My roommate and one of my dearest friends (isn't it nice when that works out?) Hilary eats granola for breakfast every morning. She'll mix it with yogurt and fruit, and used to keep some variety or other from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods in the kitchen at all times. I've been known to steal handfuls every once in a while (mostly when I come home after having had a few drinks...the trail of crumbs from the pantry to my room is a dead giveaway). But the theft really went through the roof when she started making her own from scratch using her mother's tried and true recipe originally from Food52. Hilary has adapted it a bit, taking out the pumpkin seeds and toying with the amount of syrup so it isn't so sweet.
Hilary visited her boyfriend Ryan's family with him in England in March, and since Ryan's mother supplied our apartment with a steady stream of shortbread through December (unknowingly, seeing as the tins were addressed to her son), Hilary wanted to thank his parents for their hospitality by sending back a batch of her granola. Always one for a blogortunity (see what I did there?), I stuck around and helped her make a batch last weekend, documenting the process for your viewing, munching, and reading pleasure. And by helped her I mean took photos of food in bowls and ate a lot of the coconut out of the mix.
This has quickly become my favorite granola recipe; it clumps together enough to be satisfying but not so much that you feel like you're eating Kudos Bars with your yogurt. And it's sweet but not too sweet, with the perfect hint of savory olive oil and salt. Hopefully we'll have enough to send back to England before I drink a lot of wine and finish the whole batch.
Olive Oil and Maple Granola with Coconut and Pecans
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds, hulled
1 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut chips
1 1/2 cup raw pecans, left whole or coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
Salt to taste
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Combine oats, sunflower seeds, coconut chips, and pecans in a large bowl and stir together. Drizzle with olive oil and maybe syrup, then add the brown sugar. Stir well.
3. Spread the granola mixture on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.
4. Let the granola cool completely before storing it in an airtight container. We keep ours in a pretty glass jar and put any overflow in storage containers or zipper-lock bags.
Listening to: The Wood Brothers album "The Muse"
