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 350ยบ. 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.
