TWD Granola Grabbers

I'm sorry this post is so late! I actually made the grabbers before they were due for TWD, but then I got held up at work and never posted!

Michelle of Bad Girl Baking chose Granola Grabbers (page 82) as this weeks Tuesday with Dorie recipe.

I should start this out by saying that in general, I don't like granola. I find the store bought kind to be laden with extra fat and preservatives. I do like making my own granola though, so I decided to make it for this recipe. One of the bakeries I worked at while I lived in California made huge batches of the most delicious granola. I like to play off what we made there, but I use a lot less of the fattening ingredients. For today's granola, I put 3 cups of oatmeal on a sheet pan, a few handfuls of slivered almonds and walnuts, a good sprinkle of sesame seeds, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and mace, and I poured some warmed maple syrup and honey (with about a tablespoon of canola oil) onto the dry ingredients. I made sure all the dries were well covered with the sugar mixture and then off into the oven it went. I baked the granola at 350 for somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently so the granola baked evenly.

From Food as of 8/17/08

From Food as of 8/17/08

Once the granola was cool, I started making the cookies. The recipe was very easy to follow. Essentially, you cream the butter and brown sugar, next you add your egg and salt, followed by the flour; and finally the nuts/fruit/wheat germ/coconut mixture. I followed the recipe except I subbed cranberries and small pieces of dried apricot for the raisins.

This recipe was okay, but I don't think I'll ever make it again. I think the flavor was good and I liked the chunkiness of the cookies. The problem was these cookies tasted healthy to me, but they are certainly not. If I'm going to bake/eat something that's unhealthy; I want to feel the decadence of the product. In this case, these cookies are loaded with fat and calories (coconut, butter, nuts, dried fruit), but they taste like they were made at a health store. Truth be told, I think these would be 100% better if I had subbed the raisins with chocolate chips; and I'm kicking myself for not going with my gut instinct and doing that in the first place J