Monday, May 4, 2015

From oats to granola....

 
 So I was wandering the food isle of my favorite super market and came across a large container of Quaker Oats on sale. Not one to pass up a good sale ... and actually realize a food fantasy come true I picked up a canister and ran right home to find a recipe that suited my cooking style and ingredients in my pantry.

Good news! On the internet their are literally hundreds of granola recipes to create homemade granola. Some with less sugar, some with more. Some with coconut and some with nuts I wouldn't eat roasted, salted or even solo.

Whose recipe did I decide to use? Well, being a big, big fan of Alton Brown I choose his recipe. A little syrup and minimal amounts of sugar made the perfect recipe and amazingly easy low roasting of oats on low temperature for over an hours. The scientist in me was shocked the results. Light flaky oats with the hint of toasted flavor and roasted nuts. Yes, I am using the term "roasted" a lot tonight and it's true because the ingredients were cooked low and slow everything was nuttier, richer and more flavorful.

Now, a week later I tried Barefoot Contessa's recipe. More oats, higher temperature, more oil and it seemed to fry, rather than roast/toasty flavor. Not that it was a bad recipe.... it didn't suit my tastes.

I love granola and I'm happy I introduced homemade version to cook often and serve on top of yogurt, sprinkled over fruit bowl or by each spoonful.

Oh and another thing... I'm sure that readers around the world are scratching their heads and wondering why-oh-why is she amazed by granola of all things? We Americans have a tendency to buy, buy, and buy more store bought items than take our culinary talents to the basics. Going forward hopefully that will change.

Remember, cooking with love makes any recipe taste better.

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