Banana Granola

Hello! I hope you are feeling as sunny and warm as the bay area was today!

Even if not, though, this granola will bring the sun inside. Our whole house smelled like the most glorious baking for aproximately 6 hours. The granola was not even baking for an hour, but its fragrance lingered in a wonderful way.



My housemates and I hovered over the pan all morning, grabbing bites here and there. You can also make this delicious, crunchy, addictive granola to give away as gifts (I don't know anyone who wouldn't be thrilled with a bag of their own!). It's easy to make and a crowd pleaser.

The golden clusters are hearty from banana, oats, and slivered almonds, and indulgent with coconut oil, honey, and a long caramelization time in the oven! It's great over yogurt with banana and honey.

Also, this was my first time baking with coconut oil...I loved how it complemented the sweet, toasty flavors of this granola. I will definitely be using it again in the future!

Banana Granola
Yield: About 5 cups of granola

Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats (no quick oats here--the texture is important!)
• 1 cup (or more) puffed rice
• 1 cup slivered blanched almonds (I got mine at the bulk bins at Safeway)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (50 g) coconut oil
• 1/4 (approx 85 g) maple syrup, agave or honey if not vegan
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 ripe bananas, mashed

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, convection if you have it. Line a rimmed baking sheet (or two, if you have two) with foil or parchment paper.
2. Mix oats, puffed rice, almonds, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
3. In a small saucepan or microwave container, melt together coconut oil, syrup/honey, and banana. Stir in vanilla extract.
4. Pour wet ingredients over dry and mix well to combine. Spread on prepared baking sheet(s).
5. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the granola is well caramelized and mostly dried. Since there's more banana, it might take longer to dehydrate than normal granola, but stick with it.
6. *Note: if you like more clumps, don't stir the granola, but be aware that if you only have one baking sheet like me, the edges will probably burn before the middle is dried out, so you might have to take the cooked parts out while you wait for the middle to dry.
7. Serve with yogurt, honey, and more banana! Or...eat handfuls...

A few notes:
The recipe did seem a bit sweet for my taste, so the recipe above is adjusted to have a slightly reduced quantity of sugar/honey.
I also love to include puffed rice in granola (I found it at whole foods, though I'm sure it's available elesewhere too--or try rice krispies!) since it lightens the mixture. Next time, I'd probably add some more, or change the ratio with oats, so use as much or as little as you would like!

Adapted from Minimalist Baker

Muesli

Muesli is the homely sister to glamorous granola. It's got none of that oil/maple syrup nonsense, just toasted oats and whatever add-ins you like.

There's this great thing people love called overnight oats--it calls for soaking oats in water/milk overnight so they're softened in the morning, and it's great for summer because you don't have to heat it up.

But, I've never much liked it.

And I think I've figured out why...the oats aren't cooked! In muesli they're toasted, and in the other applications like oatmeal and oatmeal cookies. Those cookies that are chocolate and peanut butter mixed with oats have always had a weirdly raw taste to me, too (though that's not to say you wouldn't love them...peanut butter and chocolate are mostly always delicious).

Muesli is different. There's a pop and satisfying dry crunch you don't get with raw oats. Plus, dried fruit and nuts make it delicious!

Oh, and it's healthy. That's the other selling point. Mine had walnuts (omega 3s and protein), chia seeds (omega 3s, fiber, and protein), and loads of oats (fiber! or fibre if you're fancy).

You can just add raisins and peanuts or whatever you have. Mostly, healthy things go with healthy things, and it's hard to go wrong.

It's great on yogurt (mix it the night before if you're into softened oats, the day of if you like that dry crunch/pop) with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup. Sliced banana makes another great addition! Or just with milk as cereal...the options are many.

Muesli

Yield: as much as you like

Ingredients:

• Oats
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Dried fruit
• Spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger...)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread oats in a baking sheet (it's okay if there's a layer that's a bit thick; mine was about half an inch thick in some places). Bake 10-15 minutes, or until toasted the amount you like. They don't burn that easily, but keep an eye on them!
2. Let cool a bit, then mix with fruit, seeds, nuts, and spices to taste. A crucial part of this is separating the clumps of dried fruit bits and covering them in the oat dust so they don't stick together...this makes for more even bites.

