Easy homemade granola

“Eat your breakfast alone, share your lunch with a friend, and give your dinner to your enemy.”  This old saying in Romanian culture still rings so true today.  In a nutshell, you have to eat a generous breakfast, a small lunch, and an even smaller dinner, or skip dinner entirely to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  So, we’re talking about breakfast again, a meal I was never fond of yet steadily grew to appreciate.  But, stay with me, it’s worth it!  Breakfast today includes a very easy and lip-smacking granola!       

I have to tell you that Romania doesn’t really do granola.  In fact, it’s only been a few years since we started incorporating cereal into our daily breakfast.  Traditionally, breakfast in Romania is substantial and comprised of bread; eggs turned into omelettes, scrambled, fried or hard-boiled; cheese, butter, cold cuts, fresh vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, jams, coffee and tea.  Frequently and mostly in the countryside, Romanians still prepare with great pride the country’s national breakfast called mămăligă or polenta, a rich and filling cornmeal dish served with cheese.  These days, in our house this type of breakfast has evolved into a brunch, which we fully relish on the weekend.  On weekdays, though, this Easy Homemade Granola has breakfast written all over it!  

Truth be told, I used to purchase my fair share of sickly pale store-bought granola, but now the search has ceased.  I’ve found a recipe that makes me look forward to breakfast every morning.  It’s my go-to invigorating breakfast (and late night guilty sweet snack).  This granola has it all; it’s simple but rich in flavor, crisp and crunchy, nutty and nicely spiced, packed with the usual suspects – oats, nuts, seeds and sweet accompaniments – freckled with colorful chewy raisins and dried cranberries, and lacquered with a healthy dose of olive oil.  And that pinch of salt in a sea of crackly deliciousness binds everything together and nails the faint savory component.  All there’s left to do is sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of granola over creamy plain yogurt, and toss in a few slices of apple or your favorite fruit while you’re at it, simply douse it in milk, or use it to make this bad boy.  Enjoy!    

    

Easy Homemade Granola

Adapted from Bon Appétit (February 2013)

Makes: 12+ servings

Ingredients:

·         1 large egg white, beaten

·         3 cups old-fashioned oats

·         ½ cup whole raw almonds

·         ½ cup whole raw cashews

·         ½ cup whole raw walnuts

·         1 ½ cup sweetened flaked coconut

·         ¼ cup agave nectar

·         ¼ cup maple syrup

·         ¼ cup olive oil

·         ¼ cup sesame seeds

·         2 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar

·         1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt

·         ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         ½ cup golden raisins

·         ½ cup dried cranberries

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Spread out the almonds, cashews and walnuts on a baking sheet and toast them for 10 minutes.  Take them out of the oven and let them cool completely.  Once cooled, chop the nuts and set them aside.  Lower the oven temperature to 300°F. 

In a large bowl, combine the egg white, old-fashioned oats, nuts, coconut shavings, agave nectar, maple syrup olive oil, sesame seeds, light brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon.  Toss well to combine.  Spread out on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake the granola, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and dry, about 40-45 minutes.  Once out of the oven, mix in the golden raisins and dried cranberries.  Allow the granola to cool on the baking sheet (it will crisp as it cools).  

Do ahead:  The granola can be made 2 weeks ahead.  Store airtight at room temperature.

Note:  Feel free to tweak this recipe as you wish – you can swap honey for maple syrup and agave; you can play around with the dried fruit or add chocolate chips at the end if you wish.  There’s plenty of room for negotiation!

Poftă Bună! (Bon Appétit!)

Maple Sweet Potato Cake

I love sweet potatoes, but generally I only love them for Thanksgiving or similar occasions.  They’re hardly ever on my weekly menu.  Naturally, I made sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving; I just couldn’t neglect them.  But here’s the catch; when you go Thanksgiving shopping you always tend to buy way more than you actually need for that special turkey meal.  I was no exception.  The sweet potato recipe I used this year called for 5 pounds of sweet potatoes.  I only used half that amount but the damage had already been done; the shopping was over and the pantry was still overflowing with potatoes.  So, what do you do with those extra sweet potatoes staring at you?  You make Maple Sweet Potato Cake.  Best decision ever! 

I was flicking trough the November issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray when I stumbled upon this gorgeous cake.  At first, it didn’t jump off the page to greet me and it didn’t really speak to me either.  But I desperately wanted to use those extra sweet potatoes, so this recipe looked like the perfect candidate.  I didn’t expect the final result to be so utterly sublime.  It was probably because of all those drunken golden raisins.

The color of this cake is simply stunning.  That vibrant orangey hue reminds me of summer; but the sweet potato flavor, the smokiness and warmth of the amber maple syrup, and the dust of white sugar on top make it so festive, elegant and wintery.  I love how dense and moist this cake is with small chunks of sweet potatoes spread throughout.  It’s also sweet, though not overly sugary that you can’t stop gulping gallons of water after just one bite.  

And then there’s that faint booziness from, well, all those rum infused golden raisins.  I’m a fan of any recipe that requires soaking dried fruit in alcohol because it brings them back to life.  That’s why I doused a decent amount of golden raisins in a pool of rum and they thanked me for it.  They became plump, full of life and full of – wait for it – rum.  I urge you to try it, too; you’ll thank me later.  Simply put, this cake is bold, beautiful and bursting with seasonal spices and flavors and, of course, rum.  Enjoy!       

Maple Sweet Potato Cake

Adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray (November 2012)

Makes: 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients:

·         2 lbs. sweet potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes)

·         ½ cup golden raisins

·         ¾ cup rum

·         2 cups flour

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         ¼ teaspoon salt

·         1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature

·         ¾ cup (packed) light brown sugar

·         ¾ cup pure maple syrup

·         1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

·         3 large eggs, at room temperature

·         Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Instructions:

Generously grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan.  In a small bowl, add the raisins and rum; let sit.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Pierce each sweet potato several times with a fork and place on a baking sheet.  Bake until very tender when pierced with a fork, about 1 hour 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let rest until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.  Cut the sweet potatoes in half and scoop out the flesh until you have 1 cup.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar using an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth.  On low speed, mix in the maple syrup and vanilla extract.  Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl.  Mix in the sweet potatoes, then the flour mixture ½ cup at a time until incorporated.  Drain the raisins; add them to the batter using a spatula.  Pour into the pan, smoothing the top. 

Bake the cake until springy in the center and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes.  Transfer to a rack; let cool for 30 minutes.  Remove the sides of the pan, transfer the cake to a plate and dust with confectioners’ sugar.   

Poftă Bună! (Bon Appétit!)