Molasses-Peanut Granola

From: CoffeeB

On Apr 21, 2009

I've made alot of granola recipes the past years and this is a first for me using molasses. It's quite a bit wetter than most and the liquid part seemed to be about twice what I've used in the past. I loved that it coated everything really well and the flavor of the molasses comes thru nicely. I omitted the coconut and also for the nuts I used slivered almonds. I upped the amounts of oats by about 1/2 cup and also used some wheat bran and wheat germ as stated by previous reviewers. I used a cup of regular raisins too. This took more than an hour of baking b/f I felt comfortable removing. I was afraid it was going to stay too wet by just baking 20 minutes. The final product did clump a bit which was the desired effect I was looking for. A great versatile recipe Sharon. Made for HolidayTag~

From: kartofle

On Aug 12, 2002

I was very pleased with this recipe. Very easy to prepare and store. A good way to start the morning. Conrad.

From: LUv 2 BaKE

On Dec 30, 2006

What a great granola. I made this as a gift for my dad (although I had some too! ), and discovered it definitely is gift worthy. My dad likes his granola just barely sweet so I added the 3 cups of oats then about 1 cup of wheat germ, bran, spelt flakes, wheat flakes, and various other flakes. I also omitted the coconut for his prefernce. Instead of vegetable oil I used 1 1/2 tbsp peanut oil which gave a greater peanut flavour. I loved the idea of whole peanuts in a granola!! I love peanuts. My granola didn't clump up all that much but that was probably because of more flakes therefore less molasses mixture to go around. It still made one delicious crunchy granola. Thanks for a keeper!!

From: Roosie

On Jan 9, 2005

This is absolutely beautiful with the mahogany oats studded with tan peanuts (not sure why, but they didn't really get coated with the molasses). I used 1 cup chopped peanuts, and 1/4 cup sliced almonds and 1/4 cup sunflower seeds. I used blackstrap molasses, which I'm not sure if I can really suggest unless you are a diehard molasses-phile, because the final product is pretty intense. I used half brown sugar and half Sucanat (an organic unrefined sugar, essentially a natural brown sugar) and did not have the golden raisins, so we used some Monukka raisins, currants and dried cranberries. In step 5 the recipe says, "Combine molasses, brown sugar, 1/4 cup water and oil in heavy small saucepan." but the ingredients did not call for any oil. I have since talked to Sharon about this and located the original recipe (it is from Bon Appetit July 1996) which does call for 3Tbs vegetable oil. I decided, when I made this to just use 1/8 cup water and 1/8 cup oil (I chose to use unrefined peanut). Now, mine turned out a bit damp and took closer to an hour to dry out and be closer to crisp as one would expect granola to be. I think that this long cooking time also intensified the molasses flavor and it ended up burning just a bit in places, despite my stirring. I am planning on trying this again sometime with the new measurements. Definitely a nice change from the granolas I've made in the past that are mostly flavored with honey or maple. I will try to get some golden raisins for next time too, as I think that their lighter flavor will help to counter the strong molasses flavor of the granola. Thanks, Sharon!