Adapted from Joy the Baker (who adapted from Food52 and adds toasted coconut)

Plum Crisp

Crisp is really wonderful.

I'm on vacation with my family, and we're staying in a condo. First day here, I was ready to bake.

When you're traveling, baking from scratch is more difficult. Cookies have rather a lot of ingredients, considering baking soda, baking powder, two kinds of sugar, eggs, vanilla...the list goes on and on.

Crisp is fast, forgiving, easy to make, flexible to the seasons, and amazing with ice cream. Plums were on sale and good. I threw in a nectarine before I discovered they were pretty unripe.

Enter "forgiving." It was still good, even the less-ripe nectarine. Toss it with sugar, add lemon juice. Top with brown sugary buttery oat crumbly crisp, and everything is forgiven.

But, it's a double edged really good chef's knife. Because when the fruit is good, like the plums, the fruit is the star of the show, and elevates the crisp. It is a transcendental experience with melty vanilla ice cream (gold star if you get the kind with a caramel swirl...Dad).

Almost a member of the clean plate club!

So, here's a "recipe"

Plum (or anything) Crisp

Ingredients:

• Fruit, cut into pieces
• Granulated sugar
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
• Oats
• Salt
• Flour
• Brown Sugar
• 1 stick butter, cold and cut into pieces or frozen and grated on a box grater

Method:

1. Mix fruit with a few big spoonfuls of granulated sugar and the lemon juice and zest. Let rest for a while (half an hour is good).
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a casserole dish (I used a 9x13 pan). Drain off the liquid that has accumulated from the fruit/sugar, and reduce in a large bowl/measuring cup/mug in the microwave until it starts to thicken (let it go for a minute at a time and watch it to make sure it doesn't boil over).
3. Put the fruit in the casserole dish and drizzle the reduced juice over it. Mix about a cup of flour and about a cup of brown sugar, add in several spoonfuls of oats (the amount you like), then cut in the butter until the mixture starts to hold together a bit when you squeeze it.
4. Spread crumble topping over fruit, press into cracks and corners, then poke it with your fingertips to create some texture. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until topping is golden.

Slightly adapted from Food52

Brown Butter Oatmeal Raisin Peanut Cookies

I'm here in France, and I'd really like to share all of the quintessentially american recipes I know with my host family!

Problem is, peanut butter doesn't exist in this country. I mean, it exists, but it's either smuggled from the states or it's "puree of peanuts" found in health food stores only. Not Jif, not Skippy, not Peter Pan.

And I love making cookies for them--my host brother is 9 and loves cookies (in his accent, cOOkees). These are awesome. Soft and nutty from brown butter, hearty from oats. Sweet and just a tad juicy from the raisins, and the peanuts add a bit of the flavor of a peanut cookie and some much needed crunch.

It's like GORP and an oatmeal cookie, mashed up.

The only problem is that it's not exactly the smartest thing to do to turn on your oven in the height of summer in the south of France. So worth the sweat.

P.S. You could halve the recipe, but why would you want to do that? They freeze well, and I think the dough would also freeze well!

Brown Butter Oatmeal Raisin Peanut Cookies
yield: 30-40 substantial cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar (2/3 cup white sugar and a couple of tablespoons of caramel sauce for me, since molasses is hard to find here too!)
• 2 large egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups raisins
• 1 1/2 cups roasted, salted peanuts

Method:

1. Heat a small saucepan over medium-low heat and add butter. Whisking constantly, cook butter until bubbly (most of the water has evaporated) and until small brown bits appear on the bottom of the pan – about 5-6 minutes. The brown bits are caramelized milk solids! Watch closely and immediately remove the butter from the heat, whisking for an additional 30 seconds or so. Set aside and let cool  (or put it in the fridge for a while).
2. In a bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, oats and cinnamon, mixing, then set aside.
3. Once butter has cooled, add to a large bowl. Whisk in sugars, stirring until smooth. Add in egg and vanilla, whisking until smooth once again. Slowly begin to stir in dry ingredients. Fold in raisins and peanuts, distributing them (as) evenly (as possible). Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes or more.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Using an ice cream scoop or your hands, form dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place about 2 inches apart on a nonstick baking sheet, then bake for 10-12 minutes, or until bottoms and edges are golden. Between batches, put your baking sheets in the freezer for 5 minutes or so to minimize spreading in the hot summer months! Keep the cookies thick and chewy, just chill it out.

