Granola, finished off with dried cranberries.

Patrick and I haven’t bought cereal since we began making our own granola a few years ago. In that time we’ve adapted the recipe (from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook) only slightly.

And my recent adjustments have been just to explore the subtle light crunchiness of coconut oil (though olive or canola oils work just fine); and to pump in some extra flavor (cinnamon!).

Without further ado, a simple recipe to make you lots and lots of granola.

Beeson house granola, in pictures

This already looks yummy.

Coconut oil, solid. But with about 45 seconds in the microwave ...

... coconut oil, liquid.

Coconut oil and honey. I like to use a scale to measure these messy ingredients (fewer dishes to clean!). They come to 6 oz. each by weight.

I think this looks a bit glamorous.

I always sneak a bite from this bowl. I even like the extra chewy challenge of raw oats.

Here's the granola before it goes in the oven ...

... and once it's come out.

Recipe

Granola recipes make for perfect little cooking labs. Adjust the spices and oils as you wish. Play with different mixes of nuts and dried fruit. Throw in some brown sugar to see what happens!

Ingredients

4 cups oats
2 cups sweetened coconut
2 cups almonds
2 cups pecans
1 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon

3 cups dried cranberries

Method

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or a baking mat.

1. If you’re using coconut oil, melt it in the microwave. This shouldn’t take more than about 45 seconds (amazing!). Mix oil and honey; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, measure out oats, coconut, nuts, and spices. Pour honey/oil mixture into bowl and mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. (If you’re using coconut oil, the oats etc. will look less glossy; if another oil, more glossy.)

3. Spread granola evenly over baking sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes*, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven when granola is dark golden brown. Let it come to room temperature.

4. Break up the cooled granola and return it to the large bowl; mix with dried cranberries. Store in air-tight containers (we keep ours in the fridge and find it stays nice and crunchy until it’s time to make another batch!).

* Yes, that’s a huge time span! But I’ve found — having used different ovens to make this recipe — that with the variations in oven temps plus the somewhat delicate nature of coconut and pecans, it’s important to find the time that’s right for your particular, unique oven.

This is how it gets gone.

I can’t take too much credit for this recipe.

Pound cake — though you can probably find dozens of books using different ratios — is fabled to rely on a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.

I borrowed the ratio, cut it in half, and added a smidge of salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract.

The finished cake is buttery but not dense; subtly sweet; a good companion to coffee or jam or both.

With such simple ingredients, the most important thing to consider when making this cake is method. Specifically, how well you beat together the (softened) butter and sugar before adding your other ingredients.

You want to completely blend the butter into the sugar and whip tons of air into the mix. It sets the foundation for a smooth, strong, light batter.

The rest of the method goes like this: Scrape down your bowl before adding the eggs and vanilla. Once added, mix the batter just long enough to break up the eggs and mix into the butter/sugar (it shouldn’t take more than about 15-30 seconds). Scrape down the bowl again. Finally, you add the dry ingredients at a low speed until the flour is moistened. Then slowly increase the speed to fully incorporate the dry ingredients and fluff up the batter one last time. To play it safe, you can scrape down the bowl once more and give the batter a final quick, strong mix.

Here’s the method in pictures …

Getting the butter and sugar just right

Half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar.

Butter and sugar in its clump phase.

It's just coming together, but the butter and sugar is nowhere near creamy, light, and fluffy. And I found out I made a mistake starting with this big bowl. In the next photo you'll see I changed it out for a smaller one so I could do a better job beating the mixture with a hand mixer.

Look how different! You know it's ready when it's light and fluffy, whiter, and no longer translucent.

Adding eggs and vanilla

I mixed it just long enough to break up the eggs and incorporate them into the butter/sugar mixture. Because I was using a hand mixer, it only took about 15 seconds. If you're beating by hand, count on it to take a little longer. But notice that this doesn't come together at all. That's fine! The batter will smooth out once you add the dries.

The final batter, dries added

I'd added the dries while mixing at the lowest speed (so flour wouldn't get flung every which way). Once the dries were moistened, I turned the speed up on my mixer to fluff up the batter. I beat it for no more than a minute (and probably closer to 30 seconds).

Light and fluffy, full effect.

Panned and baked

Whatever size pan you have, fill it about halfway or two-thirds with batter ...

