(This post is going to be a bit of a contradiction, if you couldn't already tell.)
Granola always reminds me of the summer before senior year, when I'd get up at the crack of dawn for cheer practice. Somehow we got into this great habit of bringing potluck breakfasts every week, which quickly became the only part of practice anyone looked forward to (it would surprise you to see how much food a handful of small Asian girls can put away). After weeks of McGriddles and cinnamon rolls, we "discovered" granola, and for the next few weeks took turns bringing fruit, yogurt, and a box of Trader Joe's granola. We had a ball creating our own plastic cup parfaits, sitting cross-legged on the concrete in front of the dance room. You couldn't imagine a more glorious breakfast.
Since then, I haven't been a huge fan of granola because of its usually deceiving nature and cloying sweetness. One of my pet peeves, as mentioned before, is when people automatically label certain foods as "healthy" without any sound reason for doing so. Okay, yes, I'm aware that granola usually has oats (whole grains!) and nuts (protein! healthy fats!), and I'm sure those yogurt parfaits we ate back then were better for us then the McGriddles were, but USUALLY those ingredients are covered in sugar, fat, and more sugar. Which explains why those measly 1/4 cup servings on the back of your box of granola racks up to 200+ calories.
This granola is much lighter than any you'll find in stores, and I promise you it tastes more like breakfast than dessert - which you might have to get used to, after all that sugar you've been eating in good conscience.
Speaking of good conscience, I decided to obliterate it completely by whipping up a batch of my favorite, favorite chocolate chip cookies.* Then I decided to take pictures and share them with you, right next to the granola. I know. I'm terrible.
Besides being a pretty conventional cookie recipe, this one has two techniques that make it shine, and are actually good techniques for many baking recipes out there: 1) REALLY cream that butter and sugar, and take no shortcuts! Alice of Savory Sweet Life has some great pictures to demonstrate this. It needs enough air to be able to incorporate the egg - anyone experience gross, lumpy butter and egg mixture before? Yeah, not what we're going for here. 2) Weigh the flour. No amount of careful measuring will give you results as consistent as a kitchen scale can. They're as cheap as $20 and personally one of the best cooking investments I've made to date.
*By favorite, I really mean "the best chocolate chip cookie ever", but I thought I'd try and be more PC. Seriously, google that phrase and see how many results come up (4,370,000). So while I might not be an authority on all the chocolate chip recipes in the world or on all the personal opinions of the world, I am an authority on my own tastebuds. This cookie, a gem I found when baking cookies for a missions fundraiser earlier in the year, has all the marks of perfection in my eyes: crisp outer edges, a chewy interior, NOT cakey at all, deep, caramelized flavor, thin, bumpy, and, the kicker - beautiful and crackly over the top. In fact, after weeding through blog after blog claiming to hold the best chocolate chip recipe out there, it was the picture in this lovely post that won me over long before I tried the recipe out. If the cookies really looked like that, this was it. And guess what - they do! Really, guys, they look and taste storebought, except only a million times better and made from scratch. If what I've just described is your kind of cookie situation, I promise you'll never look back.
Cranberry Coconut Granola
slightly adapted from Power Foods
Makes about 4 cups
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
3/4 cup chopped mixed nuts of choice (I used a mixture of almonds, cashews, pistachios, and macadamias)
2 tbsp ground flaxseed or wheat germ, or a combination
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 large egg white
1/4 tsp coarse salt
2 tbsp brown rice syrup (this makes it less sweet; feel free to use all honey if that's what you have)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes
3 tbsp puffed rice cereal
Preheat oven to 350F. In a bowl, combine oats, nuts, flaxseed, and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together egg white and salt until frothy. Add honey and oil, and whisk to combine. Stir into oat mixture until combine. Spread mixture in an even layer on a lined baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes; remove from oven, and use a spatula to gently flip the granola and move it from outer edges to center (to brown evenly and also give you those oat clusters we all love). Return to oven, and continue to cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes more. On a separate baking sheet, place coconut flakes into oven to toast to a golden-brown color, about 5 minutes or less. When the granola is done, cool completely on sheets, then transfer to a bowl; stir in dried cranberries, toasted coconut flakes, and rice cereal.
Place granola in an airtight container and freeze for up to three months, or store at room temperature for up to two weeks.
My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies
slightly adapted from Savory Sweet Life
* The original recipe uses 2 1/4 cups of chocolate chips, but because I like nuts in my cookies, I substituted some of that chocolate with almonds. I find this proportion to work well in the cookie. If not, feel free to omit the nuts completely and use the full amount of chocolate. This is also great with chopped bittersweet chocolate instead of chocolate chips.
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened (if using unsalted, just use 1 tsp of salt instead of 3/4 tsp)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
12 oz (2 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour (do try to measure if possible!)
3/4 tsp coarse sea salt (if using table salt, use 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 360 F. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until nice and fluffy (about 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a Kitchen-Aid mixer; might take longer for a hand mixer, so refer to the pictures!). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. On a low speed, add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally, add chocolate chips and almonds until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop the dough by the heaping tablespoon (or a medium 2-tablespoon cookie scoop) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes (12 being on the chewier side and 14 on the crispier) until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and leave cookies to cool for about 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
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