Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope you all enjoyed a nice long weekend. I sure did.
This lovely summer weekend, I saw a cake much like this at a local bakery:
A hamburger! Totally cute, right? Okay, also a little gross-looking. But it reminded me of my first foray into cooking/baking, a 4-H project back in the 4th grade (for which I got a blue ribbon, thank-you-very-much). I don’t have kids, but when I do, this fun little project is something I would totally do with them… and if you do, please feel free to make them with yours! They’re very easy and kid-friendly, and while they’re not exactly for foodies, they’d be fun for a summer bbq, too.
Hamburger Cookies!
You will need:
A box of Nilla Wafers
A box of Thin Mints (if you can’t get the Girl Scout kind, Keebler makes a decent substitute).
Sweetened Coconut
Food Coloring
Frosting (in 4th grade, I used canned, these days, I’d probably use a simple home-made butter cream)
sanding sugar
First, put the coconut in a bowl and mix with green food coloring. This is the “lettuce” for your burgers.
As a kid, I liked to also dye the frosting red so it would be “ketchup,” but you can also leave it white and say it’s “mayonnaise.” Your call.
Spread frosting on a Nilla Wafer. Stick a Thin Mint on top. Spread more frosting on the Thin mint. Put on some coconut. Top with another frosting-spreaded Nilla Wafer. You can put sanding sugar on top for “sesame seeds.”
The finished product looks something like this:
Silly? Yes. Using lots of pre-packaged, pre-processed ingredients? Check. A great introduction into baking for children? I think so. They can do it all themselves, because there’s no oven or sharp knives, and they’re actually really cute. And while I’m a grown-up and a food blogger, I’d be happy to eat one of these today.
You might know that something pretty big happened in the TV world Sunday night.
And if you don’t know, here’s the scoop — LOST, the biggest TV phenomenon since Dallas (apparently) aired its final episode Sunday night. I won’t give any spoilers, because frankly I’ve never watched a full episode of the show, so I only kind of know what the hell was going on. But I cried a lot, and apparently most of the people that watched it enjoyed it.
We were a bit low on supplies when we got home from various places on Sunday, and needed a dinner solution. We had potatoes, butter, eggs, flour, bacon, peppers, and onions. One of my favorite foods happens to be mashed potatoes, but of course you can’t eat just mashed potatoes…. even LOADED mashed potatoes….. for dinner. Even on Sunday night. It’s just not right.
However, I had recently heard of something called Rosti: basically they’re the swedish version of hash-browns. Laurie Colwin calls them an excuse to eat a quarter pound of butter, which is totally fine with me. I call them an epic win. In the Colwin method, you boil a potato for 7-8 minutes, peel it, and shred it in your box grater. Then, you put the potato shreds into a pan with a stick of melted butter, pat it out like a hash brown, and fry till crispy. Tyler Florence has a recipe that involves bacon and mushrooms, as well as gruyere, which was like music to my improvising ears.
I boiled 3 potatoes for 20 minutes, per Chef Tyler’s recipe. While they were cooling, I crisped 4 slices of chopped bacon, a diced cubanelle pepper, and a diced red onion.
Once the potatoes were cool, I peeled them, and shredded them wtih my grater, and added a pinch of salt, and the bacon/pepper/onion mix. I stirred these together, and heated a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a pan over high heat (Tyler suggests olive oil, which breaks down and starts to smoke over high heat, releasing all sorts of nasty things into the air and into your food. Go with a high smoke point oil like vegetable, sunflower, or something like this).
I patted the first few rosti together, and tried to fry them crispy, but they fell to pieces pretty quickly.
Eventually, I made the executive decision to go off-script just a little further, and turn this into more of a latke batter. I added an egg, and a few tablespoons of flour, until the batter resembled gummy mashed potatoes (which I realize sounds absolutely disgusting. trust me). This made the later pancakes hold together much better, and cook much more evenly.
Admittedly, you can see that I still had some trouble with the oil temperature, since parts of them are much darker brown, and parts of them aren’t crisped. But in general, these held together nicely, and they tasted delicious.
On the island, I’m sure they had to make do with what they have, since everybody who tried to get off died, or some shit like that. And in my kitchen, on a Sunday night with little food, sometimes you have to make do, and you have to throw together what’s there. And when it involves potatoes, peppers, onions and bacon, I’m probably going to eat it. And even better, I didn’t have to eat it alone. 
