An adventure doomed to fail, this tale of granola non-parleil, in union with an unusual accompaniment, spawned one instance of momentary abhorrence but led eventually to full acceptance by the author and cook.
One evening last week my wife said to me in a cheerful tone, “Hey, feel free to put some dried plums in your bowl of granola in the morning. I found some in the back of the pantry.”
I appreciated the suggestion.
See, I make my own granola — our granola — and I’ve been doing it for years. I have granola for breakfast nearly every morning. I think one of the reasons I love breakfast (as I love my mornings) is because I love my granola too. It’s nice getting suggestions from loved ones on how I can enhance my granola so that my morning thoughts are even more ebullient, maybe even stellar. Granola gives me clarity in thinking.
So, back to the story. Recall that my wife had encouraged me to add dried plums to my bowl of granola. And, right there in the pantry, next to a tub of my granola, I spotted a jar of the sweet red morsels, just awaiting to join my granola in providing a solid breakfast.
I eagerly opened the jar and tossed five or six pieces of the dried plums into my bowl. Mmm mmm! I added some milk, grabbed a spoon from the drawer, and put a nice, large spoonful of granola into my mouth.
Mmm mmm!
Wait, what? I felt a surge of warmth fill my mouth. It was almost as though the plums had been dipped in hot pepper sauce or something. My wife wouldn’t play that prank on me, though, would she?
Being the clever sort, I took a good, long look at the jar of dried plums.
These weren’t plums. These were dried cuban belle peppers!
Not wanting to let the food go to waste, I finished the entire bowl. And actually, it wasn’t bad. The peppers kind of played off the honey. Or vice versa. Or something.
I’m not sure I could make a go of a new Hot, Spicy Granola product. But it’s something to think about.
And what if I added something like … um … bacon bits?
Anyway, you might be asking what are the ingredients? I start with a 4-pound or 5-pound bag of gluten-free whole oats. (We need gluten-free because my wife has celiac disease.)
First, I’ll tell you how I make the granola so that you can have a notion of the ambiance required.
Now, to make a batch of my granola, you need a large bowl and a couple of
large oven trays. How large is the bowl? It’s big. I think mine is a 5-gallon bowl
… though that may be way too large. I can’t remember at the moment. I’m
drawing a blank. I’ll say that the bowl is just large enough that it won’t fit in
any of our kitchen cabinets. We keep it in the garage (we use it for gardening and
other stuff, in between granola cooking. And of course I wash it thoroughly before
using for baking).
Add nuts and seeds as desired and as available. I’ve never made two identical batches. Each batch is unique. Generally, though, it goes something like this:
Put in a cup or two of each: (whole or chopped, or both, is fine).
pecans, walnuts, cashews (roasted), Brazil nuts (chopped and roasted).
Put in a half-cup or so of each: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds.
Add in hefty amounts of any spice you might like … I usually put in some cinnamon. My most recent batch included cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. I’m not sure why I do this step, because I have almost no sense of taste. (Loss of sense of smell is commonly one of the first abilities to stop working in Parkinson’s Disease, and that affects sense of taste).
Now, stir, stir, stir. You want to mix up all the dry ingredients. While stirring, get your oven going at about 275F. Heat a cup of water to near boiling. Get a cup of oil (I use avocado oil, but something like canola would be fine. I wouldn’t use olive oil in this instance because I don’t know that the tastes would blend well.)
And get a cup of honey.
You can add some vanilla to the water if you’d like. I do sometimes.
Then, pour in the hot water, the oil, and the honey into the bowl of granola.
And stir. And stir. And stir.
Stir until the whole mixture is moist.
Put your granola in a large pan (I use two, and they’re something like 14 inches X 22 inches, or approximately … and they’re two or three inches deep. The deeper the granola in the pan, the longer it will take to bake).
Put the pans in the oven and bake at 275 for about 30 minutes. Remove pans from oven. Stir the contents. (I take a spatula and basically invert the layers). Change temp to 250F. Cook another 25 minutes. Stir the contents. And bake for another 15 minutes. Then I go for a few more 10 minute segments until the granola is brown but not burned. The time can vary a bit, depending (partly) on how much water you’ve added.
For water amount to use, I tend to like the granola more when water is on the scant side during baking. I’ve tried up to 1.5 or 2 cups, and I lilke the 1 cup better. Try variances, though. You may find something you like better.
Cheers, all!