Home-made Granola

Seeing as it's the holidays, I've been making a million and one sinful things, but then I came across these pictures, and in the time of cookies, cakes, puddings, and trifles, not to mention turkey, goose, ham, and turduckens, maybe a little granola recipe makes sense.

This is delicious, easy, and it makes the house smell great. And between all of the foil-wrapped chocolates, glasses of eggnog and stray bits of cake for breakfast, you may feel like something crunchy and wholesome.

Store-bought boxed granola falls in one of two categories to me. There is the fat-free, sugar-free Swiss muesli that spills out of the box like sawdust, and creates a cloud of fine powder above the bowl before you pour the milk. Tasteless.

Then there is Kellogg's Low Fat Granola, chock-a-block with sugar. It is more tasty than the muesli, but so sweet that it makes my teeth hurt.

Whole Foods presents an alternate to boxed granola with their fresh kinds. It is a decent alternative, but I still find it too sweet, and in some cases, very greasy. Oats are delicious when cooked in butter (see English flapjacks), but I don't particularly want it as my healthy start to the day.

The granola I make is somewhere between all of these - not fat-free (but only because I add nuts to it), not sugar-free, and very crunchy.

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
squeeze of honey

6 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)
1 or 2 cups of chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts are all delicious options)

sprinkling of dried fruit to add after baking

This time, I made it with maple syrup instead of the brown sugar and honey.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with wax paper.

Combine water, sugar, and vanilla in a large pot on the stove. Heat until the sugar dissolves and the water begins to boil at the edges. Turn off the heat. Pour all six cups into the pot and mix thoroughly until all of the oats have been moistened, forming clumps. Mix the nuts in as well, trying to coat them.

Spread the mixture over the sheet to the edges. Bake for one hour or until the oats have gone brown.

Add dried fruit to taste.