Some food, some drink.

The Golden Ratio of Granola

Abstract: If you glean nothing more from this post (and you adore granola like I do), know that great fabulous granola can be had with:

A digital scale
4 parts rolled oats
1 part liquid sugar
1 part dry (granular) sugar
1 part fat
2 parts pre-bake mix-ins (like nuts and grains)
2 part post-bake mix-ins (like dried fruit & chocolate)

ALL MEASURED BY WEIGHT!

Purpose: A few months ago, I read Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio cover-to cover. I never read a cookbook cover-to cover, much less start from the beginning; but that slick illustration on the front cover had me wanting for a complete understanding. Truth is, I discovered I've been cooking this way for quite awhile & just never had the method put on rails for me. We right-brainers gotta do it and see it, otherwise we're pretty worthless at following instructions.

Armed with my trusty digital scale (seriously, y'all have a digital scale, right?), I threw together a batch of granola and reviewed my notes (Take notes people! How you gonna learn?). Upon observation, I noticed I was darn near some equivalency in proportions; i.e.- a ratio. So yeah; why not a granola ratio as well? Granola is infinitely variable & everyone's got their own favorite ingredients. Don't like coconut? Try some flax seed (hell, try both). Fruit? Chocolate? Whatever. As long as you stick close to the proportions & take the time to measure, it's hard to mess up. The recipe I'm listing is the way I happened to make last time (it turned out so well, it became my go-to gift at Christmas!). Please do modify and let me know what you come up with.

Recipe: Jump to the detailed recipe. (or, keep reading for the gist of it) -

Base

3 oz raw honey (about 1/3 cup)

3 oz white sugar (about 1/2 cup)

3 oz olive oil (about 1/3 cup)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp cinnamon ground fresh, please.

1 tsp allspice also ground fresh if you can.

1 tsp salt

12 oz rolled oats old-fashioned (about 4 cups)

Pre-bake mix-ins (6 oz total)

3 oz walnuts chopped (about 2/3 cup)

1 oz Grape Nuts (about 1/4 cup)

1 oz flax seed ground (about 3 tbsp)

1 oz wheat germ (about 1/4 cup)

Post-bake mix-ins (6 oz total)

4 oz raisins (about 3/4 cup)

2 oz dried apples chopped (about 3/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 300F.
Dump honey, sugar, salt, allspice & cinnamon into a saucepan & stir on medium heat until sugar is mostly dissolved. Add oil & slowly whisk together until (mostly) combined (Be careful! this stuff is HOT).
Pour into oats & pre-bake mix. Spread evenly onto a parchment(or silpat)-lined 1/2 sheet pan. Bake 45 mins, stirring every 15 mins. When nicely brown & nutty smelling, remove pan from oven, stir in post-bake stuff, press into pan & let cool on sheet pan. When cool, store in something airtight for up to a week, or freeze if storing longer.

Observation: In one iteration, I went with demerara sugar because I wanted that raw sugar flavor. It was a real pain the the ass to get it to dissolve completely, hence the plain white sugar this time around. That said, I might use a cone of panela next time.

On another note, you don't wanna rush this stuff in the oven. A lot of what you're working with has pretty low smoke points. Burnt granola is still better than no granola, but we're talking about shaving off 15-20 minutes tops here. I mention this because I learned it the hard way. My burnt granola came courtesy of cast iron on a gas grill, where temperature is a bit harder to control.

Results: It took me a couple of attempts to get this recipe down, but since them I've done a few different iterations. Try a coconut pre-bake mix-in with a tropical mixed fruit post-bake mix-in. Or, go trail mix with peanuts on the pre-bake, finishing with raisins & m&m's on the post-bake end. I've been meaning to do butter pecan; someone try that & let me know how it works!

Gallery:

When the sugar and spice looks like this, it's time to whisk in the fat. Do be careful. Boiling sugar and hot oil aren't known for their therapeutic properties…

When the sugar and spice looks like this, it's time to whisk in the fat. Do be careful. Boiling sugar and hot oil aren't known for their therapeutic properties on the skin.

Wall-to-wall granola. The first time I made this, I dehydrated my own apples. My dehydrator can't keep up with my granola habit, so I buy 'em now.

Variation on a theme: Found a bag of tropical-style dried fruit so I ran with that. In some creative fat and sugar swappery, the grains have been dosed…

Variation on a theme: Found a bag of tropical-style dried fruit so I ran with that. In some creative fat and sugar swappery, the grains have been dosed with demerara sugar, honey, olive oil and coconut cream.