sweet, sweet, granola

as a wee child, i loved granola. but only the granola my mom made. her secret? well, everything she made (99% everything. i spent hours and hours at the dinner table not eating my eggplant) was/is amazing, but i personally think it boils down to the copious amounts of sugar she used in the granola. anyhow, i attempted her granola recipe, and it is almost like i remembered it: sweet and crunchy!

here is the recipe, courtesy of my mother, with a few notes by me. the recipe she gave me was double what i used, but since i'm not feeding a family of 5, i halfed the recipe for myself. what you see below is the halfed recipe, in case i brought about some confusion with my excessive phrasing.

4 cups oats (quick oats is what i used)

sauce:
1/2 cup oil/butter (i used coconut oil - smells amazing combined with the sugar)
3/4 cup dark/brown sugar (or 1/2 cup honey)
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 T water

bring the sauce to a boil in a saucepan, and set aside.

granola: stiry fry method***

this method takes a bit of upper arm strength. if you don't work out, ever, like me, your arm will get tired from constant stirring. if this happens, just suck it up and don't go whining about it on your blog. :)

in a large wok, on top of high, but not too high, heat, dry fry the oats for about 15 minutes while constantly stirring. turn the temperature to medium before you pour the sugar sauce on top. pour the sugar sauce on the hot oats and continue to stir, making sure the sugar doesn't burn. continue to stir, again, for about 20 minutes. that's it. done. this in when you would add other fancy ingredients like baked slivered almonds, or coconut flakes. cool the granola, store in an airtight container, and let it wait to be devoured in bowls of milk.


***if you don't own a wok, you can also bake the granola. (apparently baking granola is more 'normal' but i wouldn't know anything about that...) for baking, pour the oats onto a cookie sheet (or two) and just pour the sauce mixture while hot on the oats and bake at 350 F, checking and turning every 7 – 10 minutes. bake about 30 minutes or more til browned and crispy.