All things southern is the line my daughter uses on her posts from Houston, Texas.  Yes, my Cali girl is now a transplanted Texan, temporarily, hopefully.  She is finishing her 1st year at Rice University and loving it. I now have a vested interest in Texas. This means when I visit her my first question (well after how are you?) is where and what do we eat?!  Houston has great food….very diverse, Tex-Mex, great Pho, fusion, taco trucks, you name it-Houston has it.   Check out the article on the Houston food scene in the Washington Post, Best Food Cities in America.

I started following the blog, The Homesick Texan, a couple of years ago (hmm portent of things to come?).  A transplant to New York City, the author takes us on a culinary tour of her home state.  Great recipes and entertaining writing have led to 2 cookbooks and quite a few followers. She waxed poetically in her blog about her Uncle Austin’s Granola and I was happy to find the same recipe, but in a smaller quantity in her 2nd book.  The intro to the book’s granola recipe describes Uncle Austin’s Granola and how the difference might be the love he puts in it, yadayadayada.  Confused by the different proportions of the ingredients between the 2 recipes I sent an e-mail to her.  Her response was “the proportions are different because they’re different recipes” end of the reply.

Ok, my bad, your intro led me to believe it was the same recipe.  I see she has adopted a “New York attitude”, despite being a Homesick Texan.

Lucky Me I Have a  Go-To Granola Recipe

The granola recipe in her book is ok. The amount of oil and honey creates a very wet mixture. During baking, I lowered the temp to 325 in order to dry the granola without it browning too much. Maybe Uncle Austin’s Granola on her blog is better but I think I will stick to my go-to granola recipe, Jules’s Granola.  Try it, I think you’ll like it.

Granola Tips

The base recipe is old-fashioned oats, brown sugar, maple syrup, oil and vanilla. From there you can vary the add-ins.  I love unsweetened coconut flakes, and any kind of nut works, such as pecans, almonds or pistachios.  Add pepitas and even a bit of sesame seeds as a portion of the nuts (2-3 tablespoons).  Dried fruit such as a mixed berry medley of raisins, dried cranberries, and blueberries or an island-inspired blend of mango, papaya, and pineapple top my list of favorites.  You do you and add whatever you like.

Adding dried milk powder adds a toasty richness and a touch of sweetness.  Though not a whole lot, it does add protein too.  It’s optional but if you have milk powder, by all means, add it.

There are two camps of granola folks, the loose, clump-free one and the clusters camp.  I like clusters or clumps of granola.  The secret is to compress the oats before baking and leaving the pan alone while baking-no stirring!  Place another baking sheet on top of the sheet of oats and…wait for it, step on it. Yep, serious compression.  This will smoosh the oats together and allow them to bake as clusters.  For loose granola, skip this and stir the oats occasionally during baking.

For the holidays, we fill glass jars with our homemade granola to gift to friends and co-workers.  The tags on the jars include a note “Return the jar for a refill next year, xxoo Santa”.  Invariably, the jars all come back.

It’s great sprinkled on top of yogurt and fresh berries or in a bowl with milk.  My favorite way is by itself for the hand-to-mouth toss, but in this world of transparency….gotta tell ya, granola is high in calories, so be judicious…if you’re skipping that burger lunch, have at it, if not, go easy!