... and this is what you'll get!

Simple Pound Cake

Stand mixer or not, you can do this! If you mix by hand, you should be creaming the butter and sugar until your arm gets tired. Fair warning.

Just waiting for a cup of coffee.

Ingredients

8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 oz. (1 c. plus 2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp.) granulated sugar
8 oz. (1.5 c. plus 1.5 Tbsp.) all-purpose flour
8 oz. (5 large) whole eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease one 9-by-5-inch baking dish or two small bread loaves (I used butter!).

1. Sift together flour, salt, and powder. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl.

3. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until eggs are broken up (15-30 seconds). Scrape down bowl.

4. Add dries and mix until light and fluffy (scrape down bowl and mix again if needed).

5. Bake for 60-70 minutes (less if you’re baking two smaller loaves).

Enjoy! This loaf went in about 24 hours in my house …

Yum yum yum.

The beauty of making most of our food from scratch is that I’ve become increasingly familiar with the ingredients that go into good food — and the more and more I seem to find I have those ingredients on hand. It creates such a happy cycle of ever-increasing scratchmakingness. I seldom have to make a special trip the grocery store. I don’t have that mental hurdle of “but I’ve never cooked with …”.

And now I’m experimenting. A little bit of this recipe here, some notes from that recipe there, and suddenly I’m making my own pre-workout snack.

Yum yum yum

There is such a satisfying chew to these bars — they work your jaw a little — and I love the crunch of toasted oats and almonds. And what I think might make them just a little better than their closest brand-name cousin (they have a hint of PowerBar-ness) is a notch up on flavor. I think it’s one of the things I’ll play most with in future versions. I’m thinking I need to try besting Bonk Breaker’s peanut butter and jelly bar.

When these bars work: You want something tasty to pull out of the fridge for a boost before or after a workout (or an action-packed midday snack).

When they don’t work as well: During exercise (like a long bike ride). I want to develop a separate recipe that makes these more convenient at room temperature. As it is, the bars become somewhat soft and sticky outside the fridge, and hard to handle even when wrapped in wax paper.

Recipe: Almond date honey bars

Hey! I hope you like these. If you experiment with this recipe and like what happens, I’d love to know about it!

Ingredients

1 cup dates
4 oz (1/2 cup) honey
3 oz (1/3 cup) almond butter

2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp ground flax seeds
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. kosher salt

Method

Prep: Line a small baking pan with parchment or wax paper (I used an 8-by-8-inch square pan). This’ll be where you put your final “dough.” Preheat your oven to 300F.

1. On a rimmed cookie sheet, toast almonds and oats for about 20 minutes. While these are in the oven, soak your dates in warm water.

2. Let almonds cool a few minutes, then give them a rough chop (in a food processor or by hand). Place in a medium bowl with oats, chia seeds, ground flax seeds, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

3. Drain dates; grind in food processor until they become a paste. Set aside.

4. Place honey in a shallow saute pan and set over low heat on your stovetop. Once warmed through, add date paste and stir until well-mixed. Add almond butter and stir until well-mixed.

5. Add honey, date, and nut butter mixture to dry ingredients and mix well, quickly. A firm “dough” should form.

6. Place dough into prepared pan and spread quickly, pushing dough to edges of the pan and flattening it to an even thickness (you could use some wax or parchment paper to keep your fingers from getting too sticky).

7. Cover pan with plastic wrap and chill in fridge. Once well chilled, remove from pan and cut into squares. If you cut this into about ten bars, each will be an equivalent serving size to the energy bars you buy in the store. I cut mine to about half that size and snack on one before my morning gym routine.

Perfect size for dipping.

So, I think I found the cracker for the Beeson home. It’s inspired by Oh She Glows’ vegan and gluten-free crackers. My adjustments robbed them of being vegan or gluten-free, but that works for us since we don’t worry about either.

How do I know these were the winners? “These crackers are better than tortilla chips” … said the man who consumed about two pounds of chips a week.

This is what a ton of dough looks like.

I made a triple batch to do some freezer experiments — could I make the dough ahead, freeze it and then bake it up as needed? Answer: yes! Which makes it easier to keep the crackers on hand.

Rolled, scored dough.

