"Raw" Granola: Dried Apricot, Almonds, Sunflower Seeds, Sprouted Oat Groats Sweetened with Date Paste

This recipe sprouts for 1 day, soaks for one hour, takes 30 minutes to prep and then 2/3rds of another day to dehydrate. Why would anyone got to the trouble of making this? Well, I'm a sucker for recipes that end with the instruction to "enjoy", and I suck at "real" (sugar high-inducing) granola (see efforts 1 and 2). So I figured a raw one might work for me better. Besides, it's SO much better for you (and me). But I'll admit, some of it became beautiful granola clusters and some just didn't, and by the time I ate my way through 3/4 of it I decided to take the rest and kill its raw food goodness by sticking it on the stove with some water and turning it into oatmeal-like hot comfort food. I'll never be raw. I'm okay with that. In fact, I'm ecstatic.

1 cup oat groats (a bit weird, but I don't get along with buckwheat and these are less processed than flaked oats)
1 cup medjool dates (soaked for at least 1 hour in 1 cup water if they're not that soft. Medjools are the big ones that taste only halfway like cough syrup. Tunisian dates are better since they're more honey-like, but you'll need more of them. Iranian dates have a bit of a fruitier taste to them which would work, but might be too much for the recipe. Use what you have...just not regular, pitted dried out dates that should only ever be used for your Grandmother's disgusting date squares. Don't get me wrong, I love date squares! Just not those)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup almonds
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 vanilla bean

1) 2 days before you want to eat raw granola soak the sunflower seeds in a bowl of cold water and place in the fridge overnight. Do the same with the almonds and another bowl, and do the same with the oat groats and another bowl. Or you can do like many raw foodists do and soak your nuts the day you purchase them, then the next day dehydrate them on a baking sheet in the oven at the lowest possible temperature with the door left slightly ajar (takes about half a day if you remember to turn them over halfway), then freeze them for later use. Enzyme-inhibiting-free nuts at your service.
2) In the morning soak the dates in just enough water to cover for 1 hour. (Skip this step if they're soft)
3) Drain the dates and reserve the soak water in a small saucepan. Bring the water to a boil and add the vanilla bean. Reduce heat to a simmer (you can also add fresh ginger here instead of or in addition to the powdered ginger later). Simmer the bean for at least five minutes. The longer, the better. 
4) Pour the liquid into the blender and remove the vanilla bean and ginger. Wash the vanilla bean and leave it somewhere to dry. You can re-use it if you store it in an air-tight container once it's dry.
5) Blend dates, cinnamon, nutmeg, and powdered ginger along with the vanilla-infused liquid. 
6) Drain the sunflower seeds, almonds, and oat groats and rinse under cold water. Spread evenly on 2 large baking sheets.
7) Pour date mixture over oats and seeds and stir to combine.
8) In a real dehydrator you could just dehydrate this at 115 degrees for 16 hours and it'll get beautifully crispy and granola-like. the oven won't get you to that state of granola perfection, but it's not bad. Stick the trays in the oven on the lowest possible temperature with the door slightly ajar for about half a day and stir periodically. Rotate the pans around so the granola dehydrates sort of evenly. When you're happy with the crunchiness of it, it's done. If you pre-soaked and dehydrated your nuts they may want to burn on you, so be careful. Even at this low a temperature your seeds can go from flavourful to dead pretty easily.
5) And, as always, enjoy!

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.

My Yoga Teacher Thinks I'm Suicidal (Maple-Walnut Granola with Dried Cranberries)

Okay, a PG13 version of masochistic at best.

So granola's tricky. Maybe everyone has a different ideal for granola, but I believe it should be clusters of sweet oats and dried fruit. If it's crumbly, it's not granola. If it's soft, it's not granola. If it burns, well, it may have been granola once...

I'm also a frustrated perfectionist.

3/4 c. packed brown sugar, divided
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. egg whites (about 2 large egg whites)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract 1 1/4 tsp. maple extract
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
3 c. old-fashioned oats
1 c. walnut halves (broken in half)
1 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit and position rack in lower 2/3rds of oven. Prepare a baking sheet with spray or butter. Stir half a cup of brown sugar with the maple syrup in a heavy, small saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves, occasionally brushing down the sides with a wet pastry brush. Pour into a large bowl and let cool to lukewarm. Whisk in the egg whites, spices and extracts. Add the oats, nuts and remaining 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Toss well. Spread the mixture evenly on baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes. Using a metal spatula, flip the granola over and bake 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with cranberries and bake about 10 minutes more, or until the granola is dry. Cool the granola completely in the pan.


I know a lady (who's a much better baker and cook than me) who gave me this recipe for her maple-walnut granola with dried cranberries. The first time I made it I followed the recipe exactly and the granola was incredible. Of course. Good cook (her), good recipe (hers), good granola (mine).

