It was a good day. Not only did I get out of work a bit early for the Easter holiday, but I also received a call from one of my absolute favorite lifestyle brands. I’m trying not to get too excited because I don’t know what will come of the conversation, but the fact that the call even happened was extremely flattering – definitely a bright spot in the six weeks I’ve been blogging. (Has it only already been six weeks?)
While I enjoy working on this pet project and learning new skills that come with it, I sometimes wonder if I’m wasting my time. I can count the number of blog subscribers on one hand (and two of them are my husband and mom) and, according to Google AdSense, I’m averaging just 43 page views per day. Is anyone even interested in the content?
So anytime I get a vote of confidence, my heart skips a beat. And when I’m feeling good, I make cookie granola. This cranola is a riff on the lemon chia seed cookie granola I made about a month ago. Infused with mandarin orange zest and juice, and almond extract, it’s like eating a Creamsicle with a crunch.
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil, room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed mandarin orange juice (see notes)
- 2 teaspoons finely grated mandarin orange zest (see notes)
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons white whole-wheat flour
- 1½ teaspoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2¼ cups rolled oats
- ¼ cup raw slivered or sliced almonds
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a bowl with a hand-held mixer, beat the coconut oil and sugar on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and almond extract and beat until well combined. Stir in the orange juice and zest.
- Add the flours, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix until just combined. Then add the oats and almonds and stir with a wooden spoon. When the ingredients start to come together, use your hands to continue mixing until all the oats and almonds are covered with dough.
- Squeeze off chunks of dough and loosely break them apart over the baking sheet, creating large clumps.
- Bake the cranola for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and stir gently. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, remove from the oven and stir gently. Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until clumps are dry.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cranola cool completely. It will harden as it cools.
- Store cranola in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, if it lasts that long.
