Granola

Now that it's fall, it's time to return to keeping home made granola in the house for breakfast. Granola's fun to play with, because you can adjust the recipe as much as you want, and add just about anything. It's not like baking cookies, where the amount of sugar is going to affect the texture as well as the sweetness. It may affect how clumpy or loose it is; mine is not very sweet, and tends to the looser side. I've made it enough that we have a house standard; I'll play around with the seasonings, but I like the balance of the main ingredients.

I've seen recipes with three times this much sweetener; maple syrup is another option. You can use far more butter, or leave it out entirely. Obviously, the nuts and seeds are a matter of personal preference; I'm going to try sesame seeds and ginger one of these days. If you want dried fruit in your granola, you add it after baking; I prefer to add mine to my bowl each morning.

4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 tsp cinnamon
A generous grating of fresh nutmeg (maybe 1/2 teaspoon?) or a tablespoon of fresh grated ginger
1/2 cup apple cider or juice
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp butter

Preheat the over to 300.
Coming the oats, flour, nuts, seeds, and dry spices in a large bowl. Heat up the juice in a small pan with the optional ginger, sugar, honey and butter until the butter melts. Pour the liquid into the bowl, and stir until everything is combined. Spread it out on two jelly-roll pans. Bake, stirring every 10 minutes and rotating the pans in the over for 30 to 40 minutes. It will start to smell toasty when it is done; the granola will be starting to brown, but not yet be crispy. It'll get crunchy as it cools.

Keeps for a week or two in and air-tight container.