F&P Food Bites – Holly’s Homemade Granola

Fed up of expensive and sugary granola with raisin overload?!! This is a quick and easy granola recipe that is completely versatile and robust.

If you prefer more nutty or fruity granola, or you don’t have all of the dry store ingredients then you can adjust the quantities very easily without affecting the end result.

Personally I love it as it tastes (and is) better for you and to me this offers the perfect mix of nut and fruit.  The children, however, say it has nearly trumped the shop-bought stuff – it just needs more raisins and more ‘clumps’.   So I’m working on that – see method for how to ‘clump’!

If you want to get a little bit more adventurous you can add any other nut varieties, orange zest, golden raisins, desiccated or chopped coconut, mix up the grains and seeds, vanilla extract, even chocolate chips…

Ingredients:

‘Mug’ measure – use an average size mug of your choice!

• 4 x mugs rolled oats (use gluten-free oats for gluten-free granola)
• 1 cup dried fruit (I used a mix of cranberries & chopped apricot)
• 1.5 x mugs of nuts and/or seeds of your choice (I would recommend some or a mix of the following – hazlenuts, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)
• ½ mug melted coconut oil
• ¾ mug maple syrup and /or honey
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C
• Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper
• In a large mixing bowl combine and stir the oats, nuts/seeds, and cinnamon until mixed evenly
• Pour in the oil, and maple syrup / honey.  Mix well until everything is evenly coated
• Pour the mix into the baking tray and spread it evenly across the tray using a large spoon / spatula
• Bake in the oven between 20-25 minutes (depends on the oven) until lightly golden brown
• Remove from the oven, stir in the dried fruit, and return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes (be really careful for it not to over colour as it can risk tasting burnt)
• Remove from the oven and cool completely for an hour
• Store in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks (although it will be devoured in a matter of days if your household is anything like ours!)
• ‘Clumps’ – in order to have a more chunky outcome to your granola – during the cooking process squash the granola down with the back of a spatula to compress the oats.  When cooling be careful not to disturb until the granola has cooled completely to retain ‘clumps’ and break it up in chunks with your hands.

I hope this brings an easy, tasty and more natural option to your cereal cupboard this summer.

Let me know how you get on – we’d love to see the results #myfandpmoments

Holly 😊

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