Maple Cranberry Granola

As I am writing this, my thesis lies in Michaels inbox, waiting to be checked one last time before I print it out tomorrow, bind it and drop it off in my departments office. Yay. And really, I can't imagine what it must feel like to write a real book. These 30 pages were quite enough for me.
Now that this is behind me, I can dedicate the few days before Christmas to actually make a few Christmas presents.
So today I transformed my kitchen into a Christmas present factory and made this granola and candied citrus peel that still needs to be dipped into chocolate.
If you are still looking for Christmas presents, and I really don't know many people who are not, may I suggest making this granola? It is slightly adapted from a recipe in the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, and I really love it. It has just the right sweetness, for a breakfast and the tartness of the dried cranberries contrast really nicely with the maple flavor. I did find though that the egg white did not produce the big cluster granola Deb promised in her recipe. I don't know if this is because Swiss eggs are smaller than American eggs, or perhaps I just did something wrong, but nonetheless, this is a great granola, big or small clusters.
I filled the granola into small bags, made a bow with some yarn and attached a little tag I made myself. I already know a few friends I want to give this to, just to say I thought of you this Christmas. If you like the tag I made, and would like to use it for a really quick gift, I attached a template you can print out at home, you'll just need to cut them out. As you see in the picture, I made a German one for myself, and an English version for you. Exclusively.
English gift tag   German gift tag


Maple Cranberry Granola
adapted from Big Cluster Maple Granola from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook

250g old-fashioned oats
50g unsweetened large-flake coconut
100g pecans, coarsely chopped
25g wheat germ
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 large egg white
200g dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 300°F/150°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Add all the ingredients from oats to maple syrup to a large mixing bowl and stir until all the dry ingredients are coated with maple syrup.
In a small bowl wisk the egg white until frothy. Stir it into the oat mixture until is distributed evenly. Pour the mixture onto the baking sheet, and bake for 45-55 minutes. Take out after half of this time to turn large segments of the granola with a spatula. Bake until evenly golden. Let the granola cool down, break into pieces (if it actually does stick together better than mine), add in the cranberries and fill into bags or mason jars.