey seizes and refuses to dissolve, then gently heat the mixture until it dissolves (make sure that the bowl is heat sensitive -- otherwise transfer the contents into a saucepan).
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well till combined. Turn the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread into an even layer.
• Bake, stirring and re-spreading the mixture into an even layer every 5 minutes, until the granola is light golden brown, about 45 minutes.
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven and stir in the dried apricots and raisins/ dried cherries and spread the granola evenly in the pan. Packing the granola down onto the baking sheet will allow it to cool as a big cluster which can be broken into smaller clusters later.
• Set on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Break up into clusters and store in an airtight container. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 51.

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