Who doesn’t love pie? Nobody. Pie rocks.
Pie crust is tough to make. Here’s how I like to make mine:
(This makes A LOT of crust. Enough for basically two pies. You can put any leftovers in the fridge or add more sugar and turn them into cookies).
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3-4 tsp sugar (or more, if you want)
3 sticks of butter, cold and in small pieces (hells yeah)
1 cup ice cold milk (some people like water, but I love me my dairy. Nonfat is fine).
Process everything except the milk together, either in a food processor or with a pastry cutter, until it looks like a coarse meal. Slowly add the milk, until it holds together. Shape it into a disc, place in plastic wrap, refrigerate at least a couple hours.
While you’re refrigerating, make your filling. I used strawberries and pears in the one pictured, because I wanted strawberry rhubarb but I couldn’t get any rhubarb. Pears are the tofu of pie filling, they’ll absorb whatever flavors are around them. Chop up the fruit into little pieces, saute in butter and sugar, and any spices you’d like (cinnamon, nutmeg…). Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350. Take out the dough and put it on a floured surface. Roll out about half of it for one pie. Only roll it once. Don’t keep touching it up, it will make it less and less flaky. Put it in your pie tin, cut the hanging over edges with kitchen shears or a knife.
Put in your filling. To make a lattice pie, roll out more dough and cut into strips, either using kitchen shears, a knife or a pastry roller. Arrange it in a criss-crossed pattern on top of the pie, sticking it to the edges of the crust. You can also cut shapes with a cookie cutter and arrange them on your pie.
You can make a nice glaze by whisking up an egg yolk and a little heaving cream and brushing it on top. Sprinkle some sugar on. Pretty.
Bake for 75-90 minutes. Take out of the oven.
Strawberries are really juicy when baked. I drained the pie into the sink, seriously. This really helps. Peaches are similarly juicy. With these sorts of fruits, don’t entirely cover the pie with crust, so you can drain it.
We all know that many Jews love their brisket, pastrami and other heavy meats. But did you know that one of the most important Jewish holidays mandates eating dairy? Yup, Shavuot, which started Tuesday night and ends tonight, is one of the biggest holidays of the year; it celebrates when Jews received the Torah brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai in the desert, after the Exodus. Since this is when officially “the Hebrews” became actual “Jews”, we were mandated to follow all the commandments and mitzvot (good deeds), including keeping kosher. Well, since people didn’t want to make any mistakes at first and eat non-kosher meat by accident, everyone ate only dairy products during this time. Contemporary Jews honor this by eating cheesecake. Really! We also stay up all night learning Torah or topics that relate to Judaism. It’s a very fun holiday.
This year I spent Shavuot amongst thousands of people at the JCC on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a heavily young, Jewish neighborhood. For the first night the JCC as well as many synagogues host all-night programming such as lectures and discussion groups; the JCC also had live concerts, yoga, Israeli karaoke and of course thick slices of cheesecake! Coffee and chocolate candies were liberally distributed too, to keep everyone awake until 4 AM, when the last sessions ended. Unfortunately I could only keep my eyes open until about 1, and went home then.
A cousin had invited me for Shavuot lunch yesterday and it was a typical homemade Syrian dairy meal: green salad; quinoa tabbouleh; samboosak — savory, flaky pastries stuffed with munster cheese; noodle casserole with cheese calsonnes (doughy dumplings, stuffed also with cheese); baked salmon; spinach and chickpeas in a baked filo dough (kind of like spanakopita); and kousa jibneh, which is a squash and zucchini quiche sans crust. The eight of us ate very well! Incredibly, the enormous amount of food served was actually quite typical. Leftovers are a given and are usually eaten later for dinner or the following day.
Troubling, for me, is the Syrian custom of leaving all the food on the table during the entire meal which means I will end up picking at far more than I am able to eat! Case in point were my cousin’s homemade brownies; I ended up eating about five or six of them. Eeep!! Note to self and everyone else: don’t leave food in front of you unless you want to eat it all.
My cousin gave me leftovers of everything (of course) so my plan for the rest of this dairy-tastic holiday is to eat smaller portions and spread it out over the course of a couple of days. I’ll still be getting my dairy on, just not so intensely!
