Advice from someone you trust: Golden Syrup and Sea Salt Granola

Photograph by Anthony K. Yokoyama

My big brother Mark has been my best friend since my parents brought me home from the hospital. Shortly after my arrival, my mom took him to the park and asked how he was feeling.  At two and a half he already knew that actions spoke louder than words.  He hit her with a stick. But he never held it against me and we’ve been thick as thieves ever since. Most of the time I think of him as only chronologically older, but he always gives the most sage advice. He knows me so well, he knows not to tell me what he would do in a given situation or give me generic advice that, while theoretically correct, I'll never follow.  He knows what’s right for me and he has never led me astray. More often than I would like to admit I am late in taking his advice, especially when it comes to cooking.  I can hear him now: “Make your own chicken stock - there’s no active time and it’s FREE!!!!” It took me years to listen to that one and now I hate thinking about all of the chicken bones I threw away before I caught on. “Get a pressure cooker. You will be able to cook so many more things on weeknights.” I know he’s right.  I still need to get a pressure cooker.

Photograph by Anthony K. Yokoyama

One of his best pieces of cooking advice, “Don’t buy granola. It’s so expensive and homemade granola is way better.” As usual, I didn’t start making my own granola soon enough but once I did I never looked back. Turns out, homemade granola is way better than store-bought granola and so much less expensive. Hmmm. I feel like someone told me that once, a long time ago. Now I’m the one proselytizing everyone I know to convert to homemade granola.  As much as I love eating granola and knowing that I have some around for quick breakfasts, car snacks, fruit crisp topping and so on, I also love making granola. I love how you can improvise, throw in whatever you’ve got in the cupboard, how it’s almost impossible to mess up. I love the texture and the way it makes your kitchen smell when it’s in the oven. I remember making granola the day after we brought Emmett home from the hospital.  Back when I felt like it should be illegal to have let us leave there with a 7lb human who was only two days old.  It made me feel like I was at home, like things were normal, albeit a new normal.

I’m not the only one around here who loves granola. The stuff goes fast in our house. Fortunately, I’ve married into a reliable source of prime granola ingredients. Irish oats! Golden syrup! Sea salt! Yes. Please.  This recipe makes a lot of granola (if it didn’t I would have to make a new batch every week) but feel free to halve it.  The combination of olive oil and salt gives it an almost savory quality and the golden syrup balances it out without making it overpoweringly sweet.   The incorporation of egg whites serves as glue to stick big clumps of the granola together if you like it chunky like I do.  If you don’t like chunky granola, just leave the egg whites out and stir the granola every 15 minutes or so while it’s in the oven.    

Lyle’s Golden Syrup Granola with Celtic Sea Salt

6 cups Irish oats*

2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes or a mixture of coconut flour and coconut flakes

3 cups hazelnuts (sliced almonds or other nuts, chopped)

1-2 cups dried dates (or other dried fruits, currants, raisins, dried cherries, etc.)  

Spices (apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, cardamom etc.) (optional)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract, brandy, rum, orange juice (optional)

3 teaspoons Celtic sea salt

1 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup**

2/3 cup olive oil (also great with coconut oil or a combination of walnut and vegetable oils)

4 large egg whites

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 300F. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment.

Boil water in a kettle or small saucepan and pour over dates until they are just covered.  Add a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract, orange juice, brandy or rum to the water-date mixture if you wish (this will infuse them with a little more flavor) and set aside for about 20 minutes.  

Place the oats, nuts, coconut flakes/flour, salt, spices (if using) into a large bowl, and stir well. Stir the golden syrup and olive oil together, then pour into the oat mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are coated evenly. 

Strain dates, discarding soaking liquid, and chop (I like to chop them roughly but you know how you like them).  Add the chopped dates to the dry ingredients.

Whisk egg whites until frothy.  Stir the egg whites into the granola mixture until they are evenly incorporated.

Divide the mixture between the two prepared sheet pans, spreading it into a single layer on each pan.  The granola should bake for about 45 minutes total.  About halfway through the cooking time, take the pans out and turn the granola over with a large spatula.  Try to keep large clumps in tact. Rotate the pans from top to bottom when you put them back in the oven.

This is how it looks before it goes into the oven.

At this point, check the granola every 10 minutes or so and gauge its doneness by color. It’s ready when the whole pan is an even, toasted, golden color. Remove the pans from the oven and allow to cool completely (This never happens, but that’s ok. The recipe makes enough for at least a few handfuls of the warm good stuff to be consumed on the spot).

And after...nice and golden brown.

Once the granola is cool, break into whatever size chunks suit your fancy.  

NOTES:

*Thanks to my father-in-law, I’ve always got quite a variety of porridge oats in my cupboard and I like to make my granola with a mix of whatever I have around for maximum texture.  Most granola recipes call for rolled oats but I use a mix of steel cut, rolled and even quick cooking.  The Irish Boutique stocks a number of different brands and types of oats.  