Recipe adapted (and doubled) from How Sweet It Is.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Welcome to the auto-blog post generator. Generating first paragraph...

"This dish is perfect for a light lunch with a sliced chicken breast, or even breakfast with a fried egg on top! And, if you can manage to wait to slice these until they've cooled, you can cut them with cookie cutters and decorate with royal frosting for a superbowl party! Sure to please any guest, these are also vegan (so healthy) since they are made with coconut oil and quinoa."

None of this is true of the recipe I made today.

It's messy; there's no way you could cookie-cutter it for a theme party. And although fried eggs are pretty, I think greek yogurt makes for a delicious breakfast combination.

There's no quinoa to rinse (that's seriously the biggest thing that keeps me from making quinoa...and I know they make a pre-washed version, but we have a big costco bag of the regular stuff. First world problems, for real). The only specialty ingredients are rhubarb and strawberries. And it's a strawberry-rhubarb recipe.

You can totally use this as a general crisp recipe, though, changing up the spices and fruits as you see fit. This article has a nice explanation of which fruits are high in pectin (the jelly-like stuff that makes fruit in fruit pies. cobblers, crisps, etc. thicken up). If your fruits have more pectin, you won't need as much flour or tapioca starch to thicken; if they have less, like strawberry/rhubarb, you'll need more.

Before and after!

And crisp is special...people can really only get it if someone makes it for them. It's not exactly something keebler sells on the grocery store shelf.

This crisp is:
gooey
tart
flavorful
perfect for dessert or breakfast
sweet but not too sweet
...and the crumb topping is perfectly buttery, chewy in parts where it soaked up the fruit juice and crisp on top.

In short, delicious.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
Yield: about 8 servings

Ingredients:
For the topping:

• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Generous pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

For the filling:

• 5 cups 1/2-inch-thick slices fresh rhubarb (from about 2 pounds)
• 1 pint quartered/halved (depending on size) strawberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• juice from one orange
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• zest from one orange
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• scant 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Method:

1. For topping: Mix first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until moist clumps form.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine all filling ingredients in large (and I mean LARGE) bowl; stir to blend. Let stand until juices form, about 15 minutes.
3. Pour rhubarb mixture into large baking (casserole) dish; sprinkle topping evenly over mixture. 
4. Bake until topping is golden brown and crisp and filling is bubbling thickly around edges, about 45 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, greek yogurt, or simply straight up.

Recipe adapted from Epicurious (which I'm rediscovering as an excellent source!)

Maple Oatmeal Cran-Blue-Raisin-Berry Cookies

Last night, some friends and I were discussing razzleberry. What kind of flavor is that? Usually it's just blue dye and some fruity artificial flavors.

But we decided it probably comes from raspberry and apple. And then we started thinking about cran-apple, and what would happen if you shortened that in the same way...

Crappleberry. That's what would happen. So Ocean Spray just sticks with cran-apple...it's probably a safer bet, advertising-wise.

These cookies are not crapple-icious. They look innocent and full of berries, until WHAM

Golden raisins reveal themselves among the camouflage of golden dough, ninja-like, full of stealth. Sweet, wrinkly stealth.

This is what they look like after they've been smooshed together traveling on a plane, bus, and train. Still taste amazing though!

The only downside of this recipe is that the maple flavor has a bit too much stealth. It's kind of invisible. If you want a stronger flavor, I'd suggest maple extract, or swapping out some brown sugar for maple sugar.