I fell in love with rhubarb when I was 21. I had just graduated from college and had agreed to travel to Denmark and Germany for almost a month with the family that I had been a nanny for during my last year. We started in Copenhagen, spent some time in Hamburg, and even had a couple of days at the original Lego-Land, which was mildly entertaining, but not when you are toting around two children that are not yours while their parents criticize every move you make. The best part, however; had to be the ten days we spent on an organic farm in the country outside of Copenhagen. This was where I learned all sorts of new thing about fruits and vegetables. Cucumbers, when left to their own devices, will grow curvy. Fresh mango is the most amazing flavor in the world, and rhubarb is super delicious and WAY more versatile than I thought. There was a rhubarb patch behind the farm house, so I would take the kids out in the afternoon and pick the biggest leaves so we could use the edible portion for dinner.
As a scientist I also this its pretty cool since the leaves are highly toxic to humans, but the stalk, also known as the petiole, that connects the leaf to the stem is completely edible. One of my colleagues, who is a botanist, tries to accompany each of his plant anatomy lessons with ‘edible visual aids’ so he had carrots and ranch dressing for the kids when they were learning about roots, hot chocolate and coffee when they were learning about seeds, etc… So the other day they were studying leaves, and he brought in rhubarb pie. He offered me some of the left over and as I was shoveling it into my face, while trying to appear calm and casual I started thinking about different rhubarb recipes that I could try now that it is back in season. In Denmark we made a lot of cobbler/crumble type desserts with rhubarb, and one morning we put it on our pancakes which was super delicious, but I wanted to do something a little bit different just because thats what I do. So after thinking about it and looking around I came up with these:
Rhubarb White Chocolate Brownies:
The Brownies:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1cup sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler until its smooth. Take it off the heat and mix in the sugar, vanilla and eggs. Finally, add the flour and salt.
Rhubarb:
Cut rhubarb in appx 1/3″ slices until you have a full cup. Put it in a small sauce pan with 1/3 cup water and 2 1/2 tbsp sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil for about a minute, then reduce the heat and let simmer until the rhubarb falls apart a bit when you stir it. Remove it from the heat and pour it into a blender or food processor. Let it cool for a few minutes and then blend it until it forms a smooth compote.
White Chocolate:
Melt white chocolate pieces with some heavy cream until it forms a smooth mixture that is thick, but pour-able.
I folded the rhubarb mixture in to the brownie batter, poured it into an 8×8 brownie pan and drizzled the chocolate over the top. Bake for 45 minutes at 325, or until a fork in the center comes out clean.
The flavors all came together just like I wanted them to, and these bad boys are delicious with the sweet and tangy balancing each other out.
Here’s what I didn’t like:
1) The rhubarb flavor wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be, so next time I think I will reduce the compote to concentrate the flavor. I also might drizzle it over the top rather than mix it in with the batter, but that will probably be decided as I’m making it next time.
2) The white chocolate was a little dense and sort of sank into the batter as you can see from the picture. I want to find a way to lighten up the mixture so that it hangs out more on the top. Perhaps beating in some cream cheese? Any suggestions would be more than welcome.
As we head in to summer, I am excited about all the produce opportunities that are coming my way, so hopefully I will end up with some great new summer recipes.
On Saturday, after a successful 10-mile run in the morning, and a gorgeous afternoon walking around Brooklyn, I was feeling mixed about dinner; I thought I knew what I wanted to make, but things that I was thinking about weren’t exactly congruent. I wanted mussels, steamed in a green curry-coconut broth. Unfortunately, our grocery store’s fish counter doesn’t run to mussels, but I already had seafood on the brain. I ended up buying shrimp instead, along with a strange amalgam of other ingredients – lemons, green beans, a yellow pepper (which ended up disappearing between checkout and home), and of course…. these:
Living in a neighborhood amassed mostly of people from island nations, our grocery store also doesn’t run to Thai or Indian curry pastes, although it does run to several brands of coconut milk. In the end, I came home completely confused – my ingredients seemed to conflict between two worlds. On the one hand, I had lemons, green beans, and a pepper (or so I thought) to make something light, springy, and clean. On the other hand I had coconut milk and hot sauce, and a yen for something curried. And of course, I had the shrimp. So, I lived up to my name, and improvised. I’ve never had shrimp in a way other than scampi, and certainly never in a curry application, but I figured that as long as everything else tasted good, the shrimp would be a happy accent. And hoooo boy, was I right!
