Homemade Granola: Dried Cherry & Almond

Some foods beg to be made at home and granola is one of those foods. Ingredients are pretty inexpensive, especially compared to store-bought granola which is not. Add to this the fact that the actual cooking is simple and results delicious. Even if eaten with little or no restraint, a batch of the good stuff lasts much, much longer than a store-bought bag.

It's also true that any Monday morning beginning with a bowl of homemade granola & yogurt is instantly a better Monday morning. It helps that this recipe tastes great on ice cream or as a snack as well. And, if you're a kind and thoughtful gift giver, homemade granola is a well-received hostess or holiday gift.  Pack it in a freezer-friendly storage bag and your lucky recipient will think of you kindly some Monday morning.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Sarah Karnasiewicz

Ingredients

½ cup almond butter

½ cup honey

¼ cup light brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup sliced almonds

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¾ cup dried cherries

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

In a small saucepan on low heat, mix almond butter, honey light brown sugar until combined and stir until melted.

Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, toss together the oats, almonds and salt. Pour almond mixture over the dry ingredients and toss well. This will be stick & messy, but you want everything well coated. Hands may be used if needed– it’s very therapeutic!

Using a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, pat the sticky granola mix into a single layer. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.  At the 10 minute mark you want to push the granola around a bit with a wooden spoon for more even baking. The granola will be soft when warm, so this isn’t hard to do Whe you're done pushing it around, don’t worry about flattening it out perfectly. Just do the best you can; this is not a fussy recipe.  Also, while the granola is soft while it's warm, it become crunchy when it cools.

Remove the granola from the oven after 20 minutes and scatter the cherries on top, using the wooden spoon to push the cherries into and around on the granola. You don't want to add the dried fruit before baking or it will get too dried out. Broken clumps and general messiness after you scatter & push around since you will breaking up the granola further when it cools enough for storage.

My original WSJ recipe notes that cooled granola keeps for 3-4 weeks in an airtight container. However, I prefer to store it in the freezer in storage bags, digging out a scoop when needed. Defrosting isn’t necessary at all. There, the granola keeps longer and tastes fresher.

Credits
Photo: Elisabeth Heissner
Ceramic bowl: Susie Heissner

Steal This Blueberry Cake

This cake is worthy of a bit o'crime. And, you can easily find an excuse to indulge any time of day. At 7:30, breakfast begs for coffee cake. 3:00 in the afternoon - a snack. Dessert is served at 6:45. I can't remember where the recipe came from, but we embellished it (with lemon juice on the berries) and simplified it (frozen wild blueberries, smaller & perfect).

Set oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup frozen wild blueberries
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
pinch salt
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 1/2 tablespoon butter, melted

Blueberries: Put frozen blueberries in small bowl and squeeze lemon juice over. Set aside while you prepare batter and topping.

Batter: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt by tossing about with a fork. In another bowl, whisk together oil, milk, egg. Pour liquid into dry ingredients and stir together until just combined.

Topping: Place brown sugar, flour, oatmeal, and salt in small bowl and toss together. Pour melted butter over these ingredients and stir together until combined and crumbly. Spoon batter into PAM-ed 8" X 8" baking tin. Smooth out as it will be very thick. Place blueberries evenly on top of batter and then sprinkle topping evenly over blueberries.

 Place in oven and bake for 40- 45 minutes.

Bread & Chocolate

This is simple and delicious.
This a snack/dessert/breakfast/lunch.
This will help you leap tall stacks of books.
This will soothe tiny, or not so tiny, annoyances.

This is bread & chocolate.

To make:
Take a good hunk of french baguette. I am not a snob about the bread here, but it should be a baguette. Your local supermarket's bakery brand will do. In fact, this may sound strange, but Target's baguette (they make a demi-monde size too) works very well and you can stock a few in your freezer.

Cut your bread in half the long way and toast it in the toaster oven. You can also wrap it in foil and warm in a 325 degree oven for about 7 or 8 minutes. Longer if bread is a bit frozen. I do not recommend the microwave as it tends to turns bread into stone statues in the blink of an eye.

Take the bread out of the oven and carefully place a nice piece of chocolate between the two halves. Press the two halves together gently to slightly melt the chocolate. Exhaustive research has led this household to prefer 60% cacao dark chocolate. Of course, dark chocolate has all those healthy anti-oxidants and iron, so you can feel virtuously indulgent. And if you like the more intense higher percentages of cacao, go for it - that's even better still. AND, if you only like milk chocolate, that's fine too. We all need our calcium.

I have also sprinkled roughly chopped roasted almonds over my chocolate before the "gentle press" of the baguette. I like this version too, however, some purists insist you must stick to two ingredients. I think you should judge for yourself. Bon Appetit!

Corn Muffin IQ

This is a test. True or false: corn muffins always taste good, no matter time of day.

Easy question I know, even with the tricky use of “always”, for this statement is true, true, true. Warm corn muffin with coffee for breakfast? Corn muffin cosy-ing up to a bowl of chili for dinner? Corn muffin with butter and raspberry jam around 3pm? All really, really good.

This recipe makes 24 delicious muffins. Once cool, eat your fill, then pop the rest in the freezer. For the next few days/weeks, depending on your level of restraint, you can pull one out, pop it in the microwave for a quick blast, and you’re good to go. Chili recipe to follow shortly.

Dry Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup sugar (use a few teaspoons less if you prefer more savory/less sweet)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

“Wet” Ingredients
1 2/3 sticks butter
1 1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

You’ll need two regular size muffin tins and use place paper liners. If you only have one muffin tin, just cook them in two batches.

In a large mixing bowl, add all dry ingredients, then whisk until combined. Put aside.

