The NT part stands for Nourishing Traditions. No, I didn't get the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, just the idea that it would be good to pre-soak my oats. So I did.
Now, normally when I make granola (which has happened often enough for me to feel confident throwing it together, but not all that often in the grand scheme of things) I don't soak the oats, and it all comes together, crispy in the oven.
Here's the basics, which I learned from the excellent More With Less Cookbook:
take several cups of dry stuff: oats, wheat germ, whatever.
Mix in some oil, half cup maybe, and some sweeteners such as brown sugar or honey.
cinnamon, vanilla, etc. to taste. Get creative.
Stir.
Spread into a large flat pan and bake at 300 degrees, stirring every ten minutes or so until the correct crispyness is achieved. Let cool. Add in nuts and dried fruit if desired. Store in a sealed container, if it lasts that long.
But this time I modified it by soaking the oats.
It was mushy! I drained them, added the oil and honey and spread it in a pan thinking "this isn't going to work unless I bake it twice or something".
Sure enough, the oats baked into a gooey, sticky mass that would have made a nice bowl of "baked oatmeal" but was certainly not granola-ish.
So, late last night I got out the food dehydrator and put the goo on parchment paper strips into that appliance.
And I had crispy, chewy granola this morning.
It was a bit of a pain to do it all, but I was REALLY craving granola, and it was fun to try it out.
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