Sorta-Curried Shrimp with Coconut Rice
1. Make the coconut rice: Combine 1 cup of water and 1 1/4 cup of coconut milk in a saucepan, along with a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, and add 1 cup of rice, 1 teaspoon of butter, and another pinch of salt. Stir, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes.
2. Mince 1 small onion, and saute in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add 2 minced cloves of garlic, and 1 chopped red pepper. Season with salt, and cook until the peppers are starting to soften. When the peppers are softening, add 1 chopped tomato, and 2 handfuls chopped green beans. Season again with salt and cook covered on medium-low for 2-3 minutes, until the tomatoes start letting out their juices. Add 1/2 cup water, and simmer uncovered while you’re making the next moves.
3. When the water has simmered out, add 1/4 cup mustard-based, Barbadian-style hot sauce (or the curry paste of your choice) and toss until everything is coated. Add 1 pound of peeled, deveined, de-tailed medium shrimp, and saute until they are just starting to turn pink. Add the rest of the can of coconut milk, and simmer until the shrimp are done and the flavors have combined nicely.
Sometimes, it’s incredibly scary to improvise – especially with a delicate ingredient like shrimp. But it’s also really empowering to go with your gut and get a delicious result. I’m very proud of this dish, because it was delicious, and because it was something I’d never even heard about before, let alone made. Having no frame of reference was very freeing, and the bonus is, you all now have a recipe to try and replicate, tweak to your own tastes, and fall in love with all on your own!
I have been single for three years. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve dated guys over the past three years, but nothing has really stuck. I have been a serial monogamist all my life, and after my last relationship I realized that I needed some time to sort my life out and get to know myself again. The end of the relationship also happened to coincide with graduate school, so I was really focused on getting my life where I wanted it to be for a while. I kept dating along the way, but those of you that remember the dating world, or who are still in the midst of it, know how absurd and crazy it can be. So when I started dating a new guy a couple months ago, I was terrified. Dating, to me, is just a series of nerve wracking, terrifying, and awkward firsts. The first date, first kiss, first time meeting friends, and for me, the first time I cook him dinner. Luckily, all the other firsts with him had gone amazingly well, so when I cooked dinner for the first time, I was a little less nervous than I could have been.
In a conversation prior to dinner, while I was figuring out what I would make, he mentioned to me that he preferred boxed mashed potatoes to real ones. Those of you who know me, know that this statement alone was enough to infuriate me, so I was determined to change his mind. I finally settled on fried ravioli for an appetizer, Asian marinated flank steak with loaded mashed potatoes and flour-less chocolate cake for dessert.
Ironically in my over zealous attempt to make my mashed potatoes better than a box, I ruined them by over mashing them and they came out totally pasty. Being the incredible sweet man that he is , he told me they were delicious anyway, but I was angry about it all night. So my quest will continue to make him great mashed potatoes.
We started dinner with fried cheese ravioli, which are phenominally easy and delicious. Just take prepared ravioli (I used Buitoni because they were on sale) dip each piece in buttermilk, then in seasoned bread crumbs. Fry in 350 degree oil until they are golden brown on both sides.
For the flank steak, I just marinated it all day and then seared it in a pan for about 5 min on each side at medium-high heat. The marinade was easy enough, I pretty much just threw everything in my pantry that seemed asian into abag with the steak: Soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, green onion, cooking sherry, green onion, and ginger.
The potatoes we will not discuss at length because I will start to get depressed again, but just make standard mashed potatoes and add cheddar cheese, bacon and green onion to them (a dash of garlic powder and cayenne will kick them up even more).
The chocolate cake was also fairly easy and came out really well:
- 8 ouncess semisweet chocolate. I use chocolate chips b/c they melt easily
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat the over to 300 degrees. Melt the butter in a double boiler (or a bowl resting in a pot of boiling water if you’re anything like me), and then add the chocolate a couple of ounces at a time until it is all melted together and smooth. Remove it from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, again mixing until smooth. Bake for 38 minutes at 300.
