Saturday, November 19, 2011

A recipe – Granola


Did you know that ½ cup granola with cup of yogurt contain about 50% of the daily amount of protein that we need?

My cooking is based on my mother’s recipes, friends’ recipes, cookbooks, websites and mainly – my imagination.
This recipe is based on one from bazekalim.com, with my personal edits.




Ingredients
5 cups rolled oats (not the quick cooking oats)
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup chopped walnuts
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup flax seeds
½ cup sesame seeds
½ cup raisins
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried figs (8-10 pieces)
½ cup dried dates (8-10 pieces)
½ cup dried apricots (8-10 pieces)
1 cup honey
4 Oz butter
1-2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(Recipe Yield 3.3 Pounds (1.5 Kg) of granola)


Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients: oats, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and sesame seeds. You can make any mix of nuts and seeds, as long the total amount will be 4 cups, like pecan, coconut chips (the big ones), wheat germ and all other kind of nuts
  3. Heat for about 5 minutes in a small pot the butter, honey, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Be careful not to boil it, just heat until everything is melted and mixed. Pour mixture over the oats and stir all together until completely combined.
  4.  Spread evenly over the prepared baking sheets, pressing down lightly with the back of a spoon.
  5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven – IMPORTANT – set a timer for 5 minutes, stir and flip the mixture every 5 minutes (total baking 5 minutes X 4 times). Allow to cool completely.
  6. In a large bowl (the same one from the beginning…), break the cooled granola into large chunks. Mix in the raisins, dried cranberries, dried figs, dried dates and dried apricots. Here as well, you can add or reduce dried fruits as you like.
  7. Store in an airtight container. 





No comments: