Granola

I love my breakfasts, especially granola, but I often find the shop brought versions too sweet and expensive so I decided to make my own as inspired by a recipe in this months GFM. Ok, it's not the lowest in calorie cereal, but it's jam packed with good stuff and certainly keeps me filled up till lunch.

It is meant to have dried apricots in it, but when I got the packet out of the cupboard I noticed they were past their sell by date and had begun to ferment! The recipe is really flexible and you can literally put what ever you want in it. This time I've put in mixed fruit and dates. Next time I may try dried cranberries.

Granola
Makes about 1kg and will fill a 4 litre container.

125ml/4fl oz sunflower oil
100ml/3.5 fl oz malt extract (The only place I can get this is Julien Graves)
100ml/3.5 fl oz clear honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
500g/18oz jumbo oats
25g/1oz desiccated coconut
100g/4oz Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame seed mix (you can buy this mix in Morrisons)
150g/6oz dried fruit (use what ever you want)

1) Preheat oven to 170oc (fan). Heat oil, honey, vanilla extract and malt extract in a large pan until malt extract has turned runny and combined with the oil, honey and vanilla. Take off the heat and add all the ingredients apart from the dried fruit. Stir until evenly covered.

2) Tip mix into the largest baking tin you can find. Spread out in an even layer and bake for around 25 min. Stir occasionally until the mix is golden. Leave to cool then separate the mix into chunks and stir in the fruit. Store in an airtight container for up to a month.

Even hubby love this, though rather than eating it like a cereal he has just been eating handfuls of it! This was the first time I've baked in our new oven and it did catch me out as it is far more efficient than our old cooker!

Print this post