All in all it was a good dinner, although I am pretty critical of myself, so I was really upset about the mistakes I made. Luckily, boy didn’t seem to notice, or he’s a good liar. Either way, I guess it works
I know I stated this before but cooking for someone, in my mind, is the ultimate way I can show them that I care about them and want to take care of them. A couple of friends have recently had babies and one of the first things I thought about (after, holy cute baby!) was what can I cook for them to make their lives easier. So I guess dinner was just another step in the whole dating process, but for me it was a big one and I’m really glad it went well
On the night before my 26th birthday, I remarked to Jesse that I had a favorite word.
Whimsy.
I’ve decided that I love the joy, the silliness, the lightness and sense of play that come pouring out of the word. As I begin my 27th year, I’ve decided to be more joyful, playful, and whimsical in my daily life.
Another of my favorite words, by the way, is what you see above: Clafoutis. Say it with me now. Clafoutis. Cluh-FOO-tee.
Clafoutis is a tart, comprised of fruit and a baked custardy type stuff. There is no crust. I baked this one in a springform pan, and I’ll be honest, I don’t even remember exactly what recipe I used. I didn’t write anything down, so I’m not 100% sure the amounts of seasonings I added in, and in general this was truly thrown together. I made it for breakfast on my 26th birthday, with blackberries that were on sale at the grocery store the night before. I shudder to think where they might have originated, but they were tasty and made for a lovely baked breakfast.
Blackberry Clafoutis
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Butter your vessel. I used an 8 1/2 inch springform pan, but you can also use a 9-inch deep dish pie plate, a 10-inch pie plate, a cake tin, or anything else that makes you happy.
2. Scatter 8 ounces of blackberries (or blueberries, cherries, raspberries, plums, strawberry pieces, whatever) over the bottom of your vessel.
3. Combine 4 eggs, 1 cup of milk, and 1 cup of sugar in a bowl. I used half a cup each of brown and white sugar, but you can use either/or. Beat until everything is well combined.
4. Add 3/4 cup of flour and a pinch of salt. At this point, you can add any seasonings you want – I used orange zest, cardamom, and cinnamon.
5. Pour the custard over the berries in the bottom of your vessel, redistribute the berries, and bake for 40-45 minutes. You want the top to be springy and not liquidy when you touch it. It will puff and then slump when you let it cool. Mine took closer to an hour because it was in such a small pan, so start checking at or around 40 minutes, and you should be good.
This dish is very forgiving, and as long as you stick to the proportions of the custard, everything else is fair game. Plus, you can be free with it, and make it with things that you probably have at home anyways. You can get creative, and fancy, using different fruits, more fruits, a variety of fruits….everything about clafoutis is customizable.
Plus, it just makes me giggle to say. Clafoutis.
Whimsy.
Sometimes, you have a reason to go balls out. Well, not literally, but figuratively. You have an occasion to make your fanciest, richest, unhealthiest dish to celebrate a special occasion. I had an opportunity on Friday, which was the last day of my internship, and I wanted to say “Thank You” to everybody there, who were super friendly and welcoming to me, but going balls out.
So I made an incredible pound cake, and a strawberry-pear pie. I’m going to post about the cake today, and the pie later, for you guys to wait with baited breath. The director of the clinic, a brilliant psychiatrist and genuine foodie, stated that this was “one of the best cakes I’ve ever tasted.” So don’t just take it from me, this cake is delicious.
Why? It’s called a pound cake because the recipe calls for AN ENTIRE POUND OF BUTTER. Yup. That is what makes it so incredibly tasty. And something to eat in SMALL PORTIONS.
This is from Shirley Corriher’s BakeWise. You will need:
-a 12-cup (large) Bundt pan, greased and floured
-1 pound (4 sticks) of softened butter, unsalted
-2 3/4 cups of sugar (I like brown, but white is also fine)
-1 tbs vanilla extract (use real. Always. Imitation vanilla extract is horrid).
-Half a dozen eggs. Try to get them to room temp if possible, but cold is also okay.
-2 3/4 cups flour (I use unbleached, but any all-purpose flour is fine).
-Half cup heavy (whipping) cream
- 2 cups berries, fresh or frozen. I used blueberries, but raspberries, strawberries, cherries, blackberries, or any other berries or combination thereof would be tasty too.
Preheat the oven to 350. Place the cream in a medium bowl and put it in the freezer as you start.
Start by beating the butter to soften. Cream in the sugar. Then beat in the vanilla. Then, slowly beat in the eggs one by one. Then, add in the flour in 3 or 4 small batches, beat until just combined.
