Yummy Homemade Granola

 

Yummy Granola

I have been wanting to make homemade granola for a long, long time, but I never got around to it, don’t know why.  Well today was finally the day and it is a shame I didn’t do it sooner.  It was easy to make and delicious to eat.  It filled the house with a great cozy aroma.  When my husband got home he grabbed a handful straight off the cooling rack and being an accountant he began to wonder if it was more economical to make our own granola instead of buying it, not mention it just tasted better.   We didn’t finish the math because we were getting ready to go out for dinner, so I will have to answer that another day. 

When we got back home I was craving something sweet and made myself a bowl of granola, it hit the spot.  Enjoy!

Yummy Homemade Granola

• 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup  shredded coconut
• 1 cup nuts of pecans
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place rack in the center of the oven and grease baking sheet

Combine oats, pecans, coconut, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg.

In another bowl combine butter, honey, syrup and vanilla, mix well.  Pour over dry ingredients and toss until it is well coated.

Spread on to baking sheet and bake for 30 mins, until golden brown, stirring ab

 

out every 5 minutes.  Be sure not to over bake.

Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.  The granola will still be a little soft but it will harden as it cools.

Enjoy in a bowl with some cold milk and fresh berries.

This is my weekend splurge, a chunk of Callebaut 60% Cocoa chocolate for the tartlets I am planning on trying this weekend.  Come back to see how they turned out.

Callebaut Chocolate

Doing Something with Leftovers: Amish Cinnamon Bread with Bananas

Amish Cinnamon Bread with Bananas

I was craving something sweet but I am not one to keep cookies and sweets in the house because I will eat them all.  Usually to curb the craving for something sweet I will just have a bowl of cereal or eat an apple but I really wasn’t feeling that either.  Then I remembered the Amish Cinnamon Bread that I had baked earlier this week.  There was still just a little left but it was getting a little hard.  Then I remembered one time when I had bananas pan seared in butter and brown sugar.  I decided to thinly slice the bread and nuke it for 30 secs.  I then spayed a skillet with butter spray and toss some sliced bananas in and sprinkled brown sugar over them.  I made sure they were coated on both sides and cooked them till they were soft.  I laid the bananas over the bread and lightly drizzled it with sweet condensed milk (very little) and sprinkled cinnamon over it.  I was perfect and I got to finish up the Amish Cinnamon Bread.  This would work over any sweet bread like spice bread, apple bread or well….banana bread.

Amish Cinnamon Bread

Amish Cinnamon Bread

Has anyone done this, Amish friendship bread? I got the starter from a co-worker of mine.  I was really excited because I have been wanting to try this for awhile.  There are different variations of amish bread but they all start with the “starter”.  The recipe I got was for cinnamon bread.  The whole thing is a 10 day process.  The bread was worth the wait.  It makes 2 loafs so I took one to my in-laws and it went pretty quick. I am not much of a baker either, in fact I have had many baking catastrophes.  When Hubby tried it he was surprised and said “What happened?  It tastes good!” Here is the recipe/instructions:

 Amish Cinnamon Bread

DO NOT USE ANY TYPE OF METAL SPOON OR BOWL FOR MIXING. DO NOT REFRIGERATE.  If air gets in the bag, let it out.  It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble and ferment.

Day 1 Do nothing, Day you get your starter batter (I found a starter recipe, I have not tried it so I don’t know if it will work but it may be worth a try if you don’t have one)

Day 2 Mush Bag

Day 3 Mush Bag

Day 4 Mush Bag

Day 5 Mush Bag

Day 6 Add to Bag

            1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk, mush bag

Day 7 Mush Bag

Day 8 Mush Bag

Day 9 Mush Bag

Day 10 Pour entire contents from bag into a NON metal bowl

                Add 1 ½  cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of sugar, 1 ½ cups of milk

 

Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 1 gallon Ziploc bags.  Keep one starter for yourself and give three to friends along with a copy of this recipe.

With the remaining batter in your bowl, use the following recipe to bake your bread

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Add the remaining ingredients to the batter in your bowl

                3 eggs

                1 Cup of oil (or ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce)

                ½ Cup milk

                1 Cup Sugar

                2 tsp. Cinnamon

                ½ tsp. Vanilla

                1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder

                ½ tsp. Baking Soda

                ½ tsp. Salt

                2 Cups Flour

                1 Large box instant vanilla pudding

Grease 2 loaf pans. Mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon.  Dust pans with this mixture.  Pour batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle with remaining sugar/cinnamon over top. Bake for 1 hour (check in 45 mins)  Cool until bread loosens from the pans evenly (abt 10 mins.) Turn bread onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold.

If you keep a starter for yourself you will bake every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift.  Only the Amish know how to create a starter, so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives you one back.