Chef BoyarTamiko

It's taken plenty of trial and error but here it is - near perfect granola. The secret is to put brown sugar with the dry ingredients and use a tiny amount of water with the wet ingredients. The water causes the granola to "clump". When you use slow cooking oats they tend to stay as single oats whereas quick cooking oats will clump together. But quick cooking oats taste like cardboard.

I picked up some dried fruit from Hamada Farms at the Farmer's Market today and some sage- wildflower honey from the honey lady. The honey is extra strong so I thought it would stand up well in granola. It does but honey seems to burn quickly. On the left is granola with honey nectarines and cashews. The dried nectarines are incredible! On the right is maple syrup with coconut, walnuts and dried cherries. Holy crap are these dried cherries good! Sadly he is almost out for the season. The maple syrup granola is more subtle and a little less sweet - I definitely prefer it.

Below is a (bad) closeup of the clumps.

Here is the basic recipe:

2 cups oats
1/2-3/4 cup wheat germ
1 - 2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
3 tbsp veg oil
2 tbsp water
1 - 1 1/2 cups mix ins

Mix dry ingredients together. Put liquids in a small pot and bring to a low boil. Pour into dry ingredients and mix. Add mix ins and stir (If adding dry fruit you may want to add it later in the cooking period so it doesn't totally dry out).

Dump on a sprayed baking sheet and make some clumps, if they don't already exist. Bake for 25-30 minutes then take out and add dried fruit. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. It's finished when it's sort of golden in colour but not really brown. In the above photo the granola on the right is ideal and the one on the left is bordering on burned.

Let it cool then add soy milk and chow!