Homemade Granola

I have a friend who owns a bakery in Indianapolis at the City Market...Circle City Sweets and she makes, hands down, the BEST granola ever! Her name is Cindy Hawkins and she is the most AMAZING baker ever! She also makes lots of other goodies that are so worth stopping by the City Market and picking up! Circle City Sweets can also be found at many summer markets and they are open at the Indy Winter Farmer's Market, which is now located at the city market.

I crave her granola all the time. This blog is new but I hope it is becoming clear that I like to make things for myself. I like to try things and I like to control what is in what I eat...failing that, I support local businesses like Cindy's and I love to go the local markets and support local farmers.

So, I have been wanting to try making granola for myself as I wanted to maximize the amount of fiber and reduce the amount of sugar in it and still have it taste wonderful. I also want to save money and eat well. I found a recipe for granola and I have doctored it to have the most fiber that I can get and guess what? It's WONDERFUL!!

I left the liquids the way the were listed in the recipe:

• 1/3 cup of honey (I used Sourwood...my favorite!)
• 1/3 cup of maple syrup (I want to buy local and have on hand next time)
• 1 tsp good vanilla extract (think next time I will add the insides from a vanilla bean as well)
• 1/4 tsp real almond extract
• 1/3 cup of oil (I used Smart Balance...good fats!)

Liquids

Here is the Granola recipe that I based my granola on. I changed out the dried fruit that it called for for figs and prunes...both of which I love and contain lots of fiber!

• highest fiber oatmeal that I could find 
• flax seeds instead of ground flax and upped it to more like 8-10 tablespoons
• 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup of almonds
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• figs (I used a whole package)
• prunes (I used a whole package)

Other ingredients.

I mixed the two together...I was concerned that if I dumped the liquids in that I would have difficulty getting them mixed well...don't worry, it mixes easily.

Mixing the two, it smells heavenly.

I put the granola in the oven at 300 degrees but split into two batches and baked for 45 minutes and took it out every 15 minutes to stir it well until it was done.

Sorry, it's a bit blurry.

The recipe said until dry and I was a bit worried that it was still not completely dry. I let it cool on the cookie sheet and continued mixing it and it dried out nicely while cooling.

I wound up with a gallon size baggie about 3/4 full...that's a LOT of granola. I estimate that I spent about $15 making it. I am sold on making my own granola to go with my homemade yogurt. I am really excited to eat things I made myself all weekend.

Don't get me wrong...I will still need to have Cindy's granola once in awhile!!