Everyone is always warning me not to eat too much granola. I’ve never heard of a more unhealthy health food. sheesh! I think this fear comes from the fact that there is a wide range of granolas on the market. Some granola brands are full of seeds and nuts, other granolas use molasses, brown sugars, and oil to create clusters of granola that are more like candy snacks than healthfood.
I’ve always enjoyed granola–the real stuff. I like the kind of granola that is lightly toasted, not overwhelmingly sugary, and not clustered candy. I like the kind of granola where you can see, feel and taste, the individual rolled oats; the kind you can add as a topping to yogurt, or frozen acai; the healthy kind.
Here is a recipe I whipped up the other day for delicious spiced granola with cherries and blueberries. The granola has a hint of nutmeg and cloves, which gives it a nice apple-pie smell. It uses honey, maple syrup, and pear juice, rather than molasses, and brown sugar. Make it in large batches, because it goes quick!
Enjoy!
- 1½ tsps Cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg
- Pinch of Cloves
- ¼ cup Natural Pear Juice
- 1 tbsp Maple Syrup
- 3 tbsp Honey
- 2 cups Rolled Oats
- ½ cup Dried Blueberries
- ½ cup Dried Sweetened Cherries
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine on low speed the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pear juice, maple syrup, and honey.
- Turn the stand mixer up to medium-high and quickly pour the oats into the bowl allowing the ingredients to coat the oats for no more than 10 seconds.
- Empty the bowl out onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and place into the oven.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown, stirring the granola occasionally
TheGrumpyGourmand is a rug-rat of a cook always up for a challenge. A former cookie stealer. A bakers apprentice. A hacker in the kitchen. Starting with a few basic skills, he's undergoing a challenge to cook his way from novice to expert starting in 2015. 
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