A Large Step Toward Better Granola

I have not yet quit life as my yoga teacher thought I should do, but neither have I made amazing granola...

At least it was better than last time. In a valiant effort to remedy my past granola mistakes I went to a new granola source. I followed this new recipe perfectly, including using the called-for 1/4 cup of butter which made my lactose-intolerant stomach and not-so-butter-proof thighs nervous. I figured that if the French ate granola it would be made consistently with this recipe, so that made it acceptable in my books.

Ingredients
5 cups oats
1/4 cup flour
A few handfuls of nuts, chopped
Maybe some seeds
ground cinnamon (I used a 1" cinnamon stick, but have been informed that the original recipe owner usually grinds a whole lot of cinnamon fresh. About a half cup, he says, but I don't believe him, and I love cinnamon)
1/4 tsp salt (but I might bump it up to almost 1/2 tsp next time. I use about 1/16th - a pinch - on oatmeal which corresponds to 1/3 cup of oats. For 15 times that many oats I really should be using almost a whole teaspoon, but I'll play it safe for now)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup honey
vanilla extract
almond extract (I didn't have any, but I used almonds in the 'nuts' category above, so I used extra vanilla)
Dried fruit (I used a few handfuls of raisins and a small handful of chopped dates)

The only difference with this granola and the granola that I horrifically messed up a few weeks ago is the first step.

1. Melt the butter with the molasses and honey. Simple, right? Well, sort of. I only had creamed honey, which was fine because it was going to melt, but I was a little concerned it wouldn't give enough liquid to the recipe and the granola would end up drying out. I also had the ingenious idea of using a whole cinnamon stick instead of ground cinnamon, and infusing the melted butter mixture with the stick, but I didn't really let it infuse very long so I kind of didn't take advantage of the potential potency of the fresh cinnamon. I know it should be so good, using fresh instead of ground, but only if I use it correctly, which I didn't. Cue the French woman hitting me over the head with a pot for not knowing how to cook with butter correctly. If she's elderly she's probably just throwing a croissant at me. High in butter, light enough to throw. More subtle point.

And my honey wasn't great. It just tasted like sweet. No real honey taste. There are so many good honeys in Quebec and I picked a boring one. Next time I'll go with one I trust, maybe a buckwheat honey, or a blueberry honey. Definitely liquid this time. The molasses I think was fine. If I went with a stronger-tasting blackstrap molasses it would probably have been too bitter...though I think the headaches I keep getting from eating the granola are a sign that there's more than enough sugar in this version.

So when the butter, honey, molasses and cinnamon were melted but under-simmered I took the pan off the heat and added a teaspoon of vanilla. Maybe I could have gone with more than a teaspoon? It was an estimate. It was pretty strong vanilla extract. Better yet would have been to use a vanilla bean and infuse it the same way I should have infused the cinnamon, for a good few minutes at least of simmering with the butter and sugars.

Then I went back to the previous recipe for the baking instructions. I combined the dry ingredients (flour, oats, nuts, salt, seeds) in a large bowl and poured the butter mixture over top. Maybe I let it sit too long before really stirring it in? It would have stirred more evenly if it was warmer and thinner? Definitely using salt was a good idea, though. The other recipe didn't have any and it makes a huge difference.

I spread the clusters evenly in a buttered pan and baked for 35 minutes at 325 Fahrenheit. Then I flipped it over and baked 10 more minutes. Then I topped it with the raisins and chopped dates, and back in the oven for 10 more minutes. It was looking a bit dry so I was worried about it burning. Since there was only one pan in there and it was starting to over-darken evenly on both ends I figured there would be nothing gained from rotating the pan, but if you make a double batch using two pans or your oven cooks unevenly, make sure you rotate front and back, side to side. For one large pan I found the middle cooked less and I liked that texture better than the crispy edges. So my suggestion to any gung-ho granola makers (whether or not you belong to a granola-making cooperative) would be to move entire sections of the granola around when you flip it over. I had been flipping little-black-book-sized pieces of granola over to exactly where they had lain before. Try flipping the outer pieces into the middle, or flipping the outer onto a plate, moving a middle piece to the edge and playing a tetris-type game to shift around the remaining pieces (make sure it's a tetris game where the bottom layer doesn't disappear, at least until fully baked...). I would also reduce the initial cooking time of 35 minutes to just 30, or slightly, ever so slightly, lower the oven temperature. There's no egg in this version so no food safety issues to worry about. The flour replaces the egg as a thickener. So baking at a lower temperature or for a shorter period of time is fine.

When the granola comes out, break it up with a spatula and either let it cool in the pan, or if it's looking a bit dark, transfer it to a bowl and eat the darker bits. They're good now when they're hot but when they cool they'll seem even more over-cooked.

Alternatively to this recipe, you could just make the first recipe properly...that would also work fine, unless you're me.