Take the cream out of the freezer. On high speed, whip it until it forms soft peaks (that’s exactly what it sounds like, it will look kind of like gentle hills in your bowl).
Fold the whipped cream into the batter. Don’t just add in the cream. Whipping it truly makes this cake have an incredible texture. It lightens it up, while it is still an incredibly moist cake. Fold in the berries. Spoon the batter into the greased, floured bundt pan.
The recipe said to bake it for 50-60 minutes, but mine took about 80 minutes. Test it with a butter knife or cake tester, it’s done when it comes out clean.
Not only does the clinic director think this cake is great, so does my cross-eyed, intellectually challenged cat:
Hello, friends. Have you missed me? Do you see how I tried to appease you by leading off with a picture of the lovely granola I made? Did it work?
Ok, I admit, you all have the right to print t-shirts, signs, and/or cocktail napkins that read “Joh disappears for two weeks, and all I get is this lousy granola!!” but before you do, you might want to know a few things.
#1 – I DID disappear for 2 weeks. I am ashamed. Except that a week out of the middle there was spent packing for, going to, being in, or getting home from Pittsburgh, PA, where I went with a few friends to do something….kind of amazing. You see, on May 2, I ran my first half-marathon. I’ve been training for it since January, and we spent Thursday night through Monday morning in Pittsburgh for the event. I battled a knee injury and pouring rain throughout the race, but still finished, and while I’m not thrilled with my time, I’m proud of it. I finished, and I did something 4 days ago that I couldn’t do 6 months ago. Something that I wasn’t confident 6 weeks ago that I could truly do. I did it. And I can’t wait until the Brooklyn Half Marathon, when I’ll get a chance to redeem myself, I hope.
#2 – This granola? It’s kind of a big deal. It’s not your average “lousy” granola. So even if you ARE upset at me for dropping off the face of the blogosphere to go running, maybe when you make your picket signs, say “Joh disappears for two weeks and all I get is this fantastic granola” or something like that. Ok?
Joh’s Badass Granola
adapted from several sources, and smushed into one.
1. Preheat the oven to 375, and line a cookie sheet with foil.
2. Combine 3 cups of rolled oats, 1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut, 1 bag (1 1/3 cup) of slivered almonds, 1 cup of chopped walnuts, 2 tablespoons of toasted wheat germ, and toss.
3. Season with a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of honey, and 1/3 cup of olive oil. Toss to combine everything, making sure that all the pieces have been coated a little bit with the olive oil, and spread it all out in a single layer on the foil-lined cookie sheet. Bake the granola for 15 minutes at 375, then stir, and keep an eye on it. You want the granola to be golden brown and toasty smelling, but baking times in the recipes I read varied WILDLY!! Mine ended up taking 20 minutes, total. I baked it for the 15 minutes, stirred, spread it back out, and checked it in 5 minutes, and it looked like this:
So I would say, after 15 minutes, check and stir your granola every 5 minutes. When it looks golden and toasty, and smells nutty and heavenly, pull it out and let it cool for 15 minutes.
4. Chop up 2 to 2 1/2 cups of dried fruit, anything that floats your boat. I used dried apricots and dried cranberries, but anything you want to throw in there would be delish, I’m sure. Stir the fruit into the cooling granola, and make sure everything is all combined and friendly. When it cools completely, put the granola in an airtight container, and stick it in the freezer.
I know, I know…. the freezer?! Yes. I’m not telling you to stash this granola and hide it in the freezer so you don’t eat it all, because honestly it’s super good-for-you. But here’s the thing. The baking and the olive oil and honey and brown sugar means that you’re going to get happy little clumps of oats all stuck together, and fantastic crunch and taste. And if you let the dried fruit sit and get too comfortable with the oats and nuts, the granola will get soggy, and lose its crunch. And that’s just a sad day. So stick it in the freezer until you’re ready to mix some with milk or your morning yogurt.
Also, just as an aside, granola is 100% customizable. You can put in sunflower seeds, or chia seeds or pepitas if you want. You can play with the proportions of nuts, and the type, for sure. You can pick your favorite dried fruits and any spices you want to use. Play around with it, and figure out what you like best when making this granola. I promise, it’s worth it. I’ll probably be making this again, and changing it up, several times, in the search for my own perfect granola.
