Alison has two granola recipes. Kinda-sweet and Decidedly not-sweet. Both are really good.
In my previous granola post, I outlined my criteria for an excellent granola – because yes, I do have standards. Anyone serious about granola should. I will use my developed criteria to develop this rather not sweet granola.
1. Every good granola recipe has an X factor.
This granola has 2 X factors:
Soy sauce (I’ll admit this made me hesitate. Would I like soy sauce on my granola? Would it be too savory to put on my plain yogurt? But it balanced well with the tiny bit of maple syrup, far better than I anticipated! And at least it wasn’t fish sauce!)
Aleppo pepper (the perfect amount of heat)
2. Every good granola recipe is also a template.
So this recipe did not have as many options listed in it as the Kinda-Sweet one did. I think the spices and maple syrup to soy sauce ratio is non-negotiable. The flavor balance is what gives this granola its namesake. The egg whites must also stay the same - they give the granola its signature crunch. But she does list quite a lot of seeds to put in the granola, half of which I could not find or could not eat (gluten intolerance). In this way, it’s a template. I used: rolled oats, raw pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, white sesame seeds, fennel seed, aleppo pepper. I did not use: sunflower seeds, buckwheat groats, black sesame seeds, nigella seeds, or caraway seeds.
3. Every good granola recipe makes a lot of granola.
Once again, this made plenty of granola – enough to last me and my friend Molly about 4 days in Colorado. It could have sustained us longer, but hey, we were hungry from all the physical activity! We ate this on its own, and with plain goat’s milk yogurt (if you haven’t yet, try it, find it at TJ’s) and a dash of maple syrup.
In summary, I’d say this is another good granola recipe. Savory with a kick, and begging for a drizzle of maple syrup.
76 recipes cooked, 149 to go.
