A Brooklyn Girl’s Guide To Sunday: Making Your Own Granola

The best way to do Granola, unless you’re buying it from a trusted and beloved source, is just to make it yourself. It comes out of the oven warm, ready for snacking, and the entire apartment– or house, if you live in a house– smells completely amazing. There’s no secret to granola, except maybe what kind of sweetener people use– I use dates blended with maple syrup as a the sweetener and the binder, otherwise you have a bunch of toasted nuts and seeds and nothing to hold them together. You can use pretty much whatever you have in your pantry, or whatever is left over from party mixes and bowls. I like to use shredded oats, shredded unsweetened coconut, a little bit of ground ginger, dried cranberries, maybe a small handful of dried banana chips if I’m feeling fancy. Nuts-wise, I like pecans, cashews, or almonds– anything that isn’t too overpowering. I use cinnamon and usually pumpkin spice, which is just a mix of all the things that make fall smell like fall– so cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. And I’m a big supporter of extra-seedy granola.

Add sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, chia, whatever your seed preference happens to be… Then you mix in the dates, a little water and a dash of maple syrup in the blender, spread it over the whole mess and stick it in the oven at 350 degrees. Just make sure that its laid out flat on a baking sheet, not all clumped up, so that it can cook relatively evenly. Feel free to take it out and flip it around and stir it so that everything gets nice and crunchy. When it’s done, keep it in an airtight container and make sure that visitors know it’s not for snacking or else your dad will come over and eat the entire batch.