Friday Recipe: Mary's Granola

This is a variant on a recipe that came from either Gourmet or Food and Wine a while ago - I tweaked it a good bit. Great for breakfast or by the handful as a snack.

Preheat the oven to 325 deg F.

In a medium bowl, put in 3 cups rolled oats, 1 cup sliced almonds or some combination of nuts you like (I like some pistachios in this), 1/4 cup sesame seeds. Mix.

Put 1/3 c canola oil, 1/3 c honey and 1 tsp ground cardamom in a microwave safe dish or pyrex measuring cup and nuke for about a minute. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir it around until well mixed.

Pour it out onto a cookie sheet that you've lined with parchment or aluminum foil (parchment is more environmentally friendly) and bake it at 325 deg for about 25 minutes, until it's starting to turn a toasty color.

Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

Add about a cup of dried apricots, cut up into small pieces, and some raisins or Craisins. You might also add some candied ginger, finely chopped, if you like. Once it's cooled, put it into a large jar or a gallon sized ziploc bag.

Here's a variant - you can use dried apples shopped up in place of the apricots, using a tsp of cinnamon or apple pie spice in lieu of the cardamom. I prefer walnuts in this combination, and am more likely to use more Craisins than raisins to amp up the tartness.

Enjoy!