Homemade Granola – Great Last Minute Gift

The aroma of bread baking is just about as evocative as it gets of home, mom and comfort however, I would contend that the smell of toasting granola is just as tantalizing and poignant a sensory experience.  When we are on the bay sailing in and among the other vessels of the fleet, I always know when another boat is baking granola.  And I can always tell when another boat is burning a batch of granola.  Of course the billow of dark smoke escaping the galley is one small hint, but it’s also the burnt sugar and toast smell that is the woeful giveaway.  While a fairly easy task in a home kitchen, getting granola just right in the high heat of a wood stove is a bigger challenge (or so I’ve been told, ha!).  Because in an oven cranked up to do the production of an entire day’s food it’s a matter of seconds from perfectly toasted to dang-that’s-too-dark!, I’ve taken to baking granola either at the end of the day or while we are at lobster bake. In both cases, the stove can be shut way down and the granola left unattended to toast slowly and evenly.

At home, however, the quick work of several batches of both Cinnamon Pecan Granola and Maine Blueberry, Cranberry Granola made me almost forget what trial and error has gone before me in summer’s past.

For a basic recipe that you can tweak, here’s a previous cook the book granola post.  I’ll be making granola all winter long, so feel free to order a fix for yourself or as a gift.  Annie’s Granola.

Annie
With a good smellin’ home