My bud, Mark Bittman, recently wrote about a bowl of disappointing, overly sweet granola. (Mark Bittman isn’t technically my bud, but I do love him, in that author/reader-kind-of-way.) Seeing his Brussels sprouts breakfast reminded me of Mom, for some reason. Eating Brussels sprouts in the morning sounds like something she would do – probably with brown rice.
Anyway, MaBit would be happy to know that I make a very nutty and marginally sweet version of his granola all the time. Granola is the most delicious, satisfying, filling breakfast. When I was making a fresh batch this weekend, I remembered the note from his post about using some molasses for the honey. I didn’t add the ginger as he suggested, but I loved the subtle depth of flavor that the molasses added to the granola.
I had molasses on hand. I bought some recently because I wanted to try something different on cream of wheat. I didn’t taste the molasses before I put it on the cream of wheat. I handed H his bowl, and he took a taste, then he asked very politely, “Did you put soy sauce in this?” The next time I made cream of wheat, I went back to the trusty brown sugar and butter topping.
I would also like to take a moment here to say how much I love living with someone who speaks English as a second language. Anyone who knows my husband knows that his English is perfect. However, he does make the cutest little mistakes every once in a while. I adore these little riffs on my language. For example, the blustery English winter has reminded me how much I love cream of wheat. When I made it for the first time in a long time, H gobbled it up and said that he had never had it before. A couple of Saturdays later, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast, and he asked me, “Do we have any more of that Power of Wheat?” Why, yes we do. And, by the way, Power of Wheat is a way better name than cream of wheat.
But I’m mixing up my breakfast food stories here. Back to the granola. Here’s my variation. The best thing about granola is that you can always tweak and fiddle around with the recipe.
Warm in a small saucepan on the stovetop:
a little bit less than ½ cup vegetable oil*
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup honey
Less than ¼ cup water
Mix together:
1 bag Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Scottish oats (about 7 or 8 cups)**
1 cup cashews
¼ cup flaxseeds
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup sesame or poppy seeds
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt
Combine dry ingredients. Pour warm liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients. Scrunch up with your hands. Try to make sure that there are no patches that are left dry.
Bake at 350F (180C) for at least 30 minutes, stirring about every 10 or 15 minutes to ensure that you get lots of crunch.
*If you do the oil before each of the ¼ cups of honey and molasses, then the sticky ingredients will slip right out of the measuring cup. You could make the granola without the oil. But I think starting out the day with a little healthy fat is good for you and helps you stay full until lunch. So I like having the oil in there.
**I have found it surprisingly difficult to get proper rolled oats here. A lot of the oats that say rolled aren’t substantial enough for my liking. Jumbo or Scottish seem to be good keywords, though.
H doesn’t like raisins, but I do, so I add golden raisins to my bowl. We both like to add some bran flakes to the bowl sometimes. I find that the flakes give the granola a bit less of a dense ‘mouthfeel’ and give the bowl a little lift. It also stretches the life of the granola. I learned this trick using Corn Flakes in TZ. I make a double batch, usually, and it lasts us about 3 or 4 weeks, even though we both eat hearty bowls of granola every day of the week. Then we try to have something different on weekends. If you ask me, weekends just beg for a little breakfast variety – and Power of Wheat should definitely be in the mix.