**Lyle’s Golden Syrup can also be found at the Irish Boutique.  I love the old-timey can so much that I never throw one away. Instead I used them around the house to hold crayons, paperclips or as bud vases. So cute!

Most granola recipes call for adding the dried fruit after taking the pan out of the oven.  I soak my fruit and cook it with the granola mixture because I like the fruit to be part of the chunks (not floating around there separately). If you don’t care about this or don’t like the big chunks in the first place you can skip the soaking.  Just add chopped dried fruit after the pan comes out of the oven. Don’t add unsoaked dried fruit to the pan before cooking because it tends to burn and become hard.

Birthday Cake, Breakfast Cake: Upsidedown Cake from Rachel Allen's Favorite Food at Home

This weekend we are celebrating my birthday.  I’m not one to get too excited about my upcoming birthdays.  Most of the time I forget about my birthday, or I would, if not for my mother who always sends me the most thoughtful gifts and tells me my birth story each and every year (and no, I never get tired of hearing it).  This year is a little different however, because my son, Emmett who is three now LOVES birthdays. He’s been excited about mine for weeks.  To him, birthdays mean CAKE and I cannot let him down.

The fact is, not only am I not a “birthday person” but I’m not really a “birthday cake person” either.  Don’t get me wrong, I love sweets as much as the next person but in terms of cakes, I’m much more of an afternoon tea or a breakfast cake eater than a dessert cake type.  I am drawn to cakes that are moist, fruity and tart, the kind you could imagine having for breakfast with a cup of tea or coffee.

So, in selecting my birthday cake this year I knew the following:

#1 – I could not forgo cake because, Emmett

#2 – I wanted something in the vein of a “breakfast cake”; and

#3 – after a long Chicago winter and a not very spring-like spring, I wanted something bright, something that would remind me that we are on the precipice of longer, warmer days.

Somehow I knew that Rachel Allen would not let me down.  I picked up her fantastic cookbook “Favorite Food at Home” and sure enough, it had just what I was looking for.  First, I noticed a Plum and Rhubarb Crisp that is exactly MY kind of dessert, but unfortunately, not a cake (see #1 above).  So the final decision ended up being between Sponge Cake with Rhubarb Cream and Upsidedown Rhubarb and Ginger Cake.  Talk about a tough decision.  Well, until, I thought to whip up some Bird’s custard to spoon on top of each piece of the Upsidedown Cake.  Did I mention that I am definitely a “custard person”?  That’s when I knew this had to be my breakfast-birthday cake this year.  

You know what they say about the best laid plans right?  Well, all three of my birthday choices involved rhubarb (which I thought was a safe bet because it is supposed to be rhubarb season), but when I went shopping there was no rhubarb to be found anywhere. Disgruntled but not defeated I decided to find a replacement for the rhubarb but nothing seemed right. After much deliberation and in spite of #3 above, I finally settled on cranberries. Despite their complete lack of seasonality, in terms of taste, I thought they would make the best stand in and I wasn’t wrong.

This cake is both sweet and tart with a terrific texture – moist cake topped with soft pieces of cooked down fruit and crisp bits of caramelized sugar tucked in around the edges of the berries. It really needs no accompaniment. Rachel Allen suggests topping it with fresh whipped cream which sounds amazing. Emmett wanted his with ice cream, also a solid choice. But I am a custard girl through and through.

Because Paul is only selectively fond of ginger (i.e. gingersnaps and gingerbread) I replaced the ginger with some vanilla bean paste and lemon zest.  I also used a cake pan because my cast iron skillet is enormous.  So I melted the butter on the stovetop, added the brown sugar and cranberries and poured the whole mixture into the cake pan instead of doing it in a skillet. It was birthday perfection and even better the next morning with a big dollop of greek yogurt (or more custard, I won’t tell if you won’t) and a cup of tea. You can bet I will be baking this again with rhubarb as soon as I can get my hands on some.

A Cranberry Cake adapted from Upside-Down Rhubarb and Ginger Cake

from Rachel Allen's "Favorite Food at Home."

Makes:  8 servings

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar (divided)

12 ounces rhubarb, trimmed and cut into ¾-inch chunks OR 12 ounces of frozen cranberries

1 2/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk or sour milk

1/3 cup vegetable or sunflower oil

1 generous teaspoon grated ginger OR the zest of one small lemon and 1tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

Softly whipped cream OR Bird’s custard

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in medium (10-inch) ovenproof frying pan. Stir in half the brown sugar and cook over low heat about 2 minutes. Add the rhubarb (cranberries) - no need to stir - and remove from heat. Set aside.