The extra liquid from the sticky sap contributes moisture, keeping the cookies soft, but I wonder what would happen if you replaced it with molasses, or honey. You'd probably want to decrease the amount a bit, since those are stronger/sweeter than maple syrup, respectively. But it could make a delicious change! (It also makes the dough a bit sticky, so refrigerating before scooping helps the cookies keep their shape).

Or maybe you want to play with the additions. Joy made hers with white chocolate and cranberry! I think it'd be wonderful with some toasted, slivered almonds too!

This is one of those drop cookies which takes well to almost any add-in. Pretzels. Chocolate. Dried fruit. Nuts. Sprinkles. Heath bits. Chopped up peanut butter cups. I just threw in many handfuls of small dried fruits, but you could go crazy with variations! 

P.S. Yes, that's toilet paper, AKA college kleenex

Maple Oatmeal Cran-Blue-Raisin-Berry Cookies

Yield: about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 3/4 cups rolled oats

Handfuls and handfuls of bite-sized add-ins: I recommend about 2 cups worth if you want them really choc full! This version has about 1/2 cup dried blueberries, 3/4 cup golden raisins, and 1 cup dried cranberries, approximately.

Method:

1. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, silpats, foil and baking spray, etc. and set aside. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. 
3. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), combine butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat on medium-low speed until thoroughly combined and slightly fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Add vanilla extract and maple syrup and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Add in add-ins and stir in by hand or let the mixer handle it.
5. (optional) Refrigerate dough for about an hour--it really helps since, with the syrup, the dough is pretty sticky.
6. Spoon batter onto prepared pans by the heaping tablespoonful. Leave about 2 inches of space between cookies.  Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden around the edges. 
7. Cool cookies on the sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to finish cooling on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to four days. 

Adapted from Joy the Baker!

Peanut Butter Banana Granola and Strawberry Sauce Greek Yogurt Parfait

Whew. Now that you've spent a full minute comprehending the title alone...

This is amazing.
Wholesome.
Delicious.
Fancy.
and fast to make.

Aren't those happy adjectives?

So, today's a double post. The strawberry sauce is great over ice cream, by itself on a spoon (or on greek yogurt...think homemade fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt!).

The granola is fantastic in trail mix, as a cold or hot cereal, soaked overnight for muesli, with honey on top of granola, and sneaked (snook?) in handfuls from the container.

I wonder if that's how snookie got her nickname...

The layers are so pretty! Granola, yogurt, sauce, granola, yogurt, sauce, granola. Pick your ratios!

Common scents: make things that have multiple uses and store for a while. and make large quantities of them.

We happened to have a 4 pound box of strawberries begging to be used in ways other than cut up on cereal. Actually, we had 3 or 4 such boxes for a graduation breakfast (HOORAH I'm a high school graduate now!), but we ate a bunch, froze some, and gave some away.

This recipe, though, can hardly be considered precise. It doesn't matter if you have pounds and pounds of strawberries or just a pint or two. You can make it sweeter or not-as-sweet (I went the not-as-sweet route...it's been an eat-weekend), and flavor it as you like!

Morning mise en place

The granola is another great use for copious amounts of fruit: in this case, bananas. I've found that banana chunks that have been frozen are
a) usually riper and sweeter since we only freeze the really speckly bananas at my house
and b) easier to mash into a smooth puree once you defrost them in the microwave.

Oh hey sudoku! Sorry, but you're not as interesting as my parfait. It has layers.

It's a classy breakfast. You don't have to do the layers on a rushed weekday morning. No-muss, no fuss.

Strawberry Sauce (for homemade fruit-on-the-bottom for yogurt)


Ingredients:

Strawberries
Sugar (or honey or other sweetener)
Pinch salt
Lemon juice/zest or vanilla extract (or other flavorings...orange would also be lovely!)

Method:

1. Hull and quarter strawberries. Place in an appropriately sized saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Add sweetener (a bit to start, you can add more later to taste), salt, and lemon juice/zest, if using.
3. Cook until the strawberries are your preferred doneness and the sauce is thickened, mashing with a potato masher or pureeing in a blender if you like (I mashed by hand). Check the seasonings as you go--have lots of spoons ready!--and add sweetener to taste. My sauce took 20-30 minutes.
4. Add vanilla (if using) at the end of cooking so it doesn't evaporate off.
5. Let cool and store in the fridge (a mason jar works great!)

