Chuck Zumbrun

Tales from Skunk Hill

Granola

Lately I’ve been eating granola and yogurt and fruit for breakfast. I’m normally an oatmeal guy, but it has been such a hot and miserable summer that the idea of starting the day with hot cereal is not appealing.

I’d been buying the Bear Naked granola at the grocery store, and it’s fine. But tonight I decided to try my hand at making my own.

Granola

It turned out great! I used a Cooks Illustrated recipe, but I used my homemade apple syrup instead of the maple syrup the recipe called for. I added dried cherries that I picked from Jeff Rosswurm’s tree that was laden beyond belief this year.

I cooked it on my Silpat silicone baking sheet too. The Silpats reside at the bottom of our Tupperware ® drawer and I usually don’t remember to use them. I did this time and it worked well. The granola browned on the bottom but didn’t stick. Clean up was just a swipe with a soapy cloth. Splendid.

I’m ready for breakfast!

10 responses to “Granola”

  1. Missy Avatar
    Missy

    Jeff has a dried cherry tree? Cool. 🙂 That looks amazing by the way.

    Reply
    1. chuck Avatar
      chuck

      If Jeff had a granola tree too I wouldn’t have to do any work at all! I thought about that picking dried cherries line when I wrote it, but I was too lazy to go back and edit it to the clunky “… added dried cherries that I made earlier this year from cherries I picked from Jeff Rosswurm’s tree…”

      Reply
  2. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    Aunt Nancy gave me her recipe and I have been doubling it, tripling it and making it for years. It uses brown sugar, but I will switch to maple syrup–never thought of it. I add dried cranberries and lots of toasted nuts as well as cherries and the raisins it calls for. Anne ate it but said, “Calories, calories.”

    Reply
  3. Missy Avatar
    Missy

    Anyone who wants to send homemade granola to Alaska is welcome to do so. I’m more than willing to deal with those pesky calories. 🙂

    Reply
  4. chuck Avatar
    chuck

    I figured up the calories, about 175 in a half cup. After laboriously looking up the calorie counts for all the ingredients, dividing them by the proportions in the recipe, and summing it all it, I realized I could’ve just used a ballpark guess of oatmeal with sugar on it.

    I had some granola(175 calories) on greek yogurt this morning (65 calories) with blueberries (20 calories). 260 total calories.

    I read you should have between 350 and 500 calories for breakfast, I’m heading to town for a donut!

    Reply
  5. anne Avatar
    anne

    Who ever only eats 1/2 cup of granola????? I use Aunt Nancy’s recipe too. My breakfast today was a generous 1.5 cups of yogurt, a generous cup of granola and a whole can of tropical fruit..today is grocery day so all the fresh fruit is gone.

    Reply
    1. chuck Avatar
      chuck

      I didn’t know how much I ate, I just plop some in a bowl and like a good Hoosier eat until it’s gone. I measured it this morning and it was a half cup of yogurt and between a half and 2/3’s cup of granola and about a quarter cup of blueberries. (I drove to the patch and picked those blueberries, and drove home and cleaned and froze them; I’m stingy with them!)

      Reply
  6. Missy Avatar
    Missy

    Go Anne!

    Reply
  7. anne Avatar
    anne

    That’s still a dainty breakfast. I always have issues at the “lady luncheons” where people put a speck of food on their plates and don’t go back for seconds either. I mound as much as I can without being too embarrassed, but it is never enough.

    Reply
  8. Missy Avatar
    Missy

    Anne, you know that those women do the drive-thru when they leave the luncheon.

    Reply

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