In a medium sized, microwave safe bowl, place 1 2/3 cup butter and melt in microwave. Once melted, carefully add milk, then stir. Add eggs and whisk vigorously.

Make a “well” in center of dry ingredients and pour wet mixture into the “well”. Gently stir together with a wooden spoon. Leave a few lumps; you don’t want to over-mix the batter.

Spoon the batter into the lined muffin tins. Place tins in oven and bake for 18-20 minutes (will vary based on your oven) or until golden on top.

The Incredible, Edible Breakfast Burrito

I have a very good friend who detests any&all eggs. In spite of this error in taste - her’s not mine - we’ve remained good friends. Yes, I love eggs. You can do so many things with them, from the simple scrambled/fried/poached variety to something a little more substantial: the breakfast burrito, for instance. This burrito is a just a flour tortilla folded around cheese, ham, and scrambled eggs. Wrap in tin foil and bake for 10 minutes. The burrito will be warm and soft , full of melting cheese and slightly salty ham. Add a dollop of salsa if you have a jar in your fridge. This is so good, you might want to make two!

Ingredients

1 large flour tortilla

2 eggs

1 tablespoon butter

salt/pepper

2 or 3 slices of deli ham

Cheese: 1/2 cup shredded or a few slices - American, Cheddar, Swiss - your choice

Aluminum foil: a square about 10 inches X 10 inches

Heat oven to 350 degrees

1. Scramble eggs. Crack two eggs into small bowl. Mix eggs vigorously with a fork until whites and yolks are combined. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Place of butter in non-stick skillet. Turn heat to medium-high, allowing butter to melt. Once butter is melted, pour egg mixture into skillet. Using wooden spoon or heat proof spatula, gently drag spoon along the bottom of the skillet - this where the eggs will cook first. Do this continuously until eggs are firm and can hold their own shape. Once eggs are scrambled, take off heat and set aside. You don’t want to over cook the eggs as they can become water-y.
2. Place tortilla in the middle of your square of foil. Layer ham and cheese in center of tortilla. Place scramble eggs on top of ham and cheese. Turn up two opposite side of the tortilla toward one and another. Then easily roll one “un-turned” end toward the other. Wrap foilaround the burrito and place directly on rack in oven.
3. Heat in oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, add some salsa, and eat!

Irish Rule-Breaking Bread

So, I intended to keep everything very simple with my recipes. Simple ingredients. Minimal steps. Basic tools. Now this bread may seem to defy that pledge, but it really doesn't. First: no yeast and rising and all that. Second: only 7 ingredients - all of which you should have around, with the exception of one (whole wheat flour), but it isn't outrageously expensive and keeps very well in the freezer. Third, and last, this bread is so good. Eat it plain just when it comes out of the oven or slathered in butter and jam. Devour the next day toasted. The loaf is very big, but you can cut good-sized individual slices (or just cut in half) and freeze. When hunger strikes, pop in microwave or toaster oven. This delicious bread may get a bit stale after two days on the counter - if it lasts that long - so freezing is a great way to keep a very good thing going.

Set oven to 400

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 baking soda

6 tablespoons cut up butter

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups soured milk (direction below)

Ok, soured milk. Not as bad as you think. Just add 2 tablespoons vinegar to your measuring cup, then fill with milk until you hit the 2 cup mark. Place the measuring cup on the oven while the oven heats makes the the reaction between milk and vinegar happen faster. This is important to make the bread to rise, so don't omit. You can use buttermilk of course, but that you definitely won't have in your fridge!

Add flours, salt, and baking soda to your mixing bowl and toss about with a fork to combine. Before you add your butter, you can either cut it up into very small cubes (about the size of a pea) or add the butter to the flours and use a pastry blender to cut into the butter until it reaches this size. Yes, a pastry blender is one of those tools you won't use much, but you can get one easily and inexpensively. I put mine in the photo so you can see what it looks like.

Once butter is added to the flour mixture, add the sugar and combine with your fork by gently tossing.

By now, soured milk should be looking thicker and kind of yogurt-y. Pour it into the mixing bowl and using a sturdy wooden spoon or spatula, easily work the milk into the flour mix until you have a big ball of dough. You may have to get your hands in there at the end, but just be gentle. If dough stick to your hands, pull off the dough and dust your hands with flour to prevent further stickiness.

Once you've got the ball of dough, place it on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press it down into a circle shape that is about 2 inches high. Use a sharp knife to make a cross cut on the top and off it goes into the oven. Bake for 45 minutes.

Oatmeal with Fruit & Maple-Glazed Walnuts

Oatmeal has a bit of a bum rap for being boring. And this is not at all fair. Why? Because oatmeal is a blank canvas that you can do so much with. Plus, it is very good for you, filling, and incredibly inexpensive. Any winter - even Chicago's worst - can be beaten by a hearty bowl of oatmeal. Try it for breakfast or lunch or dinner. You won't be disappointed.

1/2 cup Quaker Oats 1 Minute Oatmeal - no pre-flavored packets please!

1 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup or just a handful of dried cranberries - any dried fruit you like will work

1/3 cup walnuts or almonds

2 tablespoons real maple syrup

banana - or any other fruit you love

Add oats and milk to microwave-safe bowl, cover with wax paper, and cook for about 1 minute 25 seconds. This time may vary based on your microwave. When cooked, oats should look thick-ish. If too milky, cook a bit more. If too thick, add a bit of milk.

Stir in salt, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, and dried fruit.

In a small skillet heat walnuts carefully until you smell a just a bit of nuttiness - stay focused here because nuts burn in the blink of any eye. Turn down heat and add the remaining tablespoon of maple syrup to nuts in the pan. Move nuts about to coat them evenly and then remove from heat.

Add maple-glazed nuts to the oatmeal, as well as sliced banana or your favorite fruit. Enjoy!