Receta Blueberry-Maple Granola
Gilding the Granola....with yogurt and a slice of plum
Dr, James Caleb Jackson,
Inventor of GranulaWhen
our houseguests John and Mary showed up with homemade Granola as a house gift,
I was hooked. It was so far superior to
any store-bought granola it amazed me. Crunchy, crisp, swee...to look at it, with its oats, nuts and raisins, it said "Healthy", its taste said anything but. Now
I am not claiming to be a daily consumer of granola. I have probably used the
term “Crunchy Granola” to describe a certain Birkenstock lifestyle far more
often than I’ve eaten the stuff. But Mary and John's Granola set me on a mission to find a recipe for Granola of my own. (Mary's recipe is from an unknown website that rhymes with 'bitchin'.) All summer long, I searched for this child of sixties, or so I thought. Granola and its cousin Granula, however, were both registered trademarks dating back to
the 19th century. American Granula was the invention of a Dr. James Caleb Jackson at his eponymous Jackson Sanitarium in Dansville, NY, south of Rochester, NY, in 1863. Its cousin, Muesli, was invented in Switzerland by Dr. Maximilian
Bircher-Benner. This Swiss physician and nutritionist prescribed his
invention to patients at his hospital where he was an early proponent of a diet
rich in fresh fruit and vegetables. While both Granula and Muesli share their births in hospitals, the
difference between Granola and Muesli is that the former is baked until crisp
whereas muesli is neither baked nor sweetened.
Dr. Jackson was not the only Granola pioneer. John Harvey Kellogg, he of Battle Creek fame,
produced a similar product, which he called Granola to avoid legal problems
with Dr. Jackson. As an alumna of the
would run into today with the ads he ran for Granola, the earliest one shown on the left. Take a look at his target audience – “ all persons with weak digestion, defective assimilation, general or nervous debility, brain workers, feeble children and invalids... " And then there’s that lavish claim that
a one lb. box of Granola was equal in nutrition to 3 lbs. of beef! Note also that Kellogg's enterprise was called "Sanitarium Food Company". Granola just can't seem to get out of its hospital setting. Granola continued to have a halo of good
health attached to it, despite its sugar content. In the 1960s, it did have a major revival by,
that’s right, hippies. Adding fruit and
nuts to the grains gave it health food cred.
And a whole group of people tried to attach their names to the
reinvention of Granola. But the reality
is Granola is now 150 years old. As to
our recipe for homemade Granola, well this one had me at the word Maple, which
is code for “Canadian”.
Before John and Mary house
guested, two previous houseguests, Ann and David had arrived and, as all good
Canadians and particularly Québecois must, came bearing lots and lots of maple syrup. Now I have been known to get recipes from some remarkable sources, but this
one may take the cake. It was part of an
Mary Nolan Apparently, the product is for sensitive
teeth and apparently if you are afflicted with this problem, you have to avoid
sweets. Who knew? Pictured in the ad is Bon Appetit’s
Executive Chef, a very pretty woman named Mary Nolan, who appears to have a
beautiful set of teeth. It’s unclear
whether they are sensitive or not. But Ms. Nolan’s recipe for Granola is
sensational. And rather simple to make.
In fact, in the time it took to write this post, mine emerged from the oven
smelling of maple and nuts and coconut which will soon go into the jar that
Mary and John’s Granola came in. Here is
the recipe:
Recipe for Blueberry-Maple
Granola from Bon Appetit’s Mary Nolan Takes 1 plus hour to make. Prep Time 10 mins. Cooking Time 45 mins.
Cooling Time 10 mins. Makes 6 cups.
- ½ cup Pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds)
- 3 tbsp. Canola Oil
- ½ cup dried blueberries (about 3 oz.)
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix oats, walnuts, coconut, and pepitas.
3. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, mix syrup, sugar, oil and salt
until mixture comes to a simmer.
Remove from heat and pour over oat mixture. Stir to evenly coat.
4. Transfer to
a rimmed baking sheet coated with non-stick spray.
5. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, until golden, about 45 minutes.
Remove from oven. Add dried
blueberries and stir.
Allow to cool on baking sheet.
Put into a jar with a tight fitting lid.