Trick! Roll the dough on oven-save parchment or a baking mat; make your cuts; move the parchment/mat to a baking pan and stick it in the freezer. Once the sheet of crackers is frozen, pull it out, quickly break the crackers apart and bake or freeze for later use!

It’s much easier to handle the stiff, frozen dough than the soft, room-temp dough.

Recipe: Almond & wheat crackers with flax & Parmesan

Wanna know something quirky I discovered? The almond meal I’d used for my initial batches had been in the freezer just before I mixed it. This most recent batch, I thawed it first. You know what? It made the dough a little greasy. I’m guessing it’s because the nut oil was more accessible at room temperature. From now on I’ll use almond meal that’s been at least refrigerated.

Giving the crackers some breathing room for the bake.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups almond flour*

1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp olive oil

Method

1. Sift together dry ingredients.

2. Add water and oil; mix just until a cohesive dough forms. (I suspect overmixing might make these tough — I may have done it myself.)

3. On a piece of oven-safe parchment paper or baking mat, roll dough thin. It might give you a little attitude — it’s a little cracky and delicate. If you gently continue working it with the pin, you’ll make a nice big sheet to cut crackers into.

4. Cut dough into cracker shapes. Place the sheet in your freezer.

5. About an hour or so later, preheat the oven to 350F. Once the oven is preheated, remove the baking sheet and break apart your frozen, precut crackers and spread them out on the sheet.

6. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Once these are completely cooled, you can store them in an airtight container — ours have stayed tasty for a few days (but usually don’t last that long).

(I use Bob’s Red Mill; you could also grind your own raw almonds to a cornmeal consistency)

Chocolate spice cake, ganached.

Get ready for something sweet:

Patrick’s grandparents live in the same house they raised his father in, in High Point, N.C. My mom grew up down the road in Greensboro, N.C., and my parents live in the house where she spent her high school years (we moved into that house when I was twelve).

The proximity makes for a Thanksgiving tradition that Patrick and I began when we started dating: two Thanksgivings.

We visit the Beeson grandparents for lunch and my parents for dinner. We’ve learned how to strike the balance — pies, birds, potatoes, sausages. It’s a rich, rich day.

Last year Grandmother Beeson — thinking of my bakerliness — gave me an old Better Homes & Gardens cookie cookbook. I loved that she’d thought of me, and taken the time to give me something from her home.

Old treasure.

We headed to North Carolina last week to visit the Beesons and I had to had to pull that book off the shelf and whip up something to take them.

A little starting point.

I took this brownie recipe as inspiration, made a few tweaks, and ended up with a chocolate spice cake that I plan to make again. Maybe for Thankgiving, with a layer of pumpkin butter sandwiched between the ganache and cake.

Spiced Chocolate Cake with Ganache

One for you, one for me.

Ingredients

1 stick (4 oz) butter, softened
1 cup (7 oz) packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup (2 oz) heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup (3 1/3 oz) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (1 2/3 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

12 oz. simple ganache (follow this method, using 6 oz. each chocolate and cream)

Method

Prep: Preheat oven to 350F and butter a 9-inch pan (square or round). I used a springform pan so I could remove the cake in its whole form, but if you’re happy to remove slices one at a time (brownie-style), use a normal cake pan.

1. Sift together flour, cocoa, powder, salt, and spices. Set aside.

2. Put cream, eggs and vanilla in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar and until light and fluffy (prepare for your arm to get tired if you do this by hand. Don’t worry, you can do it).

4. Once creamed, add half the liquid mixture and mix slightly; add half the dry mixture and mix well. Repeat with remaining liquid and dry ingredients. Your final batter should be light and fluffy. Fold chopped chocolate into batter.

5. Transfer to pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

6. While the cake bakes, prepare your ganache.

7. When cake is done, remove to a cooling rack and cover with ganache; cool to room temperature.

It’s probably highly edible once cooled, but I covered and chilled my cake overnight.

Next time around …

I’m thinking of playing with this recipe next time I make it. Maybe I’ll:

> replace the cream with 2 Tbsp. additional butter;
> increase the spices to 3/4 tsp. cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. ginger;
> replace half the flour with whole wheat;
> incorporate ground flax seed (maybe by replacing one of the eggs with: 1 Tbsp. flax mixed with 3 Tbsp. water).

I’m not sure how these will work, but if you’re the adventurous kind, too, I thought I’d share my ideas!