Saturday, February 18, 2012

Ottolenghi Granola


Well, it's been a while!  I had a terrible cold for the entire month of February up to this point and I am now ready to get back to my life.  I don't have many posts to catch up on, because I didn't do any cooking while I was sick - it's been a takeout-heavy month.

I made this granola, from the Ottolenghi cookbook, before I got sick.  I don't typically like to put dried fruit in my granola, but I wanted to follow the directions as closely as possible and so I decided to give it a try.  It's actually grown on me quite well - I've been eating it with plain yogurt.  The one thing I don't love about it is that it sticks together in the jar, but on the plus side, it's a little clumpy.

This granola is quite different from my usual one - in addition to the dried fruit, there are sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, which make it even more colorful, and many different nuts (cashews, brazil nuts, almonds).

This recipe called for maple syrup - a lot of it - and I had only about a tablespoon left, so I added in agave nectar instead.  I also don't have dried blueberries, so I used extra cranberries instead.  The recipe called for 3 Tbsp water to be added to the wet ingredients, which I did, but probably wouldn't do it again - it was a little too watery and I had a bit of extra liquid left over.