The second time I made it, I substituted agave nectar, honey, and sugar water for the maple syrup and cut down on the brown sugar, and it turned into bland, clump oatmeal mixed with dried fruit, even after leaving it in the oven an extra 30 minutes hoping, in vain, that the water would evaporate out and the granola would get crisp. Bad cook (me), bad recipe (mine), bad granola (Alas, also mine).

So yesterday I decided to try again. I was going to follow the recipe, really, I was, but it calls for 1/2 cup of maple syrup, and maple syrup and I don't get along. It makes me gittery and anxious and irritable. So I used a cup of white sugar- substitute (xylitol), a quarter cup of water, and a tbsp of molasses (White sugar + molasses = brown sugar, and the water would give the oatmeal the liquid it needed to coat the oats and to not burn). I think this was fine, but I didn't get the total 1 1/4 cups of intense combined sugar and syrup flavour that the recipe called for. I shouldn't have estimated. My friend's recipe would not lead me astray. Granola is ridiculously sugary, and it's a treat, and I should have just done what the recipe said and dealt with the inevitable anxiety attack.

Granola-making and yoga, peas in a pod. Two things that if I actually did well, I would move to Vancouver to pursue among my brethren. After eating disappointing granola for a day, being over-tired, and very, very stiff, I decided to go to a yoga class. A new studio opened by my house, so the need to be outside in the cold to get there would last no more than 2 minutes. The class was free because it was my first time there, and it would be hot. 42 celcius, to be exact. An hour and a half until loose muscles and real sugar/fake-sugar detox.

My granola had tasted hollow. It smelled deceptively amazing from the Mexican vanilla extract I used, plus the cinnamon and allspice, but the sweetness of the dried dates (a fine substitute for cranberries) added at the end really didn't make the oats themselves any better. "Hollow" is really the only word I can think of to describe the result. Well, maybe depressing, but I ate it anyway and accepted it. There was nothing I could really do to change it.

...No downward-facing dog. No sun salutations. Lots of contracting, spine-bends and corpse-pose. 20 minutes into the class I am exhausted (not physically from the yoga, but physically from not sleeping enough), 45 minutes in I figure it's half over and I have no idea what to expect, and 70 minutes in I'm lying down thinking that my back aches, I never learn that yoga is bad for me, and I should have listened to my physiotherapist 4 years ago and given up physical activity altogether. I'd be better off letting my body degenerate into the cripple it so longs to be, to paraphrase.

So the granola had had the right texture. Perfectly crispy and clustered. It looked right! But it wasn't. A clever façade...The walnuts were nice, and the dates themselves were good, but I need to apologize to both my recipe-giver and the recipe itself for my hubris. Bad cook (me), bad recipe (mine), slightly better but lacklustre granola (Eternally, mine).

So now I wonder, if I can't eat maple syrup and I am horrible at adjusting the recipe, how do I make good granola? Can I just give up on this recipe when I know it can be so good? Maybe it's not worth making granola. Does it make my life any better?

The yoga teacher talks very fast and it's stressful trying to keep up with him. I'm lying in corpse-pose wondering why I thought this was a good idea. I'm locked in a room for an hour and a half, not allowed to leave (they "strongly suggest" you don't), in pain, not calming down, not feeling better, not feeling like this will benefit my body, soul, chakras or qi in the least. There is no state of dehydrated bliss. No endorphins. Just self-loathing. I would be better off if I had never stepped foot in the studio. At this moment my teacher philosophically announces:

"The way you feel in the yoga studio is a reflection of the way you are in life."

...

Thus, if I am to believe him, I am "exhausted", "in pain", "stressed", "disappointed", and in a state of "self-loathing", wondering if I ever should have come into this world.

And then I laughed. Mildly violent shivers of laughter. Apparently I'm also cynical. Well, that's apt, which in turns makes the rest more believable. So I laughed harder.

Well I had to stop laughing somehow...I didn't want to disturb the class (That's something you're also "strongly suggested" not to do), and the only way to do that, was consider the concept of yoga studio as a microcosm of life. Did he mean that the way I feel emotionally while doing yoga is the attitude I hold in my everyday activities? Or the physical feelings (stiffness and range of motion) from the class are what we have to deal with on a day-to-day basis? Surely we can feel a wider range of emotions than what we do in class, and I certainly hope to not limit my feelings to masochistic or suicidal tendencies. As much as I wasn't allowed to leave that room, neither can I step out of life. I dealt with the frustrations of the class, but it is my choice to not go back. I certainly thought I would a get a bit of pleasure through yogic pain, but no. No more hot yoga. A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. Maybe I can't decide to quit life like I can quit yoga, but I can decide to not believe what one yoga teacher says, take my downward-dog-free karma, and eliminate a little bit of the self-torture from my life. The cynicism will stay, I suppose.

I'll take my anxiety, my gitters, and my irritability, thanks. I will get much more personal satisfaction from making maple-walnut granola with dried cranberries...properly...next time.