what is Knusprig?

Knusprig is the German word for crispy. I started making granola about a year ago for work, and I wanted to find a recipe and technique that was interesting, and fun to do. I’m a chef, but I am not a pastry chef. I like to grow things, taste things, constantly adjust and improvise. Granola recipes do not fall under this category. They are simple, and easy, and the results are predictable. Dry things like nuts, seeds, and oats. Coated in sugar and oil. Baked and toasted. That’s it.

I started by buying my favorite, and highest quality dry ingredients. I mixed them with great brown sugar, maple syrup, and extra virgin olive oil. Then, instead of mixing a few times and breaking up the inevitable clumps once or twice, I decided to take a lot more care and attention. I also wanted to toast my mixture more than any recipe called for. I knew that I could unlock all of the flavors naturally. Flavors that a lot of other granola recipes add as extra ingredients, by toasting the granola to a darker point. I also thought that the longer toasting, and obsessive de-clumping and sifting would produce a crispier, cleaner feeling product that wouldn’t leave that dusty mouthfeel that most granola has.

These simple changes in technique take more time, and I can’t make big batches of it. It’s 1 or 2 lightly covered sheet trays at a time. This technique produces a uniform toasting and browning. This uniformity allows me to take the granola to a more caramelized place where natural flavors of vanilla and caramel come out without added sugar. More complexity.

I change the ingredients seasonally. I buy the best, organic, and best tasting ingredients I can get my hands on. I’m very busy with my day job as a private chef in Manhattan and Southampton, so I only make Knusprig one day a week for 4 hours. Thats it.

PHILOSOPHY

I’m JD Hilburn. A chef living in Brooklyn. I attended the French Culinary Institute, worked at Montrachet, RM, and was the chef of the Danube. For the past 13 years I’ve been a very busy private chef. I work in Manhattan, Southampton, Old Westbury, and St Barth’s. For one client.

I have cooked everything. I started my career training and chasing Michelin stars with focus, intensity, pressure, and long developing menus. Now I cook for a family that has diverse tastes, and eats all over NYC and the world. I’m always cooking and researching dishes and cuisines from all over the US and the world. And I’m cooking for the same people every night. I can’t overwhelm them the way I tried to in restaurants. Home cooking needs to be exciting, but also sustainable and appropriate for daily life. Michelin starred restaurants are an assault on your senses that I can’t commit on a nightly basis.

I’m developing a type of cooking that is the marriage of intense fine dining, and delicious healthy home cooking. Obviously I don’t a have a team of 50 cooks to grind out tiny perfect mise-en-place, but I do have the advantage of not having to make 70 plates of each dish. I just have to make one, with the ingredients and technique of my choosing. I can obsess over each plate because I’m not set up for continuous repetitive production. I’m more flexible.

That flexibility and freedom has allowed me to develop a small batch granola recipe that makes no sense if you have to make a lot of it everyday. And the difference is obvious. By selecting small amounts of the best ingredients, and being extremely meticulous and careful with my technique, I can produce small amounts of a “simple” granola that is completely unique.

My small batches, obsessive personality, and fine dining experience give me the ability to find the little spaces to cook at a high level without the army of cooks that fine dining restaurants have.

Knusprig is an example of this type of cooking. I think you will like it.

Contact

jd@knusprignyc.com