Is it a Christmas miracle, a solstice miracle, a day-after-Hanukkah miracle or a five days before Kwanzaa begins miracle? No, this is just me passing along a granola recipe that was provided by Jinx Watson, who is herself a miracle.
I have two notes on this recipe.
ONE! I greatly dislike shredded coconut, as it reminds me of fingernail clippings and the taste of Windex because of a) the shape of coconut shreds and b) once I stuck a straw in a past-its-prime coconut and drank from it and I made the same faces the meanest girl in the movie “Heathers” makes after she drinks antifreeze. But you might like it, so I included it.
TWO! If you use sesame seeds, be aware that if you don’t stir the granola enough while it’s baking, they will create a disturbing mini-barnacle-like coating on the bottom of the pan. And you can also swap out the regular oats and the bran flakes for gluten-free oats and flakes and ditch all the nuts if nuts land you in the hospital.
Granola
1/2 cup veg oil (scant measure)
1/2 cup maple syrup (also scant and you can use honey if you prefer)
1 Tbsp vanilla
Put the above ingredients in a large roasting pan, set the oven to 350, and stick the pan in the oven so the wet ingredients warm up as you measure out next set of ingredients:
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups whole wheat cereal flakes
1 cup sunflower seeds (not salted, or this will be terrible)
3/4 sesame seeds or use pumpkin seeds (also not salted)
1/2 cup walnuts (or any nuts)
optional : 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
Mix it all up in the hot liquid so all the dry ingredients are coated, and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.
Stir it up a bit after 10 minutes. (A lot if you involve sesame seeds.) Relax a moment.
When you pull it out, add 1 cup raisins, dried cranberries, cherries or blueberries .
If you want to make twice as much, strangely enough, just use a full cup of oil and maple syrup but five cups each of the oats and flakes and then double everything else. It’s not super logical but it works. Then make this face as you give bags of it to your friends:
thecounterintuitivekitchen 