Sweet Granola With A Little Kick
Granola with a twist!
I’m not really consistent about eating breakfast every morning. We try and have eggs around at all times but I find that we go through them rather quickly. I wanted something that I could cook up big batches of, store it and be able to tweak it every time I made it. Lindsey often purchases already made granola but when I saw the price I thought I could easily cook a bigger batch at home for the same price and have granola for a month!
Pretty crazy how quickly the new year has gotten under way. The winter this year has been pretty mild. So mild in fact that we set up our first picnic of the year last week. It’s still a little chilly so I brought them some blankets to cozy up with and a thermos full of home made Vin Chaud! Not a bad way to enjoy all the sun we’ve been getting!
Anyway, I ended looking up a bunch of granola recipes online looking to see where I could mix and match and make my own mix of oats, grains and fruit. David Lebovitz had a recipe that he wrote about that calls for pureed fruit in place of oil saying that it makes for a much crisper granola in the end. I opted out of doing that this time but I’ll certainly try it the next go round. I found that mine came out with plenty of crunch and after I let it cool, I ended up with pretty good sized chunks. I also used a pre-mixed bag of nuts and fruit. The basic idea for the granola would be equal part oats and grains to nuts and dried fruit. Understanding that means that you can substitute this as you like. You don’t need to use all oats. Throw in some wheat or barley if you like. Don’t like pecans? No problem, sub them out for walnuts or hazelnuts. Just stick to 5 cups/500g oats and grains to 5 cups/500g dried fruit and nuts.
Another thing I did that is pretty cool was to throw in a little bit of heat by adding some chili powder. It adds a nice depth to the granola, especially when poured over yogurt. You get a nice little kick at the end. It’s a pretty delicious way to start the day! To top it off, this will last about a month, stored in an air tight container in a cool place in the kitchen. It goes a long way and it’s great to have on hand when we run out of eggs.
We’ve been topping our yogurt with it, as well as pouring over milk, and I’ve even sprinkled some on top of home made ice-cream I whipped up not long ago. Overall, having a granola recipe in your back pocket is always a good idea. So, here’s mine!
- 500g/ 5C rolled oats
- 120g light brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1 tsp Chili powder
- 1 Tbp Vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- 80g/ ¼C Honey
- 100g/ ⅓ Maple Syrup
- 180g/ ¾C Sunflower Oil
- 500g/ 5C mix of nuts and dried fruit (Mine was Almond, Pecans, Dried Cranberries, Golden Raisins, Dark Raisins)
- Set oven to 150C/300F
- Mix Oats, Sugar, Cinnamon, Ginger Powder, Chili Powder, Salt in a mixing bowl
- In a separate bowl mix, Honey, Maple Syrup, Oil
- Combine and separate onto two sheet trays or one and cook in batches
- Cook for 45min stirring every 10min
- Mix in dried fruit (And nuts if you haven't already)
- Cool mixture and then break into bit sized pieces and store in a dry container.