Marisa Makes: granola

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Cinnamon Sesame Granola

I love love love granola and lately those bags of granola with dark chocolate bits have been jumping off the shelf and into my cart at the market. Between that and reading Food in Jars I was inspired to make my own granola and I just wonder.....

WHY haven't I done this before today!!!!!

It is delicious, easy and I can add WHATEVER I want, including little, um big bits of dark chocolate.

Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/3 cup raw sesame seeds
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 Tbsp. ground flax seed
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp liquid coconut oil (or other neutral oil like grape seed)
3 Tbsp real maple syrup (if you don't have this, use more honey instead of fake syrup)
1/2 -1 cup dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips)

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Mix all ingredients EXCEPT chocolate in a large bowl.

Spread out on one or two cookie sheets and place in bottom half of oven. Stir your granola every 15 minutes until it is completely dry and golden. Let your granola cool down completely before storing.

This should last a week or two on the counter or in the fridge...

BUT it probably won't last that long at my house, mmmmmmm!

I wish you enough granola!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Hurricane Granola Bars

During the storm yesterday we were stuck in the house for quite a while so I did a bit of cooking. I've made these before and they don't last long. But this time I added extra chocolate chips as a treat during the hurricane.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees:

Ingredients:
3 c. quick cook oats
3-3.5 cups of yummy bits
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Preparation: select your yummy bits. Mine included craisins, dried apricots, dried apples, dried plums, sunflower seeds and dark Ghiradelli 60% cocoa chocolate chips. Chop the yummy bits into tiny pieces.