Sunday, August 2, 2009

Banana Strawberry Granola

A couple of weeks ago, I read a NY Times article about some addictive, crack-like granola, and that was the point at which I decided I had to make some homemade granola of my own. The recipe involved olive oil, and a sweet and salty contrast in the ingredients apparently made it irresistible. I also saw a homemade granola recipe on The Cosmic Cowgirl’s site a few months ago. Both The Cosmic Cowgirl’s and the NY Times recipes included pepitas which sounded great to me. Then, I recalled that Ruhlman had presented a slightly unusual granola recipe back in June. Pureed bananas and strawberries were mixed into the oats and nuts, and I had to try that. I actually consume a lot of cold cereal and granola for breakfasts, and I don’t know why I had never before made my own. I’ll definitely whip up a batch with pepitas as soon as I run out of this granola. It’s incredibly easy to make, you can tailor it to suite your taste or mood, and you can control the quantity of sugar.

With Ruhlman’s recipe, less oil is used because the pureed fruit and water add moisture that helps mix the spices throughout the oats and nuts. Then, most of the ingredients are up to you. You need to use the correct amount of oats, roughly the specified amount of nuts, but nuts of your choosing, then the spices and dried fruit are entirely your choice. I, however, followed almost exactly the quantities and ingredients suggested. I went with two bananas which were blended with strawberries, brown sugar, honey, canola oil, water, cinnamon, of which I added extra, and nutmeg. That was stirred into a mixture of oats, wheat bran, flax seed, walnuts, and sliced almonds. This was baked for an hour and was stirred every 15 minutes. Once it was removed from the oven and cooled, I added dried cranberries.

With homemade granola, you're able to choose the ingredients, but would the taste of be that much different? Yes, of course, homemade is far better. It’s perfectly fresh and the flavors are much more vibrant than something that has been sitting in a bin or box for however many days or weeks. It was worth making this just for the aroma from the oven while it baked. I usually take my granola with some plain soy milk, but it’s even better with thick Greek yogurt. Try one of these recipes or invent a new one, and let me know your favorite nut, spice, and fruit combination.





34 comments:

  1. love it! what a great idea to use fresh fruit as a binder and save some calories. i musta missed that ruhlman episode. i love how versatile and forgiving homemade granola can be. and thanks for the nod!

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  2. Lisa, I just got up and would be nice if I have this granola at my home now. Yum!

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  3. My daily breakfast is yogurt with something crunchy - usually a granola-type cereal. This is infinitely better!! Thank you, thank you, for finding all these recipes and bringing them to our attention. This one in particular sounds too good to pass up (then I'll explore all the rest, too). Homemade granola, here I come!

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  4. I did not fall behind, I was only waiting to have some granola after that luscious mahi mhai....

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  5. I love granola! What a delightful combo!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  6. I love how the pureed fruit lightens it up a bit! I've never attempted homemade granola, but I should because you made it look so easy!

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  7. blitzed fruit-coated granola? what a great idea! incidentally, bananas and strawberries are two fruits i've never seen in a granola recipe. nicely done.

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  8. I gotta try making my own granola one of these days. I love snacking on them with some yogurt. So delicious. Neat idea to use fruit in these. I bet the flavors are just awesome.

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  9. Homemade granola!!! I bet they taste WAY better and fresh than the store bought.

    Angie's Recipes

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  10. I love making granola, and our recipes are entirely different so I am anxious to check out your version

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  11. That sounds amazingly delicious!

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  12. my 1 year old daughter and I both love yogurt and granola. I bet she would love this!

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  13. How delicious this is! And so much fresher and purer than store bought.

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  14. I never thought you could add FRESH bananas into granola! I love this recipe, I must bookmark it RIGHT now! (Heaven knows how many of your fabulous recipes I've already got stored in my computer)

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  15. Yum. I would have to keep this under lock and key so as not to devour it all in the days after making it!

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  16. I usually eat toasts for breakfast but this would be really good for a change.

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  17. We love granola, and we usually ate it every morning, I add some extra ingredients, but I never made my own.
    I´ll must try this recipe

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  18. I love granola and making your own has just simply never occured to me!
    I gave you an award on my blog, so go and check it out... :)

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  19. I have not made this before, gotta try it soon. So delish and healthy.

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  20. I'm eating a lot of granola these days; this is an excellent recipe!

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  21. wow, this sounds wonderful. I was just thinking that I need to make another batch of granola, and then I come across this. I can't wait to try it.

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  22. Lisa, you are so right! I've made my own before, but its been over a year! I have to do it again!

    Thanks for sharing!

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  23. Great idea Lisa! Bananas are an interesting addition to a granola-I love that idea! I make a lot of homemade granola as it's low fat compared to store kinds and it's so delicious and filling and Low GI too :)

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  24. Looks great! Nice addition of flax!

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  25. I always make my own granola as that's the only to control the fat, sugar, what I want baked, what I want raw, etc. This is such a great recipe!

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  26. Oh i definitely want to try this! I love the idea of the pureed fruits!

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  27. Thanks for the quantity advice Lisa! It always seems to be a problem with me, the other day a farmer asked me how many pounds of zucchini I wanted....uhhhh a bag full? Oh well, someday I will get a hang of it. By the way, Flour Bakery in Boston has some of the BEST homemade granola.
    Martina from The Foreign Kitchen

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  28. So, I'm curious....was it really as addictive as the article said? It looks it!

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  29. Hi Lisa! I was on a granola making kick for awhile and this looks great! I've had bookmared that olive oil idea to try it. Looks like you have great results!

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  30. Wow, this is such a great granola recipe and like a more solid version of my favorite smoothie.

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  31. I just got granola from Sprouts. what a wonderful idea to use fruit as binder.

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  32. This looks really great! I love making my own granola - it just tastes better knowing you made it yourself.

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  33. i'm in love with granola. I also make mine with banana, so tasty. Great blog, glad i found you!

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