Common Scents Baking "original" (yeah, I threw some stuff in a pot on the stove...)

Peanut Butter Banana Granola

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats, oat bran, and wheat germ (I used 2 1/2 cups oats and 1/4 cup of each of the other two)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Scant 1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed banana (2-3 medium)
1/4 cup peanut butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet (one that has edges will keep the granola contained better) with parchment paper
2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Microwave to melt the honey, oil, and peanut butter, add bananas and mash/mix to combine.
4. Stir together wet and dry until combined, then pour on to baking sheet and press down (this makes clumpy granola--yum!)
5. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 or 15 minutes so the edges don't burn more than the middle. Keep baking until your desired crunch level!

Note: The big chunks are great for snacking and trail mix, and the littler chunks are good for stirring into yogurt!

Adapted from my Pumpkin Granola recipe (my first ever post!), which was adapted from Serious Eats.

Oatmeal

Life is messy.

Being a second semester senior...yeah, not as freedom-ful as everyone seems to make it out to be.

Which is why I've brought you a picture of my breakfast this morning.

Overnight oats are one of my absolute favorite things in the world. The idea is to soak old fashioned oats (don't get those pre-cut up oats that claim to be instant, old fashioned stand up much better to this method) in liquid overnight in the fridge, then pop them in the microwave for a minute or so in the morning for fresh, hot, oatmeal!

Bonus: they are separate grains, not gluey porridge. Though if you're into a runnier breakfast cereal, just add more liquid.

AND, I managed to find the time to toast some walnuts this weekend, so this is a complete breakfast, with:
starch (oats)
fruit (blueberries here)
protein/good fats (nuts and milk)

Yum.

Overnight Oats:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oats
liquid (to cover)--water, milk (any type), apple cider, etc, though I'd stay away from acidic juices like orange juice
sweetener--brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc.
fruit--banana, applesauce, blueberries, raisins, strawberries, etc.
cinnamon
nuts (optional)

*This is obviously the most precise recipe ever written and it will take you hours to recreate in your home kitchen.
NOT.

Method:

1. The night before, cover the oats with the liquid in a microwave proof bowl, bigger than you think you need.
2. The next morning, microwave for 1-2 minutes (depending on the power of your microwave). Watch to make sure it doesn't boil over if it's your first time so you can get used to bowl size and how powerful your microwave is.
3. Top with sweetener, cinnamon, fruit and nuts (if you like). Use what you have and what you like!!

(This bowl had maple syrup, blueberries, toasted walnuts, and was soaked in milk. But another combo I love is strawberries, honey, and a squirt of lemon juice. Experiment!)

Inspired by a farro porridge I had at Le Pain Quotidien. It was awesome:

Pumpkin Granola

Hello, world!

Welcome to my blog! For a first recipe, I thought I'd share this pumpkin granola. It's easy, healthy, and crunchy munchy addicting. But seriously, I've probably made the equivalent of 7 batches in the past couple of months.

Sometimes I make this into muesli, which is the oatmeal-y mush resulting from soaking granola overnight into milk. If you heat it up in the microwave for about a minute the next morning, it's like those flavored oatmeal packets, but ten times better because you feel like you're eating pumpkin pie.

Granola is the kind of thing that begs adaptation. Switch in honey for the maple syrup. Add the nuts you like. Add dried fruit. Add chocolate.

Would you?

Please

please

please.

Change it up when it's not fall anymore. This one has no rules!

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons oil (I used canola, olive would also be good)

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until evenly coated. Spread granola in a thin layer over baking sheet. Bake until golden, stirring every 15 minutes and breaking up chunks with a couple of forks, 45 minutes.

Adapted from Serious Eats.

It's so easy. Jump on this train, people. Easy, nice gifts for people. It would look great in a mason jar with a ribbon!

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be giving thanks for my family and friends, youth, health, and "the sun in the morning and the moon at night" (name that song!)