Dear Eric: Would you have a good recipe for granola? Susan
Dear Susan: I certainly do. And a sleepy Sunday is the perfect time to make granola. You can leisurely shop for its ingredients. It’s not difficult to make and you end up with an appealing breakfast or snack food you can enjoy throughout the week.
Before trying my recipe, first read on to learn some of the history of granola. Its story is quite a spoonful.
According to foodreference.com, American Dr. Sylvester Graham helped inspire its creation.
Graham was a physician and nutritionist who also studied to be a Presbyterian minister. With such skills and opinions, he spent much of his time preaching temperance and the importance of healthy eating.
Graham fervently told patients and parishioners they should avoid, among other things, meat, alcohol, coffee and white bread. And, if they wanted to eat bread, they should make it with his whole grain wheat flour. That flour was called Graham flour, and in 1829 it was used to make Graham Crackers, a product still sold today.
Fast forward to 1863, when spa and hydrotherapy advocate Dr. James C. Jackson was also preaching on the importance of healthy eating. He created a food called “granula.” It was made from Graham flour that was formed and baked into sheets. The sheets were broken into pieces, baked again, and then broken into smaller pieces that would fit in a spoon.
In the 1870s, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of Kellogg cereal fame, worked at a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich. Originally run by a group that followed the tenets of Graham, the operation had been taken over by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which also believed in the power of healthy eating.
With that mandate, Kellogg experimented with foods. One of the nutritious things he came up with was a breakfast food of whole grains, baked and ground up, which he, too, called “granula.”
An irate Jackson sued and, to avoid a legal battle, Kellogg simply changed the name of his creation to “granola.”
Neither granula nor granola became widely popular until its name and formula changed yet again. That happened when Charles W. Post, who spent a year at the above-mentioned sanitarium, left and later opened his own health retreat. There he developed Grape Nuts, which was based on Jackson’s recipe for granula. Because of Post’s marketing skills, his Grape Nuts, which contained neither grapes nor nuts, became a commercial success and the product is still sold.
The type of granola we enjoy today didn’t become fashionable until the hippie movement of the 1960s.
The socially aware flower children of the time were looking for more natural, healthy foods, and that included getting away from the sugar-rich cereals companies such as Kellogg’s and Post were then selling.
Because of that demand, a health food product boom started and that included cereal made with whole grains and other good things, and it was called granola. The name was fitting because the earlier versions of this concoction, stirred up all those years ago, was meant to be healthy and nutritious.
Most culinary guides describe modern-day granola as a mixture of toasted grain, dried fruit, nuts and sometimes seeds, often sweetened with honey or maple syrup.
Many granola recipes — mine among them — include oats, which is a source of dietary fibre, vitamins B1, B-2 and E, and minerals, such as potassium and iron. Nuts, dried fruit and seeds, which also appear in my recipe, offer their own bounty of fibre, vitamins and minerals.
The flavourful mix of dried fruits I used in my granola includes mission figs, blueberries, peaches and cranberries. I found the latter three fruits in the bulk food aisle of my local supermarket. The mission figs were sold in bags in the aisle where other bagged, dried fruits were sold.
If you can’t find these dried fruits where you shop, I offer suggestions in the recipe for other dried fruits you could replace them with.
Eric Akis is the author of the hardcover book Everyone Can Cook Everything. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
Spiced Granola with Almonds, Seeds and Fruit
Easy to make granola stocked with all sort of nutritious things. Serve it for breakfast with milk or yogurt, or pack to snack on at work or during a hike.
Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes Makes: About 8 cups
- 4 cups large-flake rolled oats
- 3/4 cup slivered almonds
- 1/2 cup medium, unsweetened coconut flakes
- 1/3 cup raw, hulled, pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup raw, hulled, sunflower seeds
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground clove
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2/3 cup maple syrup, or to taste
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 4 dried peaches or 6 dried apricots, cut into small cubes
- 12 dried mission figs, each quartered lengthwise (see Note)
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup dried blueberries or raisins
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a baking pan (11-inch x 17-inch) with parchment paper. Combine first eight ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.
Place the maple syrup and oil in a small pot and set over medium heat. When just warm (not hot), pour over the oat mixture. Mix well, and then spread the oat mixture on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until the ingredients are lightly toasted.
Remove the baking pan from the oven. Stir the dried fruit into the toasted oat mixture. Now cool the granola to room temperature.
When cooled, spoon the granola into an airtight container. Store at cool room temperature for up to three weeks.
Note: The small, dark, dried mission figs used in this recipe are sold in bags at supermarkets. You’ll find them in the aisle where other bagged, dried fruits are sold. The brand I used was Orchard Choice. If you can’t find them, you could try another small, dried fig in this recipe.
