coconut fig granola

i ruined the past two summers of my life as an indentured servant at a tea house and café (indentured servitude which, conveniently, came with very good tips) and we used to make industrial sized pans of some of the best granola i've ever had. truthfully, i think one of the only reasons that café has stayed afloat is that the smell of granola baking can lure in customers much more effectively than overpriced (but towering with very impressive foam by yours truly) cappuccinos. i was never quite able to successfully scale down the recipe to at-home oven proportions, but this is the closest i've come to recreating that crunch, and does not disappoint.

i've made so many batches of granola over the past two or three years that i'm surprised it's never found its way up here. this recipe, of course, is hugely adaptable; you can throw in whatever nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, brazil nuts), seeds (sesame, pumpkin, flax, sunflower), dried fruit (apricot, plum, raisins, dates, figs, mango, banana, apple--or sour cherry, which is another favorite), and experiment with sweeteners (i've had good results with honey, maple syrup, golden syrup, agave nectar, dark brown sugar, finer grain turbinado and muscavado, and brown rice syrup). crystallized ginger would also be really delicious stirred in post-bake. the following is just a current favorite combination. apple sauce subs in for most of the oil, a trick i learned from nigella lawson, and honestly, you would never miss the oil at all.

this recipe makes a lot of granola, maybe 8 or 9 cups. need a gift idea? double the recipe and give it away in canisters (i like to use the empty oat containers). and not that anyone needs me to tell them how to eat granola, but this is great with steamed milk for instant oatmeal, piled over yogurt with a swirl of honey, or with soymilk (i say soy specifically because i think the nuttiness of the milk compliments it like a dream). i'm flying back to portland on sunday and plan on bringing a bag of it along for a perfect plane snack. and last but not least, the smell of granola baking will make your entire house smell unreal. enjaaaaahy.
note: your granola might seem too soft after being removed from the oven but will crunch up as it cools and hardens.

coconut fig walnut granola
makes hella granola.

• 5 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups coconut flakes (ideally unsweetened)
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• 3 tsp ground ginger (sorry, i have a problem)
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt

• ¾ cup apple sauce (again, preferably unsweetened, unless you reduce sugar elsewhere)
  
• ½ cup honey
• 3 tbsp melted butter (or vegetable oil, if you're not weirded out by it like i am)

• 1 cup chopped dried figs

preheat the oven to 300°F. in a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients and mix well. in a small bowl, combine apple sauce, honey and oil and mix well. pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix well.

spread the mixture evenly in two rimmed baking sheets. bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until evenly golden brown. switch the pans and stir the granola thoroughly every ten minutes while baking.

with sliced kumquats: slightly acidic fruit +  chewy sweet figs = good.

after removing pans from oven, give it another gentle stir--i say gentle because you don't want to break up all the chunks (the best part) but you also don't want it to dry into one giant chunk of granola. let cool completely before stirring in figs and shoveling it into zip-lock bags, tupperware or your empty oat canister (my favorite, as it facilitates pouring the best).