Of all the cereal choices out there, I love granola the best. As anyone who eats granola knows however, a good granola is really hard to find. Some are too hard. Others too sweet. I've even had those that are too salty.
Tuesday night while thumbing through "Dehydrating Food: A Beginner's Guide" by Jay & Shirley Bills (I've mentioned this book before) I came across a recipe for "Prepared Cereal". Basically a homemade granola. Naturally, I had to try it!
So here's the recipe as written in the book:
16 cups quick-cooking oats
2 cups coconut
1 cup wheat germ
2 cups raw sugar
3 cups whole wheat flour (freshly ground)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1/2 cup honey
I made a few tweaks based on what I had in the house, so I used:
16 cups of old-fashioned oats
2 cups coconut
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 cup honey
Directions say to mix together the oats, coconut, wheat germ and sugar. In a separate bowl, mix the wheat flour, oil, salt, and honey, then pour over the dry ingredients. Mix together until crumbly. Spread out on baking sheets and bake for 2 hours at 250 degrees, stirring every half hour.
For storage it says to keep a week's worth in the refrigerator and freeze the rest. I'm assuming this is mostly because with the oil in it there is a potential for it to go rancid.
Now then, here's some tips:
1. Be prepared that this makes A LOT!!! I used two great big bowls to make this in and still had trouble not making a mess. Next time I make mix it up in my Granny Ware Water Bath Canner, just because I think it's big enough to contain it all while mixing.
2. I'd mix the flour in with the other dry ingredients and then dump the wet over it all to mix in. I felt that the flour had so bonded to the oil and honey that I really had to work at it to not get super big chunks. Also, the oats didn't really stick to the rest of it, and though they toasted fine, I personally am used to a more chunky granola.
3. Do add fruits or nuts! I added a cup and a half of dried cranberries and a cup of sliced almonds. Looking back I would have doubled it. If you use dried fruits or nuts, make sure you put in enough to make a difference. Also, you may need to increase your wet ingredients a touch to coast and bind the extras better. (This is why I added the extra honey, and still felt it could have used a little more.)
4. Omit the salt altogether. For the volume of cereal it's not much salt anyhow, and I think to make it lower in sodium you could easily omit it and not make a taste impact.
5. Be prepared for the fact that no matter the size of the baking sheet, you'll still be at least an inch to two inches deep. That means be very very careful when mixing it up. And don't forget to mix as it bakes, because it will brown along the edges.
So Tuesday night I made this up, and left it in the oven overnight to cool. Wednesday I packaged it up and this morning was our first taste test. My husband gets up and goes into work before I usually rise, so when I sat down to try it I had no idea what he thought. I found it to be delicious! A quick text and I found out that he liked it even better than our favorite granola from Cascadia Farms.
We've added one more thing to the list of things that we'll no longer be buying from the grocery store. Unless one of us gets a hankering for frosted mini-wheats or frosted flakes (hey, we aren't perfect!), this will be our new daily cereal. To alleviate boredom I think I'll change the extra ingredients. Already I'm thinking about cranberry apple pecan, blueberry almond, mixed berry, cinnamon raisin.... and I'm thinking some flax seed or ground flax seed may also make a great addition. The skies the limit!
Enjoy!
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