It’s a beautiful spring day here in the Twin Cities metro area. Outside in my backyard, apple blossom petals fall down in gentle breezes. Black-capped chickadees, gold finches, cardinals, and even a red-winged blackbird have been at my feeder today, and the recent rains have left my birdbath full of fresh, clean water for them to dip into.

The iris on the side of my house–the south side, with good sun and the warmth of the house warming the flowers–are in full bloom, and the iris along my sidewalk which get less sunlight are a few days behind.

Since it’s gorgeous outside, I’m inside, working on homework and cooking. Oh, and of course, it’s laundry day.  I’ve got a nice view, though, and it’s my own fault for reading the other day instead of working…

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about food again lately, and just enough research to be chagrined at where my food is coming from…again.  So, I’m on another kick, to know where my food is coming from and what it’s really made of, to know what those difficult to pronounce ingredients on the food labels really are, to buy foods from companies I approve of instead of not really looking into it…etc. Luckily, I’m coming to the bandwagon after a lot of other people already have, and it’s often a ten-second Internet search for me to find out what I want to know — after I know that I want to know it, which is part of the catch. I don’t know what I don’t know.

Today I made granola at home for the first time. After some time hitting the blogs looking for some good recipes, I hit the kitchen and started chopping some onions. 😉 I figured as long as I was going to be in the kitchen, I’d make dinner as well, so I made a pot of chicken chili to simmer away while I was stirring up some seeds and grain for later.

Here are the recipes I most closely considered while deciding how I wanted to approach my granola:

Willow Bird Baking

Chickens in the Road

& Whole Living.

I haven’t locked in to any one recipe yet, and I plan on posting it when I find what works for me. I’ll say, though, that I overcooked the first batch. I thought that was funny and mildly ironic since there are so many warnings about not burning the granola when it’s in the oven, “toasting.” I read the warnings and thought, “Why would I burn it?”

Uh huh.

I found that I need to use more sweetener next time; the quarter cup suggested wasn’t enough to get the oats and seeds to stick together. I put in about one-half cup of ground flax seeds, and those worked out just fine. I added about one-third cup of chia seeds as well, and they were sticking together nicely when I stirred it all up but then fell off to the bottom of the pan during cooking. Oh well…  It was too many chia seeds anyway. They have a strong flavor.

I toasted the first batch at 300 degrees and stirred every 10 minutes, like one recipe said to do, and that’s the batch that got too dark. In fairness, I used dark baking sheets, and I should have known to compensate by turning the temp down.

The next batch I toasted at 225 and stirred at 20 minutes, then in 15 minutes, then in 10 minutes, and then I pulled it out. That batch is much nicer, though it’s not quite right yet: the nuts and oats aren’t quite finished. I want the oats crisper and the nuts to have a more developed toasted flavor.

Also, I used honey because that’s what I had in the house, but I am definitely using maple syrup from now on. I found the same thing when I made candied nuts–honey just doesn’t have the depth of flavor that maple syrup does, even if it is a nice sweetener for some foods. The stronger flavor of maple suits nicely when baking, whereas I find honey’s flavor just gets smothered (even after I added a bit more than the 1/4 C. they called for and I used a stronger flavored honey than clover – maybe it was buckwheat? – it was a dark brown honey).

Oh! And I’ll definitely be using a touch of salt next time. I used salted butter and thought that might be enough, but with unsalted nuts to boot, it needs more of a boost there as well.

Still, it tastes pretty good, especially for an overcooked first attempt without strictly following a recipe. 😀 My daughter, a nut for granola, said “it’s good” and kept gulping it down. Good enough this time! Hopefully by the next time I need to make a batch I’ll have found a good source for local (or at least regional) maple syrup.

Sorry no photos this time – I misplaced the camera. Pics next time, including some finished pics of a home-made skirt and a pair of legwarmers I made recently.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend! Please let me know in the comments what you’ve found when you made granola!