Seven Year Granola

I have a confession to make:  this granola isn't mine.  I actually got the recipe off of the Traveler's Lunchbox blog.  It took her seven years to refine it, thus the name.  The difference between this and other granola is the use of oat flour and brown sugar, the combination of which produces a super light and flaky granola.  I love this granola, even though I'm not really a granola person.  But I tried this recipe because it made me feel nostalgic, my mother would always make granola for us.  Anyway, I ended up making it for an entire summer a couple years ago.  It's easy to make, and mixes up pretty quick, and it's healthy.  And did I mention it's economical as well??  It lasts us at least a good week, and that's with us eating it like there's no tomorrow!
Anyway, I forgot about this granola until I stumbled across the recipe last week.  I thought I'd share.  Just a note before you read the recipe, if you don't have quick oats and oat flour, no prob!  Just do what I do and for quick oats blend regular rolled oats in a food processor/blender until they're about half their normal size.  Do the same for oat flour until it reaches a flour stage.

Seven Year Granola:

• 3 cups quick oats
• 2 cups oat flour
• 3 cups nuts/seeds (I like to use a mix of almonds and walnuts, but play with it!)
• 1 cup coconut (optional, I actually added this)
• 1 cup brown sugar,  packed
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (I used salted, it's all I had)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp mace
• 1 cup Craisins
  

Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  In a large bowl combine the oats, oat flour, nuts and/or seeds.  In a microwave-safe bowl or a saucepan combine the brown sugar, butter and water and heat just until the butter has melted and the mixture is bubbly (about 1 min. for the microwave).  Stir everything together until smooth, then stir in the salt, vanilla and spices.  Pour this mixture over the oats and nuts, stirring everything well to coat.  Let stand for about 10 minutes.
Spread the mixture out on a large baking sheet, separating it into irregular clumps with your fingers, and allowing space between the clumps for the hot air to circulate.  Slide into the middle of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and stir, gently breaking up the mixture into small-to-medium sized clumps.  Return to the oven and bake another 15 minutes or so before stirring again.  Repeat the bake-and-stir until the mixture is a uniform golden brown and completely dry; this usually takes 1-1 1/2 hours (for me it took 1 1/4).  Add Craisins, if using.  Cool completely before using.  Store in a covered container at room temperature.  Serve with milk or yogurt and fruit as desired.

1. Finished Product, 2. Adding quick oats, 3. Oat flour, 4. oats, coconut and nuts, 5. mixing oats, nuts and coconut, 6. uniform mix, oat and more, 7. spices, 8. unmelted spice mix, 9. Melted spice and sugar mix, 10. Oats & etc. mixed with brown sugar mix, 11. the Quaker Oat Guy, 12. ready to bake granola

Holly Hipps' Sweet Rolls with Walnuts and Clementine

This recipe, unfortunately is not from Magnolia.  But, this is the first cinnamon roll recipe that I mastered. My mother has a divine, decadent one from the Lion House that I inherited. But I'm scared of it. It requires dough hooks for an extremely sticky dough, which results in a heavenly, moist cinnamon roll.  I used to make them perfectly, and then one day my world crashed down around me, and every time I made them they flopped. So, this is my standby.

Today, I made these rolls with the regular cinnamon-sugar filling.  Then I added some alterations: coarsely chopped walnuts and some clementine juice and zest to cream cheese frosting. The frosting is typically more of an icing, but I'm a cream cheese fan.  And I was the one making them.  The result of my hard labor?
I ate three.
By myself.
And I don't regret it. I'm excited for breakfast so I can eat more. Don said they were, "awesome". Which is high praise. Especially since he's not a frosting freak like I am. Some times I don't know how we got together.

The thing that I like about this recipe  is that Holly Hipps (a neighbor of my in-laws, and a baker to boot) has broken it down into a pretty idiot proof recipe (which I definitely needed until this last year before yeast and I became friends). Don almost didn't let me share this recipe, because it is held sacred in his family.  It's that good.  Did I mention that cinnamon rolls are fun to make?  It's the grown-ups way of playing in the mud.  I prefer to do everything by hand, stirring, kneading, spreading the butter, cinnamon sugar, etc.  There are very few tools and clean-up needed that way.  And it makes me feel like I'm five again, making mud pies.  That's where it all started.

So, here it is:

Ingredients:

Dissolve:      

• 1/2 c. warm water
• 2 TBSP dry yeast
• 1 TBSP sugar

Melt together:

• 1 1/2 c. water
• 3/4 c. shortening

Mix:

• 4 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 tsp salt

Add the cooled shortening mixture to the yeast mixture, You don't want to add it hot because you'll kill your little yeast friends.  Then add that to the egg mixture.  Blend well, and add 7 cups of flour.  Knead several times, place in a greased bowl in a warm, draft free place.  (I like to fill a glass 9" x 13" cake pan half full of the hottest water I can get out of the tap and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.  Then I cover the greased bowl, with it's contents, with a dish towel and let it rise). Let double in size.  You will know it is double the size when you stick your index finger in and it leaves an indentation in the dough.  Punch down (my favorite part), roll out to about 1/2-1/4 inch flat in a rectangle shape.  Soften one cube of butter, and spread with hands (or a pastry brush if you're a pansy) on the now rectangle dough.  Make a cinnamon-sugar mixture (I guest-a-mate, but it works out, I did 3 TBSP of sugar to about a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon) and sprinkle THICKLY over the butter.  There's nothing worse than bland cinnamon rolls.  Sprinkle with coarsely chopped walnuts.  Roll the long side to form a little cin-a-dough log.  Then, (and this is my other favorite part), take a string and slip it underneath the log, then switch both strands from one hand to the other so that they are crossing, pull, and cut sections measuring about 1 inch wide.  Place on buttered (because you're worth it) cookie sheet.  Repeat with remaining dough. Let rise until double the size.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes (mine were a little less, ovens vary, so check on your rolls, if the smell done, they probably are). 

Frosting:

• 3 TBSP butter
• 1 pkg. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar
• about 1 TBSP fresh clementine juice (or to taste)
• 1 to 2 tsp(s) of clementine zest

Clementine Frosting:

Combine butter and cream cheese, beat with a mixer until light and fluffy.  Add sugar, one cup at a time until mixture reaches spreading consistency.   Add juice and zest.  The juice will change the consistency of the frosting, so you might need to add more sugar.

Alternate Icing:

• 1/2 c. margarine/butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 c. powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients and add enough canned milk until smooth.  Frost over cooled sweet rolls.

Spread icing/frosting with a rubber spatula on cooled cinnamon rolls.  Or, if you're like me, warm rolls since I can never wait until they cool to eat them, and I like the half-melted frosting look.

Aaaah, Magnolia

Look at what I got myself for my birthday.

I'm so happy.  Magnolia.  Or as, Lilly, my sister-in-law says, "Mongolia."  (She gets the two mixed up sometimes.  Even though one is a country and the other a flower. It's endearing, dearest Lilly.)  I have been in love with the Magnolia Bakery in New York since I picked up a copy of the Reader's Digest four years ago and they were rated as one of America's top bakeries.  Since then I have scoured the internet trying to find out top secret information about the bakery.  How do they do their swirl?  Are any of their recipes on the internet?  Then, a mere half week ago I found this beautiful cookbook.  It's what dreams are made out of.  It has everything from ice cream to sweetbreads to cheese pies.  Oh yes, cheese pies.  I had to have it.  Don't worry, I'll share.  Although, the cookbook still doesn't show how to do that dang swirl.