Tag Archive for 'maple'

Cherry Vanilla Granola

When someone says “granola” it conjures up images of a wholesome high-fiber breakfast cereal that’s widely considered healthy. The reality is that most store bought granola is loaded with sugar and fat and costs a fortune to boot.

This version uses unprocessed rolled oats, wheat germ and grade B maple syrup as the sweetener. It’s probably not the healthiest cereal in the world, but it should be better for you that most store bought granolas. It’s also a bit on the expensive side the first time you make it because of the cherries, almonds, and wheat germ, but you should be able to make 3 or 4 batches out the ingredients you pick up.

This granola goes beyond just crunchy and is almost crispy. The vanilla and maple flavours really shine through and the little bites of cherry add some chewy fruity tartness that sets it apart. I had been enjoying the first batch I made for for a while but I didn’t realize just how good it tasted until I went in to work one morning, opened a new package of “gourmet” granola and poured myself a bowl. I’ve always liked the granola they have at work, but even a new pack was stale by comparison and it had a faint aroma of cardboard.

You could substitute the almonds, cherries and vanilla and using a different sweetener should give it a different character as well.

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Maple banana frozen yogurt

Having made Banana peel steamed pork and rice I was left with a bunch of banana guts (the part people usually eat). I had some egg yolks in the fridge so I contemplated making a custard base for a proper banana ice cream. Alas, my laziness won over and I decided to go with my usual custard-less recipe. Given the marbling on the pork I figured it was for the best anyway.

I had some Brown Cow Cream Top maple yogurt sitting in the fridge. For those of you that haven’t tried this, it is quite simply my favourite yogurt available in the US. It’s sweetened with maple syrup and cane juice and has a little floater of cream that makes it taste almost like creme fraiche when mixed in. If you can’t find this particular yogurt you can use regular plain yogurt with a bit of cream and sweeten it with grade B maple syrup.

Unlike report cards, “grade B” doesn’t mean that the syrup is inferior to “grade A”. It refers to the color of the syrup (grade B is darker than grade A). The darker color means more mapley flavor and it’s absolutely delicious on pancakes, sausages, or anything else you’d normally douse with syrup.

The following is a super simple somewhat-healthy fro-yo that’s nutty smooth and refreshing.
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