I added the brown sugar-butter-cranberry mixture to the bottom of the cake pan and just tried to spread it out in an even layer before pouring the cake batter on top. 

Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Okay, we didn't sift it.  But this little guy stirred and stirred. 

In a 2-cup glass measuring cup or small bowl, whisk eggs and add remaining brown sugar, the buttermilk, oil and ginger (or zest and vanilla).

Our liquids are in the measuring cup in the center of this photo, just waiting to be whisked and incorporated into the batter. Emmett was so proud of himself for cracking the eggs and getting them all in the cup (no eggshells!). 

Mix together, then pour into dry ingredients and whisk to form a liquid batter.

Pour over rhubarb, in our case, cranberries, in pan. Place pan in preheated oven and bake 30 minutes or until cake feels firm in center.

The top, um bottom, was so beautifully browned and a little crisp around the edges.  It was a good idea to bake this on a baking sheet to catch the overflowing juices. 

Cool 5 minutes before turning out by placing an inverted plate over top of pan and turning pan and plate over together in one quick movement. Serve warm or at room temperature.

“Paddy Melts”: Irish Breakfast in Sandwich Form

The men in my husband’s family love puns, good ones, bad ones, it doesn’t really matter.  As you can guess, this can take getting used to.  Actually, I’m pretty sure you never get used to it.  My husband is notorious for not only using bad puns whenever possible, but for taking things a step further and EXPLAINING them to anyone who will listen.  It might go something like this:

HIM: “Why should you never break up with a goalie?”

ME: “I don’t know. Why?”

HIM: “Because he’s a keeper.”

ME: Eyes rolling

HIM: “Get it?” 

ME:  Silence.  No matter what I say here, he will go on.

HIM: “He’s the goalie, the GOAL keeper!” (Proud)

ME: Yes. I got it. 

Even after more than a decade and 2 (almost 3) children together, there are some things about my dear husband that remain a mystery to me.  I guess that’s a good thing – though I’m still not sold on the puns.  Nevertheless, today I made a punny breakfast in the form of Irish Breakfast Sandwiches: Irish cheddar, breakfast sausages and eggs between two pieces of buttered brown bread heated up in a pan until the bread is crisp and the cheese is melted.  Served with baked beans, they make the perfect hand-held version of an Irish breakfast.  Delicious whether you like the name or not.  

Breakfast “Paddy” Melts

Ingredients (from the Irish Boutique)

Serves 4

3-5 tablespoons room temperature  Kerrygold Irish butter (I use salted butter)

8 pieces Brown bread – homemade or store bought. 

1 cup Irish Cheddar, grated

4 Irish breakfast sausages, I’m using Winston’s.  They are SO good.

4 eggs

2 tablespoons milk (whole or 2%, half and half also works)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 can Heinz baked beans

Worcestershire, HP or hot sauce to taste

Cook the sausages.  The sausages can be cooked over medium high heat in a sauté pan for about 10 minutes or until you slice into one and no pink remains. If you have a meat thermometer, 165F is what you are looking for here. I like to cook mine in a cast iron under the broiler for easy clean up.

This is what they look like after 10 minutes under the broiler.

Cook the eggs.  Beat the eggs and milk together and add salt and pepper to taste.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat and add 2 tablespoons of the butter until it becomes foamy. Add the eggs and scramble.  I take mine out of the pan when they are fluffy but still moist as they will be cooked a little bit more in the sandwiches.

Heat the beans.  Heat your baked beans in a saucepan or the microwave. My kids ate the last of our beans last night, as my son says "I'm a beanie boy!" So no beans for us today. Next time.

Once the sausages and eggs are cooked, set them aside and use the remaining butter to butter each piece of brown bread on one side.  Top the other side of the brown bread with about 1/8 cup of grated cheese. Now, cut your sausages in half horizontally and cut each of those pieces in half again so you have four nice little pieces of sausages that fit your bread. Place sausage pieces on top of half of the pieces of bread and top of each of the remaining pieces of bread with an equal portion of eggs.

At this point you should have butter, bread, cheese, sausage on four halves and butter, bread, cheese, eggs on four halves.

Heat your non-stick skillet over medium heat until pan is quite hot. Place sausage topped bread pieces butter side down in the hot skillet and egg topped pieces, butter side up on top.  Gently press sandwiches together with a spatula.  After a couple of minutes, turn the heat down to medium low and cover the pan.  Cook for two more minutes.  Uncover the pan and turn the heat back up to medium.  Use a spatula to press down gently on the sandwiches again just before flipping to cook on the other side. After a couple more minutes, turn the heat down to medium low again and place a lid on the pan. Cook for two more minutes, remove the lid, check the sandwiches for crisp bread and melty cheese.  If they look done, remove from the pan.

Cut in half and serve with beans, Worcestershire, HP, or hot sauce.