Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Orange
Orange who?
Orange you glad I made granola again?
If you are six years old or younger you might find this funny… at least my kids did.
The oatmeal saga continues here. If you are following us you know that I bought an enormous quantity of oatmeal at Costco last week (it was too good a deal to pass up!) and have been working hard to make a dent in it. Strangely, it seems to be multiplying instead of depleting. After several batches of muffins I still have a humongous amount in my pantry taunting me. Since my kids finally tired of my cheddar cheese muffins I thought I would try the obvious and make some granola.
Such an easy thing to create and I love that you can add lots of other ingredients to make it your own. Nuts, dried fruit, coconut, the list goes on and on. If you live within a five mile radius of us you might be getting a batch – we made A LOT.
Orange Granola
Ingredients
1 ½ tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. brown sugar
¼ cup fresh squeezed orange juice (about ½ an orange)
½ tsp nutmeg
Pinch of salt
2 cups oats (old-fashioned, not instant)
½ cup slivered almonds
¼ cup shredded coconut
¼ cup mini dark chocolate chips
1 egg white, lightly beaten
¼ cup dried cranberries (optional)
1 cup Greek yogurt (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once butter is melted reduce heat and add oil, honey, brown sugar, orange juice, nutmeg, and salt. Cook over low heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, almonds, coconut, chocolate chips. Add in egg white and stir to combine well. (The egg white makes the oatmeal extra chunky. If you don’t want clusters you can omit the egg.) Pour the sugar mixture over the oat mixture and stir well to coat the oats.
Spread the mixture on the baking sheet in one thin slab.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until lightly browned. The granola will crisp as it cools. Let cool completely and break into chunks.
At this point, you can stir in some dried fruit. We love cranberries but raisins would work well too. Sprinkle granola on some Greek yogurt (we prefer Fage but please don’t ask me how to pronounce it!)
Matthew (age 6): “I love it, is this chocolate?”
Liam (age 5): “Can I have more for dessert?”
Dylan (age 5): “It doesn’t taste orange”
We were excited to be featured this week in The Daily Voice (Mamaroneck & Larchmont) – “Larchmont Mom Shares Healthy, Kid-Friendly Recipes on Blog”