Breakfast: Alton Brown's Granola

I went on a recent granola kick. I do sometimes eat granola for breakfast, but I'll admit that granola is mostly a snack food in our house. Alton's Granola is the best one I've made so far - but that could be my technique is improved. Our major tweak was not to include dried fruit. Cardinal rule: raisins ruin everything. I could try dried cranberries, which we do like, but we opted out this time.

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins (or substitute dried cranberries, dried cherries, or dried blueberries)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.
4. (A tip: put your sheets in top 3rd and bottom 3rd of oven. Every 15 minutes when you stir, switch pans in their positions.)
5. Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. 
6. Add raisins (if you so choose) and mix until evenly distributed.

Other Details:

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings
• The nutrition guide at right is per serving. Honestly, we eat more like 1/4 cup when we eat granola - probably about 1/4 of a serving. This is when I wish I had a bomb calorimeter to estimate my own per real serving Calories.
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