Applesauce Granola

Part of the trick to eating low volume is stocking your shelves with things that have a reasonable life span--so you can take what you want when you want it, and leave the rest for later. Case in point: Granoooola!

This delightful recipe came from one of my favorite blogs, Baking Bites. There are a plethora of enjoyable recipes on this site, especially for frequent bakers. Here's a modified version of the recipe you can find there, which calls for puffed rice cereal. Sounds quite yummy to me, but I had none on hand. I like this granola because it uses applesauce for clumpiness, not oil, cutting back on the less-desirable fats (and leaving room for more good-for-you fats in the nuts).

Applesauce Granola

2 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant, for pete's sake)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

dash nutmeg

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup (unsweetened) applesauce

2 Tbsp cup maple syrup or honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

up to 3/4 cups chopped nuts of your choice

up to 1/2 cup dried fruit of your choice

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Mix together oats and spices.

2. Separately, mix together brown sugar, applesauce, syrup/honey, and vanilla.

3. Stir 1, 2, and nuts together and spread out on a big baking sheet. Bake 30 minutes, then carefully flip with a spatula. Bake 20 more minutes. Let cool on a rack--it will crisp as it cools.

4. When cool, break it up, stir in chopped, dry fruits, and store in a zipper bag, to be sampled in quantities large or small, big or tiny, by the handful or by the single oat. You can take it from there.