What started as an interest in muffins became a mild obsession with granola. I was trying out a new recipe, Banana Nut muffins, which called for homemade granola. Granola, like salad dressing, is one of those foods that after you learn how to make it, you never want to purchase it in the store again.  Especially if you use it as a cereal substitute and not a topping because that habit becomes very expensive very fast if you are using store bought granola.

Granola is also like all my favorite recipes, really a set of suggestions that are open for interpretation. The only finicky aspect of granola that I have encountered is its cooking time, which will vary based on the true temperature of your oven, whether you are using a glass baking dish, baking sheet, or ceramic, and what ingredients you chose. Furthermore, there is a moment when granola crosses over from perfectly toasty to unpleasantly burned and it can be easy to miss that moment if you get distracted like I often do.

At its heart, granola is rolled oats combined with something that will allow all the added ingredients to stick to the oats when baked into toasted clumps. The Barefoot Contessa granola recipe will always be my paradigm of a true granola recipe in the same way the lab will always be my paradigm dog. Over the years, I have found that I can eliminate most of the oil from the recipe; I have kept the coconut and honey for their healthy sweetness, never used the cashews or figs, and have added whatever was the newest “healthy food” of the day– pumpkin seeds, flax seed, etc. Have fun coming up with your house version and let me know what you added.