Granola recipe
I posted this recipe to Livejournal a million years ago, and luckily I gave it a very distinctive title so I can still google it now to find it. However, I'm guessing either the baking community or LJ itself won't be around forever, so I'm copying it here as a backup (yes, I've also sent it to the wayback machine):
Ingredients (all amounts are approximate):
4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped or sliced nuts (almonds in this batch, I've also tried cashews)
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp (or more) cinnamon
Other spices to taste - I often throw in ginger and nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp honey
1/2-1 tsp vanilla
1-2 cups dried fruit, chopped if needed (dried cranberries and apples shown here)
1. Preheat oven to 375. In a big bowl, mix the oatmeal, nuts, flax seed, brown sugar, spices, and salt.
2. In a small pot, heat the olive oil, honey, and vanilla until warm and easily pourable.
3. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix until the dry ingredients are well-moistened all over.
4. Spread mixture evenly in a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 12 minutes, stirring after 5 min. Watch closely after 10 min in case your oven is a bit different from mine b/c the edges can burn easily - you'll smell the burning before you can see it. It should be a nice golden brown all over when done. If you don't want to risk burning, it can be baked at a lower temp for longer, I just like getting it done quickly
6. Let cool in the pan until it hardens. Break up back into the bowl, add in dried fruit, mix it up, and pour into a gallon ziplock for storage.
Notes: If you like your granola clumpy like I do, the keys are the honey and letting it cool in the pan. If you want to cut down on sweetness but not clumpiness, cut down the brown sugar, NOT the honey. And if you don't want your granola clumpy, only let it cool a couple minutes before pouring it back into the bowl and mixing in the fruit.
Also, note that the oils in flax seed can go rancid when not refrigerated, and cooking them can speed up this process a little. This size batch lasts me 1-1.5 weeks and I have never had a problem with this, but if you want to make big batches that last longer than that you may want to cut out the flax and instead sprinkle a tablespoon on each bowlful of granola before you eat it.
