My New Favorite Granola

In the summer one of my favorite things to eat for breakfast is Greek yogurt, drizzled with a little honey, and topped with granola and fresh berries. I never buy store bought granola though since more have unnecessary fats, sugars, and preservatives. I've experimented with several homemade granolas over the past couple of years and this recipe from Baked is my current favorite. It's not totally healthy since it does contain some oil, but it has a great flavor and texture. I'll post the recipe below the way that I make it, but keep in mind that you can always substitute other types of nuts and dried fruit. I happen to like almonds the best, but I've also made granola with walnuts and cashews and liked those a lot as well. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup dried cherries

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine oats, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until well combined.

In a small bowl whisk together the oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Pour this mixture over the oat mixture and gently stir.

Then use your hands to combine the mixture (squeeze small fist fulls) until all of the oats are well coated. {Note: using your hands really makes a huge difference in the final texture of the granola. Something about this step results in granola with more "chunks"}

Pour the mixture onto a baking sheet and spread out evenly.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the over and add the almonds. Using a metal spatula, flip the granola over and incorporate the almonds.

Bake for another 10 minutes and then remove from the over to stir again with the spatula.

Bake for a final 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the cherries and raisins over the granola and transfer to an airtight container for storage.

*Recipe adapted from the cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Oatmeal Bread

Sunday is usually my bread baking day. Other than occasionally buying a specialty loaf from Great Harvest or Zingerman's, I'm proud to say that we haven't purchased sandwich bread in over a year. I like to make bread on Sunday so that Joe has a fresh loaf for his sandwiches all week. Yes, he is in his late 20s and still takes a pb&j to school for lunch almost everyday. Albeit, his is a much healthier version with almond butter or all natural peanut butter...no Jif for our sandwiches. I have three basic whole-grain bread recipes that I alternate between, two of which are done in the oven and one of which I use my breadmaker for. The oatmeal bread is Joe's favorite. It has a slightly crumbly texture which requires careful cutting, but it's hearty and slightly tangy from the greek yogurt and buttermilk used. I made myself an almond butter sandwich with the fresh bread for my breakfast on the airplane this morning, and was happy with how the loaf turned out this week.

Yield: 1 Loaf

Ingredients:
1 cup + 1 teaspoon whole wheat pastry flour, divided
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup + 1 Tablespoon old-fashioned rolled oats, divided
7 ounces plain, 2% greek yogurt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup low-fat buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat 9x5 inch loaf pan with olive oil spread on a paper towel or rub pan with a stick of butter. Sprinkle pan with 1 teaspoon whole wheat pastry flour. Shake until all sides are coated and then shake off excess flour.

In a large bowl stir together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, and oatmeal.
In a seperate bowl whisk together yogurt, egg, olive oil, and buttermilk.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Pour batter in the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the top with remaining 1 Tablespoon of oats.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, rotating pan halfway through the baking time, until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow bread to sit in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool the rest of the way to room temp. Store the bread well-wrapped, in the fridge.

*Recipe adapted from Healthy Food for Living

Birthday Cheesecake

This past weekend marked the birthday of one of my husband's law school friends. We found out through his girlfriend that his favorite dessert was cheesecake and his favorite flavor was blueberry. So, I set off in search of a good cheesecake recipe because despite my husband's boasts that I make "a great cheesecake", I have never in fact made real cheesecake. Normally I make a healthy version that we call "fake cheesecake". When I don't have any recipes in my cookbooks, my go-to recipe site is Annie's Eats. Everything of hers that I've made has turned out really well and this cheesecake recipe was no exception. I figured that individual sized cheesecakes would be best since having an entire cheesecake sitting around is just too much of a temptation.

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the crust:
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3 tbsp. sugar

For the topping:
6 oz. fresh organic blueberries
2 tbsp. sugar

For the filling:
3 8 oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 8 oz package reduced fat cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325˚ F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter and sugar until all ingredients are moistened. Press 1 tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner and press down with the bottom of a glass or small measuring cup. Bake 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack while you prepare the blueberry puree and filling.

Combine the blueberries and sugar in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth, then pour through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Use a spatula to press the juice through.

To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Slowly blend in the sugar until smooth. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

To assemble, spoon 3 heaping tablespoons of the cheesecake batter over the crust in each cupcake liner. Dot a ½ teaspoon of the blueberry puree in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Use a toothpick or a wooden skewer to lightly swirl.

Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving.


Please excuse the poor photo quality. The cheesecakes were a hit and all of them were consumed within a couple hours!



*Source: adapted from Annie's Eats