Granola...

As part of our quest to use up the several cups of okara we get from the soy milk maker each week, I was flicking through the helpful blog Okara Mountain and I happened upon this recipe for granola.  I used to make my own muesli for breakfast, as it is much cheaper and nicer than storebought varieties.  So I thought, why not granola?

I started simply, mainly following Toontz's recipe, but subbing marmalade for orange juice because that's what we had in the house.  It was good, and simple, and a batch lasted us just over a week so it was kind of perfect.

Then I saw Hannah's post about peanut butter granola, and badly wanted some PB in my breakfast cereal.  But, the point of granola is to use up okara, so I couldn't follow Hannah's recipe exactly.  So I did some combining and altering, and came up with Peanut Butter and Jam Granola.  It was wondrous - nutty and fruity and toasty-delicious.

I've since identified a formula to follow in terms of granola, within which there are endless flavour combinations and variations that can be experimented with.  Here is the skeleton of my recipe...

4 c. oats
2 c. extras (nuts, seeds, oat bran, flaked grain mix, roasted buckwheat, rice flakes, coconut, etc.)

1 tsp. spices (cinnamon, allspice, etc.)

1 c. wet okara (I suspect soy yogurt would work as well)
1/2 c. juice or jam
1/4 c. rice bran oil
1/2 c. brown sugar (less if the juice/jam is very sweet)

1 c. dried fruit

In a large bowl, combine the dry stuff.  In a jug, mix the wet stuff.  Then add the wet to the dry. Mix until all the dry stuff is coated in the wet stuff.  Spread into two baking trays and bake at 160 (275F) for 1 hour, mixing every 15 minutes.  Add the dried fruit at the last mix.  Cool completely on trays, then transfer to an airtight container.

Now, for PB&J granola, I used about 1/2 cup of peanut butter instead of oil, and I used strawberry jam.  I melted these together over the stove before mixing with the okara and brown sugar, so they were nice and runny.

In the future, I'm going to see what tahini granola is like.  What other flavours should I mix up?