Allspice shines as a supporting ingredient

Baking with spices can be a challenging endeavor. You need to understand which spices work as solo flavorings and which pair well with other ingredients, and, perhaps more importantly, you need to know when to apply a light touch.

Spices such as ground cinnamon can boldly take charge of a dessert's flavor agenda and that kind of culinary power can intimidate the best of bakers.

Other spices shine as supporting ingredients. While these zesty flavors pack a punch, their unique tastes or textures don't offer the broad appeal to fly solo in a dessert.

Take allspice for example. From its name you might assume that it's a zesty medley, but it's made from the dried immature berries of the Pimenta dioica tree. Allspice owes its name to its distinctive and pungent aroma; some noses detect cloves and nutmeg with a hint of cinnamon; others zoom in on the sweet and peppery notes. (Don't confuse ground allspice with pumpkin pie spice blends.)

Those noses detecting a clove-like scent in ground allspice have picked up on eugenol. This hot and aromatic oil lends the peppery essences to both cloves and allspice. If you like zesty flavors, ground allspice guarantees dramatic reactions on the taste buds.

For today's recipe the challenge became utilizing the allspice as a background ingredient. My plan was to partner allspice with one other spice in a standard recipe. The allspice would remain undetected while enhancing the taste of the dominant spice.

My honey nut granola recipe offered a generic test base. Spiced with only cinnamon and sweetened by honey, the mixture toasts into a gentle harmony of flavors. Time for a little zing from allspice.

In my initial trial, I boosted the amount of allspice to match the cinnamon. Melting the spices into the honey/butter mixture enhanced the spicy flavors along with darkening the chestnut hues.

Allspice leaves a distinct taste trail and at equal portions, corrupted the sensual aroma and flavors of cinnamon. Success eluded me until I dropped the allspice to half the amount of ground cinnamon.

As for the all-important crunch, I chose pecans for their smooth sweetness and walnuts for savory essence. Sunflower seeds provide a pop of salt.

Pulling it all together, a blast of oven heat develops the cinnamon flavors, tempered by the pungent allspice. Honey pairs with shredded coconut to create the chewy texture complemented by the nuts and oats.

Add your favorite dried fruit and this granola spices up any breakfast or snack.

Honey Spiced Nut Granola

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 cup honey (see note)

¼ cup unsalted butter

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups old-fashioned oats, uncooked

¾ cup shredded coconut

¾ cup chopped pecans

¾ cup chopped walnuts

½ cup sunflower kernels

1 cup dark seedless raisins

1 cup mixed dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, blueberries, etc.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 12-by-18-inch baking sheet, or two smaller baking pans, with vegetable oil. Set aside.

In medium saucepan over medium heat melt honey, butter and spices until bubbly; stirring until combined and smooth. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla extract and set aside to cool.

In large heat-proof mixing bowl stir together oats, coconut and nuts until well-distributed. Pour spiced honey over mixture in bowl. Stir quickly and briskly until oat/nut mixture is completed coated. Scrape bowl well.

Spoon granola mixture onto baking sheet(s) and use back of spoon to spread evenly.

Bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown, stirring with heat-proof greased spatula every 10 minutes to ensure even baking.

Cool 5 minutes on pan. Turn granola out onto large platter or parchment paper on counter; stir to create clusters. Cool another 20-30 minutes. Add raisins and dried fruit. Stir to distribute.

Cool completely. Store at room temperature, tightly covered for one month.

Serves 18.

Baker's hint: Try flavored honeys and/or gourmet ground cinnamon.

Nutrition values per serving: 283 calories, 13 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 41 g carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 5 g protein, 7 mg cholesterol, 5 mg sodium.