Maple Spice Peanut Butter Granola

With the holidays here, it seems that there is far too much sugar around and no matter how strong my will power may be the other 10 months, it sucks from October 31st to January 2nd.  What normal person can really resist all of the deliciousness that comes around the end of the year? The smells, the flavors, the perfectly decorated cookies are far too much for me to ignore, so I taste and nibble while trying to ignore the voices in my head that tell me not to.  But I haven't ignored them completely, in fact I created something just for them: wholesome maple spice peanut butter granola.  It's filling, it's satisfying, it's good for you.  Throw it on top of some greek yogurt or eat it with milk.  Pile some on your ice cream and drizzle with caramel.  See how you are imagining other ways to eat this right now?  It's a powerful little recipe.  Plus making granola yourself is A: cheaper and B: better for you because you get to control what's in it. Clearly there is no way you can go wrong with this simple, easy, and quick to make granola, so what are you waiting for? Get to the kitchen and whip some now to pack for your kids' lunches and for your breakfast or mid day snack, your tastebuds and stomach will thank me....and this sweet little blog!

Maple Spice Peanut Butter Granola
(From: little bitty bakes)

INGREDIENTS:

        1 3/4 cups rolled oats
        1 1/2 tablespoons chia seeds (optional but so much better for you with it)
        1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
        1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
        1/3 cup smooth (or crunchy) peanut butter, melted
        1/3 cup light maple syrup (the real thing! (cant't harp on that enough sorry))

        1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a small bowl, combine the oats, chia seeds, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, give a quick stir.  Stir in the melted peanut butter and maple syrup, and vanilla and mix well.  Dump onto a cookie sheet and smooth out into a fairly even layer and bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crisp and light brown.  Make sure you keep your eye on it, it will brown pretty quickly before you know it.  Cool the granola completely before storing in an airtight container. A quart Mason jar, or reused (cleaned) spaghetti sauce jar does the trick just nicely. 

Now forget about those chocolate covered oreo's that you just ate hoping no one was looking and eat something that you don't have to feel guilty about. You're welcome.

Life's better homemade,

LL

Cinnamon Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Glazed Apples

       Pancakes are something of a weekend tradition at our house, but mainly the buttermilk blueberry variety.  I have pretty much perfected them, so much so that I grew bored with the little blue orbs in the sea of pillowy batter.  So I took a break from pancakes and made eggs and bacon.  Oatmeal and raisins with fresh cream.  Smoothies and peanutbutter toast.  The weekend was just not the same without pancakes so I pulled out the whisk and went back to work, this time with fall and all of its culinary possiblities on my mind.  Enter Cinnamon Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Glazed Apples!! Not quite your typical buttermilk pancake but they ended up being absolutely airy and delightful.  The apples, recently purchased by the bushel and begging to be devoured, helped to project the pancakes to another world by becoming deliciously coated with sticky, maple goodness.  One bite into the stack piled with apples instantly brought pancakes back to our weekend.  Now just to figure out how to make the weekend last seven days and not two....

Cinnamon Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Glazed Apples
adapted from bonappetit.com

INGREDIENTS:
Maple Syrup Apples
-2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
-3 Large Golden Delicious (or other baking apple) about 1 1/2 pounds)), peeled, cored, cut into 1/2 in-    thick slices
-1 Tablespoon plus 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pancakes 

-1 cup all purpose flour

-2 Tablespoons yellow cornmeal

-2 Tablespoons(packed) brown sugar

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon cinnamon

-1 cup buttermilk (I used vanilla Kefir-which for those who don't know it's like a runny yogurt    with a bit more tang and a slight effervesent taste.  Highly recommend you check it out!)

-1 cup whole-milk yogurt (I didn't have yogurt either, but subbed in some cultered sour cream)

-1 large egg

-1 1/2 Tablespoons unslated butter, melted

-Additional unsalted butter

-Additional pure maple syrup

      *OKAY, I cannot stress the importance enough of using actual maple syrup! Not the high fructose   corn syrup ladden garbage that comes in cute little glass jars shaped like a southern house maid. Pay the extra money for the real stuff, that actually comes out of the tree, into a jar, and to your breakfast table. 

Back to the breakfast. 

For the Maple Glazed Apples:

Peel, core, and slice the apples.  Heat a cast iron skillet on medium-high heat, melt the butter, and add in the apples and the tablespoon of syrup.  Stir the apples a few times, giving them a chance to caramelize a bit, for 3-5 minutes.  Once the apples have softened, stir in the remaining syrup and sprinkle on the cinnamon and allow it to thicken a bit around the apples.  Now you can set it aside and thanks to the cast iron, it will stay warm for you until your pancakes are complete.

For the pancakes:

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

Nothing new here folks, combine dry ingredients in one bowl, combine the wet in another, and then put it all together later.  Makes sense....and more dishes to wash.  But it's important. 

Whisk together the buttermilk, yogurt, and egg in a medium bowl. Mix to blend and add to dry ingredients and mix until just blended, batter will be slightly lumpy.  Gently mix in 1 1/2 Tablespoons of melted butter.

Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium heat. Rub some butter over the griddle to coat, and then working in batches, drop batter by 1/3 cupfuls onto griddle. Cook pancakes until brown on bottom and bubbles form on top. This, bonappetit said, would be about 3 minutes, I let mine sit for about 5 minutes (my griddle was at 350 degrees). Flip them over and cook until bottoms are brown and they are barely firm to touch. Transfer to plates. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter to griddle as needed.

Put two or three pancakes on a plate, pile on some glazed apples, and try not to eat them all before your family gets to taste.  Sharing is caring. :)

-Homemade is better!
L