About a week ago, the office moved 10 blocks north from 32nd Street to 40th Street - the land of cafes/delis/and lunch places. Since then, I have visited about 20 delis looking for something similar to the apple yogurt parfait. What I found were either overly sweetened yogurt with a few pieces of fruit and soggy granola or watery yogurt with chunks of cantaloupe and pineapples. Why you would want to add watery fruit to watery yogurt, I have no idea.
So I set out to make my own. Start with the granola - which was just lightly sweetened toasted oats. No nuts or dry fruit or any extra stuff. I came up with this recipe with just 4 ingredients: oatmeal, Agave nectar, oil and vanilla. The granola is very good on its own with either just milk or yogurt. But I like it best with honey and berries/chopped apples/chopped pears. I haven't tried with baked apples yet. So I can't say I succeed what I set out to do.
Ingredients
- 4 cups traditional oatmeal (320 g)
- 1/3 cup Agave nectar (95 g)
- 1/4 cup light tasting olive oil (40 g)
- 1 vanilla bean (or a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract)
Directions
- Adjust the oven racks to top 3rd and lower 3rd. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk Agave nectar with oil. Scrape vanilla bean into the mixture. Mix well. Add oatmeal. Stir until well combined and pieces of oatmeal are wet.
- Divide into the two baking sheets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the granola is golden brown. Stir, rotate and switch the pan after 8 minutes.
- Let cool completely in the pans and store in airtight container.
