It all began with a conversation about granola. My friend Crystal and I were discussing how much we loved granola and how expensive it is. The major ingredient in granola is oatmeal and plain old bulk oatmeal is about $.80 a pound. You can buy it buy the bushel for next to nothing. But if you want to buy granola, it is incredibly expensive. You are looking at prices that range from $10 to $20 a pound. After this discussion, Crystal and I both began to rave about our current granola recipes that we make at home. So hmmm maybe we should have a taste test, a taste off of sorts between our recipes.
The great granola taste off was born between two bloggers with a passion for granola. Here is Crystal's blog post http://thekitchenmba.com/diy-granola-taste-off/ and her recipe Frog Hollow granola recipe. Here is my granola recipe easy does it granola.
Crystal and I than handed off samples of our granola to a few friends to taste and give their comments on our blogs. Stay tuned to see what they say.
Now for my own input. Both granolas are fantastic and there are aspects of each that I really like. The Frog Hollow recipe is made with oil and honey, that mixture makes for much chunkier granola, which I love! I love big chucks of granola that you eat with your hand. This granola also had less dried fruit and nuts, making it mostly honey/oil soaked oatmeal toasted to perfection. Yummy. My granola is made from butter and honey. Two of the greatest things on earth. Basically you can not go wrong when you melt some butter add a little honey - combine this to anything and it will be fantastic! That being said I am still stuck on the flavor of my honey and butter mixture, but it lacked the chunkiness that I so desire. I like the added dried fruit and nuts, but also missed the simple granola with less additives. My granola is better as a cereal, eat it with milk in the morning. Crystal's granola is a yummy snack to have around and eat by the handfuls. I will be making both in the near future. Maybe I will try the Frog Hollow recipe, but use butter instead of the oil. Hmmm, now that is an idea.
Try them both yourself, they are both relatively easy to make and spread some samples around to your friends to do a taste test of your own.
Here is the nitty gritty of my blog post: Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteI thought both granolas where very good. The Frog Hollow granola wins in the texture category while the Easy Does It makes you want to sprinkle it everywhere. I think the Frog Hollow granola stands up to milk while the Easy Does It wins out for yogurt. They both tasted great - neither one too sweet or lacking enough nuts and fruit. The effort required to make the Frog Hollow verses the Easy Does It seems great, but I suppose opening the oven door a few times to stir really isn't too bad given the pay off.
Thanks for having me be a taste-tester - yum! I am available for any other "help" you need :).
ReplyDeleteThe Frog Hollow had a deep, rich, satisfying flavor, that was quite decadent. It wasn't too sweet, but probably because of all the oil, I could only eat it in small quantities, but yum. The Easy Does It held my interest more because each bite was different as you scooped up different combos of the dried fruits and nuts. And I actually liked that it was both crunchy and chewy. Thanks for inspiring me to start making granola!