Monday, December 13, 2010

Granola - Attempt #6


My first peanut butter granola trial was NOT peanut butter-y enough.  Period.  So, I purused for more inspiration.  I found The Kitchn's peanut butter and honey recipe and thought that it had great potential.  So, I made some tweaks to suit my tastebuds.  See, I don't love honey.  I'm okay with it in the background of something or drizzled on a sopapilla or a piece buttered cornbread, but I do not like a strong taste of honey.  I do, however, love the flavor of molasses.  Think molasses cookies.  Oh yeah.  And really, in my family, molasses or even old fashioned cane syrup was on the table at every country breakfast, so it holds a far more special spot in my heart than honey ever will.  I also used half homemade peanut butter and half Archer Farms All-Natural Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter.  Man, I splurged (an on-sale splurge at $3!) on this jar last week.  It's almost gone.  There's enough to top a few of my bowls of oats this week, and that is it!  Dangerous, dangerous PB.

Peanut Butter Molasses Granola #2

3/4 c dark molasses (or black strap if that's you thing)
2 T unsweetened applesauce
1/3 c peanut butter
1/3 c dark chocolate peanut butter
1/4 t salt
3 1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c flax meal
1/2 c almonds
1/4 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c pepitas

Preheat oven to 325.  Mix the first five ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat until PB is as incorporated as it's able to get.  Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl.  Pour the wet over the dry and mix until everything is thoroughly covered.  The wet is a little thick, so it may take some time.  Pour out onto a parchment lined sheet pan and bake, stirring every 10 minutes, until dry.  This batch almost took 50 minutes, which is longer than I usually have to bake it for.  Perhaps I need to scale back the molasses to decrease the moisture content.


I LOVE the color of this granola.  It's so rich and dark brown.  As a bonus, the entire house smelled of molasses.  Sweet memories.  This recipe created large clumps of granola. Both the molasses and the peanut butter are detectable and pair well.  This one is much better than the first try, where I couldn't taste any peanut butter goodness.  Though, next time....I won't use the chocolate PB.  It's amazing by itself, but you can't taste any of the chocolate in this recipe.  So, why waste it?!  More for my oats!  And peanut butter molasses granola for my yogurt.  Oh yum!

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