out with the old … Post Holiday Granola

So the mad rush of the holidays is over, presents opened and all cookies delivered. Like many, I bake an ungodly amount during those few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I go through a crazy amount of butter, 50lb sacks flour and sugar, chocolate in vast quantities and probably every nut and dried fruit Trader Joe’s carries a couple times over. Then, post New Year’s Day, I’m left to deal with the aftermath. Staples such as butter, sugar, and flour, I can easily handle. It’s the little bags of leftover stuff; the half bag of dried cranberries, the handful of walnuts, the ¼ cup of dried blueberries that have a way of hanging around far too long. I’ve come up with a solution for those little bits and bobs. I call it Post Holiday Granola.

Granola and I go way back. I used to sit in front of the TV during Saturday morning cartoons and demolish a box of Quaker 100% Natural Granola. No bowl, no milk, just my little hand jammed deep in the box, hypnotically moving granola from box to mouth without tearing my gaze away from Speed Racer or Grape Ape or whatever was my cartoon du jour. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I would pick out the dates first, then the almonds, then the big clusters and leave the small oaty bits in the bottom of the box for someone else to deal with. There was just something about those sugar coated dates. They were deliciously strange little pellets of joy.

 

I don’t usually do resolutions as I break them constantly but this year, I’m going to try to deal with the accumulation of stuff in my life and food/ingredients are a big part of the clutter in my apartment right now. Last week I shared a recipe to deal with the leftovers from a cheese/charcuterie platter in the most delectable snack bread. This is the breakfast version of that concept. Take a lightly sweetened and spiced oat/wheat bran base and toss in all those tidbits leftover from your baking binges. Done. No longer will you be pelted by a rain shower of half filled baggies every time you open the cabinet. Safety first.

Granola recipes abound and my favorite is based on a Melissa Clark’s excellent olive oil granola recipe. I’ve changed it up, learning over time that I prefer coconut oil to olive, the soft earthy sweetness of maple syrup to brown sugar or honey and I’ve also learned through trial and error that nuts and fruits have to be added in stages lest they burn. Other than a few simple rules, the additions can be varied any which way as can the spices.

I like my granola pretty heavy on the “stuff” and build it accordingly. Here’s my basic formula: base mix + 2 ¼ cups nuts/seeds + 3 cups dried fruit. I have some favorite combinations, mentioned below, but consider this a general road map to take wherever it may lead. A few cautions. Due to their high fat content, pistachios and macadamia nuts burn ridiculously quick. I’ll add them in the last 5 minutes of baking to barely toast or sometimes if they’re very fresh, I’ll add as the granola comes out of the oven so they sort of warm, rather than toast. Dried fruit is added after baking except for coconut chips, which are added in the last 10 minutes. It’s a timing issue – look at your ingredients and figure out when to add things based on my guidelines. I once learned the hard way with the pistachios and spent a good amount of time picking burned nuts, one by one, out of my finished granola. I wasn’t going to sacrifice a whole batch due to a stupid mistake.

My mix this week was a bit luxe, the result of having many small bags of miscellaneous nuts and fruits that were taking up far too much space:
– 1/3 cup dried cherries
– ½ cup dried apricots
– ½ cup dried goji berries
– 2/3 cup mixed raisins, slight stale
– ½ cup chopped dates, slightly stale
– ½ cup coconut flakes
– ½ cup raw cashews
– ½ cup macadamia nuts, chopped
– 1/3 cup sliced almonds
– 2/3 cup whole raw almonds, chopped
– ¼ cup pistachios
– ¼ cup flax seeds
Do I routinely make granola with pistachios, cashews, macadamias, apricots, goji berries and cherries? Hell no. That’s kind of ridiculous, but I had a multiple small bags and no real plan beyond maybe make a bunch of cookies. Who, at this point in time, wants to make more cookies? Egad. That’s what got me here. So I threw it all in my granola and dealt with my inventory problem in one fell swoop. And it made a damn fine granola.

Over the years, I’ve made all sorts of combinations, mostly with what I have around the house. I particularly like a dried blueberry/lemon/almond mix but my favorite is a dried cherry/apricot/coconut chips/pistachio/almond combination. Experiment and find what you like – load up on the ingredients you like in commercial granolas and eliminate entirely those that you don’t. It’s really that easy.

And here’s a little secret: if your dried fruit is a little hard or stale, do not fret. Mix it in when the granola mixture comes out of the oven. The warmth will soften it right up and no one is the wiser. But remember: the oven will not cure a rancid nut. If it’s bad before baking, it will be bad after as well. Toss it. (Or catch it earlier, before it turns, and make some damn granola.)

STRESS THERAPY FACTOR: THE SUM IS BETTER THAN THE PARTS. There’s something immensely therapeutic about clearing out a cupboard and turning all those miscellaneous little something’s into something completely new and special. Homemade granola is one of those things that, with all the wonderful brands available in stores, you wonder why people bother. Then you realize it’s expensive (for good reason) and you have all the ingredients at home anyway. So you make your own and it all makes sense. It’s great on a bowl of yogurt or do what I did, and still do: eat it right out of the jar while watching cartoons.

another granola recipe: Pumpkin Spice Granola
Seven years ago: Sunchoke Soup
Six years ago: Bacon Wrapped Dates, Cheddar Monkey Bread
Five years ago:Caramelized Roasted Pears
Four years ago: Steel Cut Oats on the Go, Strecca di Nonna (Stick Bread)
Three years ago: Sunday Gravy
Two years ago: Scratch Rum Cake
Last year: Flourless Chocolate Cookies

POST HOLIDAY GRANOLA
Makes approximately 9 cups

For the granola base:
3 cups rolled oats
½ cup wheat bran or wheat germ
1/3 cup coconut oil (2 ½ ounces)
½ cup + 2 Tablespoon maple syrup
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon vanilla

additions:
2 ¼ cups nuts/seeds
3 cups dried fruit/coconut chips, chopped if large

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats and wheat bran or wheat germ.
3. In a small saucepan, melt the coconut oil and stir in maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla.
4. Pour mixture over the oats and stir to combine.
5. Spread the oat mixture into an even layer on a rimmed sheet pan and bake 15 minutes.
6. Stir, add nuts/seeds (except pistachios/macadamias – add at the very end or they will burn.) Bake 10 minutes.
7. Stir, add coconut chips if using. Bake 10 minutes.
8. Cool and stir in dried fruit.
9. Store in a jar with a tight fitted lid or heavy duty Ziploc bags. Granola keeps, properly wrapped, for quite some time. But it won’t last that long.