Orange and olive oil granola

I told you the other day that once I started making my own granola I never went back to store bought – not only I can control the amount of sugar and fat in the recipe, I can also vary the flavors and create new types of granola depending on my own taste. 

My chocolate granola is an absolute favorite – it is so delicious I have to refrain myself from eating the whole batch while it cools on the counter. But the granola I bring you today is also wonderful: perfumed with orange zest and juice, flecked with tart cranberries, full of good-for-you sesame seeds and quinoa flakes. You can use honey or make the granola vegan by replacing honey with agave.

This granola is a hit with my dear friend Tania Pereyra, who lives in NY and is a very special woman, who I adore and admire. Let me know if you give it a try too.

 

Orange and olive oil granola

own recipe

 

250g jumbo oats

50g quinoa flakes

50g de flaked almonds

3 tablespoons sesame seeds

finely grated zest of 2 small oranges

¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1/3 cup (80ml) honey or agave

1 tablespoon light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup (80ml) freshly squeezed orange juice

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

½ cup (65g) dried cranberries, cut in half if too large

 

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, quinoa flakes, almond, sesame seeds, orange zest, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine honey/agave, brown sugar, orange juice and olive oil and whisk over medium heat until melted and sugar is dissolved.

Remove from the heat and pour over dry ingredients. Stir well to coat. Spread mixture evenly over prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Stir the granola around with a rubber spatula (careful not to tear the foil), spread it evenly again and bake for another 15 minutes – the granola will still be soft and will get crunchy once cooled.

Remove from the oven and stir the granola around again. Let cool completely, then stir in the cranberries.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Serves 10-12 

White chocolate granola cookies - turning something bland into something delicious

I told you weeks ago that my experimenting with new types of recipes had had good and bad results: luckily more good than bad, but some things just did not work at all.

There was an almond cake from this book that ended up in the garbage can – I should have followed my instincts and added flour to the batter once I realized it was much too runny – and there was the granola that tasted funny (the one I mentioned the other day). I felt sad about the cake – it was too rubbery and not flavorsome enough for me to come up with something to do with it – but the good thing is that I managed to save the granola.

If life gives you bland granola, make cookies with it. :D

These are super easy to make and taste great – I used homemade granola, which wasn’t too sweet, and it worked perfectly with the white chocolate. If your granola is sweeter (store-bought usually is), using dark chocolate instead of white chocolate might be a good idea.

White chocolate granola cookies
adapted from the most complete dessert cookbook I own

1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
heaping ¼ teaspoon baking soda
heaping ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (175g) light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g granola (I used homemade)
150g white chocolate, in chips or chunks

Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture; mix on low speed just until blended. Using wooden spoon, stir in granola and chocolate.
Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Using 2 leveled tablespoons of dough for each cookie, drop batter onto prepared sheets 5cm (2in) apart. Chill 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Bake cookies until golden around the edges, 10-12 minutes. Cool in the sheet for 2 minutes, then slide the paper with the cookies onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 25

Quinoa choc chip cookies and things stuck in my head

Some movies have such great soundtracks that after I watch them I catch myself singing or humming the songs for days in a row (sometimes I listen to them on a daily basis for months, too).

I watched The Color of Money last Sunday and now I can’t get It's In The Way That You Use It out of my head – but to be honest the song is so great I’m not even trying to let it go, really. :)

I once read that when Tom Cruise started to pursue acting as a career he made a list with the names of great directors he wanted to work with, people like Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and Oliver Stone – time went by, he became a star (if you’re my age you probably remember his sex symbol status and how the girls went crazy over him) and he managed to cross many names – if not all of them – off that list. I don’t think he’s all that as an actor - he's done some good things, in the end he's irregular -, but I admire the guy for setting the bar so high right at the beginning of his career – like Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon after him, Cruise could have taken the heartthrob route and stayed there very comfortably.

But I digress – I was telling you about a song that got stuck in my head. And there was a recipe that I kept thinking about, too, I had it in my mind for weeks – these quinoa choc chip cookies. I had used quinoa flakes in a granola recipe but did not like the result very much: I thought the flavor wasn’t all that. But after tasting the granola again I found that the problem with it was the lack of some sort of fat, not the quinoa flakes so I decided to give the ingredient another chance, this time in cookie form – it was a hit with family and friends. I highly recommend using dark chocolate here, 70% if at all possible, since its bitter flavor compliments the sweetness of the cookie dough beautifully.

Getting songs out of our head might be a bit tricky sometimes, but for recipes the solution seems to be simpler: a trip to the kitchen and you’ll know if it’s any good (and stop being curious about it). :)

Quinoa choc chip cookies
slightly adapted from the wonderful Supergrains: Cook Your Way to Great Health

130g unsalted butter, softened
65g light brown sugar
65g granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
110g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
110g quinoa flakes
200g dark chocolate, chopped – I used one with 70% cocoa solids

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugars until pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix on low to combine. Stir in the quinoa flakes and chocolate.
Place 2 leveled tablespoons of dough per cookie onto the prepared sheets, 5cm (2in) apart. Refrigerate for 10 minutes, than bake until golden brown around the edges, 12-15 minutes.
Cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then slide the paper with the cookies onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes about 22